7:22
So why does Paul say being a slave does not hinder someone’s discipleship? It is because in Christ there is a much greater freedom, there is freedom from the domain of darkness, freedom from sin, freedom from the fear of death. Being a slave or not has no bearing on these matters, and these matters are actually more important than whether or not one is a slave. We can make a more general application of this. We may find ourselves in some circumstances that are horrendous. If so, we should dwell on the freedom we have in Christ. This is not to say that the circumstances do not matter, they do matter, but we have something greater.
Conversely if someone is free, he should not regard himself as better than a slave, he is now a slave of Christ. He is called to obey his new master, Jesus Christ. Paul is seeking to renew our minds.
7:23
Slaves were bought. We have been bought at a price, the price of Christ’s blood on the cross. We belong not to ourselves, but to Jesus Christ. So we should not become slaves of human beings. We can do this by seeking to follow the ways of society. We must not go along with society’s mores.
7:24
Paul concludes this section with a reminder of the general principle. We are responsible to God, and so should remain in the situation we were in when God called us. Again, this is not an absolute rule which means we must never change anything about our lives. The principle is that we should not think that changing our circumstances will necessarily change us. It is faith in Christ, obedience to Him that changes us.
No comments:
Post a Comment