​God’s call transforms our reality - Pastor David Tsai

For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.
1 Corinthians 7:23-24

​In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul has much to say about our calling. Often, he used the language of calling when referring to what we might call our conversion experience. When we first said “Yes” to the Good News of God’s grace in Christ, God was calling us into a relationship with Him and into partnership in His mission.
Some immature believers in Corinth thought that, as Christians, they needed to leave behind their former life, including key relationships and social locations. Paul, however, encouraged people to remain in the condition in which they were called, and to use this situation as a context for serving God and people. Paul also urged the Christians in Corinth to see themselves in a new way in light of their godly calling.
In 1 Corinthians 7:21-24, Paul specifically addresses the case of slavery. It’s hard for us in the United States to relate to what Paul says because our own history of slavery is so evil, especially with its dehumanizing racism. Slavery, in Paul’s day, was nothing to be praised. It involved people owning other people, which is inconsistent with the created dignity of all human beings. Yet slavery in the Roman Empire was not essentially racist, and many slaves were both well-treated and well-regarded. It was common, in fact, for slaves who could become freed persons to choose to remain slaves for their personal benefit.
What should slaves do when God calls them to faith in Jesus Christ? Should they try to become free? Should they remain slaves? Paul counsels slaves not to focus on their socio-economic role so much as on who they are in Christ. Whether they are slaves or freed people, they can serve the Lord in their present condition.
Moreover, their calling to Christ helps them to see their reality in a new light. “For,” Paul writes, “the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person” (v. 22). Because of their calling from God, slaves have a new identity in Christ, to whom they belong as freed people. Those who have been freed from actual slavery also experience a new reality because of their calling. By acknowledging Christ as their Lord, they have become in effect “a slave of Christ” (v. 22). All Christians, whether slave or free in their earthly identities, have been “bought at a price” (v. 23), the price of Christ’s death for our salvation. Therefore, we are owned by Christ, and this ownership overshadows any other socio-economic relationship we experience in life. Slaves can see themselves as profoundly free in Christ, while freed people can see themselves as slaves of Christ. (If Paul were writing today, I expect he might use language that is common to us. Perhaps he would encourage us to think of Christ as our boss, and to see ourselves as His employees.)
What this means is that, though I may very well remain in the condition in which I was when God called me, that condition no longer defines me. My role at work, for example, matters because it gives a context in which I can live out my faith in Christ. But my role at work doesn’t tell me who I really am. Because I have been called, I now see myself primarily in relationship to the God who called me, to whom I belong, not only as a freed person and slave, but also as a beloved child and a missional partner.
You may be the CEO of a major company, a brand-new intern, an entrepreneurial small business owner, a high school teacher, an executive assistant, a firefighter, a house painter, a student, you name it. No matter what title you wear at work, it does not define you. What defines us most of all is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This relationship not only gives us inestimable value and heavenly purpose, but it also helps us see our reality in a whole new light.
 
Dear Lord, thank You for giving me a whole new way to see myself and my life. Thank You for giving me a new way to define myself and my value. Amen