If? – Interpreting the Law of God (60)

If?

Interpreting the Law of God (60)

Paul did not minimize the power of suggestion to bring about change in the Spirit.

Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. 1 Corinthians 7:20, 21

In the Roman world of Paul’s day, as many as three-fourths of the people may have been slaves of some kind. To suggest that a slave might “gain your freedom” would have been regarded, in some places, as radical and seditious. But Paul was sowing seeds.

Within the Christian community we ought to be thinking about and working in ways designed to gain as much as possible of the freedom we have in Jesus Christ (John 8:31, 32). The Law of God can guide us into this freedom because it is, as James explained, the “perfect law of liberty,” and Christians were expected to live by that Law (Jas. 2:12). We gain that freedom by learning to interpret God’s Law along a trajectory which begins in the letter of the Law but is only fulfilled as we discern the true spirit of the Law.

In a day like Paul’s, when politics was the commanding vantage point for social cohesion, anything that might challenge the political status quo had to be undertaken wisely. So Paul insists that, in Jesus Christ, all truly meaningful distinctions between slaves and slave owners are removed. He counsels slaves not to throw off their chains and rebel (like, for example, Spartacus and others) but to practice contentment, diligence, excellence, and love in all their work. He hints that slaves within the Christian community might begin to hope that they could gain their freedom. At the same time he hints, if only by suggestion, that slave owners who wish to treat their slaves justly and fairly might begin working for their manumission as a tangible expression to the watching world of the transforming power of God’s grace and truth.

Paul understood that the Spirit of God is the Giver of life and freedom in Christ. He was content to begin erecting a foundation for social change which the Spirit could use, in the generations to follow, to continue the work of making all things new in Jesus Christ.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.