BULLETIN ARTICLE – 14 MAY 2017

“Keeping God’s commands is what counts” (1 Cor 7:19b). Daily people are faced with making decisions – from the moment one is awake to going to bed at night. It can be very routine and normal to make tough decisions that have many repercussions to oneself and to others. In particular for a Christian who desires to obey God’s commands, he will be asking himself whether the decisions he is making is in line with God’s will. Many Corinthian Christians had come to believe in Jesus only in their adult lives and have no prior Christian understanding. So they were asking the Apostle Paul various questions involving circumcision, slaves and freedmen, and also especially on marriage relationships in their new Christian lives. Apostle Paul responded in a letter to them: “Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.” (1 Cor 7:17) “Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.” (1 Cor 7:20) “Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.” (1 Cor 7:24).

From these responses Paul stated the principle that a person should remain in the same state as the person was in when the person first came to believe in the Lord. Some Jewish Christian leaders were requesting for the Corinthian Christians to be circumcised when they believe in Jesus. It is not necessary to do that. When the person is already a slave and came to believe in Jesus, that person continues to serve and obey Jesus in the Christian faith. In his letter to Philemon, Paul mentioned Philemon’s slave, Onesimus as one who is a dear brother in the Lord. The point is when someone is called into the Kingdom of God, that person has new sets of priorities and will serve a new Master. – Jesus. Whatever the circumstances, he seeks to obey this new Master.

This does not mean that one should not change one’s current circumstances or vocation. God called the Apostle Peter from being a fisherman to be a fisher of men. After his conversion/call on the road to Damascus the Apostle Paul became an evangelist and missionary. Until God shows a person to make a change, the current situation is what God wants that person to be in.

The Master has called us; the road may be dreary,
and dangers and sorrows are strewn on the track;
but God’s Holy Spirit shall comfort the weary;
we follow the Saviour and cannot turn back.

The Master has called us; though doubt and temptation
may compass our journey, we cheerfully sing:
press onward, look upward,” through much tribulation;
the children of Zion must follow their King.