The Blessed Hope Podcast -- with Dr. Kim Riddlebarger "You Can't Unscramble Eggs" Season Three/Episode Fourteen (1 Corinthians 7:17-40)
Remain Where You Were When Called
- Paul’s guiding rule: remain in the life-condition you had when called to Christ.
- Conversion changes spiritual status but ordinarily not one’s vocation or social station.
Don’t Rush To A 'Christian' Job
- Do not quit secular work simply because you become a Christian unless it conflicts with the faith.
- Serve Christ where God placed your skills and vocation rather than seeking an immediate 'Christian job'.
Spiritual Freedom Transcends Social Status
- In Christ social status loses religious significance; slaves and free are unified as servants of Christ.
- Believers are freed from slavery to sin even if still legally enslaved in society.
Episode Synopsis:
In 1 Corinthians 7:17-40, Paul teaches what I call the “you can’t unscramble eggs” doctrine. What should a new Christian do when they come to faith in Jesus Christ? Do they quit their current “secular” job to devote themselves full-time to Jesus Christ and to the work of ministry? Should they rush into marriage to avoid the lusts of the flesh? Or conversely, should they seek to end an engagement because the time of the end might be drawing near? What about those widowed, single, or divorced? Now that they are Christians, what are they to seek to do? Paul tells them all to “stay put.” What they’ve done, they’ve done. And as he cautions them, when a crisis is at hand, that is not the time to make big changes.
Paul is addressing a congregation in the midst of serious difficulties of some sort–a regional famine or the consequences of the divisions the church was then facing. Paul assumes his readers know to what he is referring, so he offers little clarification. But what he does offer is wise advice for those bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Slaves ought not seek immediate freedom–in Christ they are free people. Gentiles ought not seek to be circumcised–now in Christ, the old covenant sign has been replaced by baptism. And for the time being, the unmarried ought not seek to get married–at least until the crisis has come to an end.
Paul tells the Corinthians to wait for the crisis in Corinth to be resolved before they make major life changing decisions. Christians would be wise to wait for things to sort themselves out, and then make an informed and not a rash decision about significant events in their lives. Paul’s instructions make plain that he’s not concerned with fixing all those things new converts may have done in the past, but rather with teaching them the traditions passed down so that they learn how to live the Christian life and become better able to move forward in their lives now set free from the guilt and power of sin.
For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/