Our Scripture for today may seem a little odd, talking about a subject that we don’t usually think about, much less talk about. In order to understand what the Apostle Paul was writing about to the church in Corinth, we really need to have a bit of historical and cultural context for the subject to make any sense. Let’s take a look at this rather unusual or different subject in our Scripture.
On the Day of Pentecost, what is traditionally considered the birthday of the Church, the believers, those early Christians, were almost exclusively from a Jewish background. Jesus’ last instructions to His followers, on the day when He was taken back up into heaven, was to go into all the world and spread the Gospel, telling everyone about Him (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). However, for several years, these earliest believers only witnessed to fellow Jews, and on a rare occasion to a Samaritan, but never to Gentiles. As a matter of fact, when Peter, the chief of the apostles, finally did witness to a Gentile man, Cornelius and his family, he was strongly criticized by his fellow believers, not just for witnessing to them, but for even eating with them (Acts 11:1-3).
Slowly the Gospel began to be spread among the Gentiles. However, there remained a strong faction among the Jewish believers that felt quite strongly that if the Gentiles were witnessed to, and they came to saving faith in Jesus, they had to be circumcised and adhere to the Old Testament Law. This became a very contentious argument in the early Church. There was one side which said that the Jewish Law must be followed, including by Gentiles. This group came to be known as the Judaizers. On the other side were those who said that was not the case. Paul was very much in the latter camp, and he addressed this issue quite strongly in several of his epistles.
This became such an issue that after churches were started in predominantly Greek/Gentile areas, with a mostly Gentile congregation, Judaizers came in and demanded that all Gentile believers be circumcised (Galatians 5:1-6). These Judaizers were telling the new believers that they couldn’t really be saved unless they were circumcised first, and also kept the other Mosaic Laws, such as with diet and other regulations.
The Council of Jerusalem was convened to address these issues, where it was decided by the leaders of the Church that the Law of Moses, the Old Testament Law, did not need to be followed, including the act of circumcision (Acts 15:6-29). That didn’t sit well with some of the Jewish believers, and they continued to insist that Gentiles follow the Law, for all practical purposes to become Jews first, and then they can be saved and become a Christian.
Scripture teaches that after Christ’s death, circumcision is no longer necessary (Romans 4:9-11; Galatians 5:2-4; Colossians 2:11). Pleasing God and obeying Him is more important than observing traditional ceremonies. Rituals help us only insofar as they move us towards God. In and of themselves they have no intrinsic value. God values obedience far more than adherence to religious regulations (I Samuel 15:22; Philippians 3:3).
Jesus has fulfilled all of the old Levitical Law, so it is no longer binding. Abraham, the Father of Faith, was not justified or made righteous by circumcision, but instead, it was through his faith (Genesis 15:6). When we trust and obey God, like Abraham did, we please Him more than just keeping a ritual. We can keep every last ritual and tradition, but if we do not love God and our neighbor, it is nothing, as Jesus summarized in Matthew 22:36-40. Culture, social standing, and external ceremonies have no bearing on spiritual life. What matters is faith and obedience.
Paul told the Corinthian Church that what they needed to do was to remain in the same state that they were in when they got saved (vs. 20-22). If they were an uncircumcised Gentile, remain that way. If they were a circumcised Jew, remain that way. If they were a slave or they were free, remain that way, as we all are to be servants of the Lord. People are slaves to sin until they commit their lives to Jesus, who alone can conquer sin’s power. No bondage is as terrible as that of sin, from which Jesus frees the believer. Sin no longer has any claim over us.
In closing, Paul ends this section of Scripture by reminding us that we were bought with a price. What was that price? Our ransom price was the Precious Blood of the Lord Jesus, which He shed on the Cross. It was the Blood that was shed when He died for our sins, to redeem us from the power of sin. Don’t become slaves to the ways of men and the world.
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