Social Revolution
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2025 · 5 October 2025
Now, the Word of God speaks authoritatively on almost every subject that we can imagine. At least if not in particular, in general. And as we have looked at 1 Corinthians, we have been made aware of the fact that already, in just the first seven chapters, many practical areas of living have been touched on. We have noticed that Paul is writing about marriage. The Bible has a lot to say about that particular subject.
It talks about single people and their behavior. It talks about married people and their behavior. It talks about divorced people. It talks about widows. And what is required within a marriage, what God’s standards are for the life of the husband, the wife and the children. The problem arose that when people were becoming Christians, there was pressure put upon them to conform to a certain view of marriage.
If you’re a single person, and you happen to get saved in Corinth, and you attend the Corinthian assembly. There are some Jews who believe, because Orthodox Judaism, that to be single is to defy the law of God. God said to multiply, replenish the earth. And if you do not do that, then you are slaying the posterity of God. So, the Jews would say, “You must get married, especially now that you’re a Christian.
And there was pressure put on single people, some of whom had been given by the Holy Spirit the charisma of celibacy, or the grace gift of singleness. God intended them to be single, but the Jews want them to be married. On the other hand, you had an attitude that some of the Gentiles were saying, “Marriage is not the thing; singleness is the thing because then you can be totally devoted to God.
And now, Paul takes these particular things that he has said and draws from them a general principle. Christians should not be concerned with changing their outward circumstances. The Christian life is not a social revolution, it is spiritual regeneration. People say, “Now as a Christian, you have to stop being single;” “Now as a Christian, you should dissolve your marriage and be celibate;” “Now as a Christian slave, get out of the slavery."
Christianity was never designed to be a disrupter of social relationships. And that is Paul’s message. And what was happening in the Corinthian church was using their Christianity as a justification for all kinds of social change. They were dumping husbands and wives, single people were being forced into getting married when they had the gift of celibacy, which God had granted them for unique purposes of ministry.
Slaves were struggling under the role of slavery and saying, “I demand to be free; after all, we’re equal, one in Christ.” Galatians 3:28, “There is neither male nor female, bond nor free, but all are one in Christ.” And all of this social reactionary attitude could have destroyed the testimony of the Corinthian assembly. They would lose the opportunity to be exposed to the reality of Christianity, a transformed life.
There is no question in my mind, that Christianity must have had a profound effect upon society. The fact of miracles and signs and wonders, the teaching of equality of the sexes and of bond and free, the tremendous preoccupation with the second coming of Jesus Christ, the idea of coming judgment, the idea of eternal bliss in heaven, disdain for any earthly wealth, these things were factors that were hard to understand.
Paul wants to show, that being a Christian is a relationship to Christ that is compatible with any social status. You can be single, married, widowed or divorced. You can be a slave or a free man. You can be a Jew or a Gentile. You can be a man or a woman. You can live in any kind of society. You can be anywhere in the world, and Christianity is compatible in any social status. Why? Because it is internal, not external.
It doesn’t matter what you are; it doesn’t matter what the society is in terms of the basic identity of Christianity. For example, if a wife becomes a Christian, what should she be? A better wife. If a husband becomes a Christian, what should he be? A better husband. 1 Corinthians 7 talks about those two things. If you have a friend who becomes a Christian, what should he immediately be to you? A better friend.
If there is a slave who becomes a Christian, what should he be? A better slave. A master who becomes a Christian? A better master. I am not saying that Christianity has nothing to do with social activism. The Bible is very clear about the fact that we are to meet the needs of people, that we are to bind up the wounded, that we are to feed the hungry, that we are to clothe the naked, that we are to house the outcast.
By spreading the power of Christianity through the transformed lives of the people within that society. Christianity interferes indirectly, not directly with social institutions. Christianity has really been the cause of great social change in history, not by exploding on that society, but by leavening that society. That means penetrating it at its roots. It is always compatible with any earthly circumstance in any society.
Paul wants the Corinthians to know that being a Christian is no reason to start changing every kind of social relationship. The principle he states in verse 17, 20, and in verse 24, he repeats it three times, the same principle. And then in between those three times, he illustrates it. So, point one is the principle. Then the illustration, two. Then the principle again, then the illustration, and then the principle at the end.
Let’s begin with the principle in verse 17, “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches.” Whatever God has allotted to you, just keep in that course. Conversion does not mean that single people who have the gift of celibacy are to get married. It doesn’t mean that married people are to break their marriage. It doesn’t mean that at all.
If you’re a slave, stay a slave. If you’re a Jew, stay a Jew. If you’re a Gentile, stay a Gentile. Stay where you are. This is the general principle. Now, it doesn’t mean that if you got saved when you were 13, and you were single, that you have to stay single the rest of your life. It is a general principle, not an absolute law. I mean that if you’re married, stay married. But if an unbeliever wants to depart, let him depart.
Whatever situation you find yourself, stay there. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Jesus. Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” Romans 14:19, says “So then let us pursue the things which make for peace.” 2 Corinthians 13:11 says, “Live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all men.”
If you are exemplifying and communicating divine wisdom, it is pure and peaceable. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul says, “Now be a peaceful man. And maintain that peaceful stance.” He says, “In meekness, instructing those that oppose, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.” God will use that to bring people to the truth and free them from Satan.
The way to evangelize the world is not through social revolution, but it is through spiritual regeneration. Now, notice the seventeenth verse says, “Only as God has distributed to every man.” The Greek verb for distribute means to apportion to one his share of something. If you’re a slave, who is it that apportioned to you that position? It’s God. If you’re a wife, who is it that apportioned to you that position? It’s God.
If you’re a slave, did you know that God put you in that position before he saved you, and he saved you in that position to use you in that position? If you’re single, God had you single before he saved you. If you’re married, God allotted to you a married situation and saved you in it to use you in it. God saved you in a certain situation. For the time, stay in that situation: married, unmarried, circumcised, enslaved or free.
The kind of job you have, and the kind of marital status you have is related to the plan of God even before you got saved. And when the Lord redeemed you in that, He redeemed you in that to use you in that. Don’t say, “Oh, now that I’m a Christian, I can’t do this anymore. Now, if you run a brothel, or you pedal whiskey across the state line. That’s something different, because that’s illegal and immoral.
But when we’re talking about things that are just social, relational things that have no moral value, God doesn’t expect you, all of a sudden that you’re a Christian, to bail out of everything. God has you there for a reason. He saved you while you were there. Whatever social situation you’re in, God can work, and Christianity can be compatible with that. Let’s not make Christianity the upheaval of the whole society.
Now, after sustaining the principle, he illustrates it in verses 18 -19, “Was anyone called while circumcised?” The word “called” means saved. Were any of you saved while you were circumcised? Now, that is a Jew. Well, of course, many of them. Then, “Let him not become uncircumcised.” So, if a Jew comes to Christ, and renounces his Judaism, his Jewish friends are going to call him a blasphemer.
So Paul says, “Don’t do that.” Otherwise you’ll not reach these people.” And he says, “Look, stay the way you are, because in your effort to reach those people, you probably won’t succeed anyway, and you’ll alienate the people that God intends you to reach, your own people.” Every one of us has a harvest field. There’s no reason to alienate all the Jews who feel strongly about their Jewishness.
We see people today who are Jews. They get saved, and they don’t reject their Jewishness. They hold onto their Jewishness, and this gives them accessibility back into the Jewish community. They have an open door maybe to friends and family when they maintain something of the belief and the love of the Jewish heritage. To deny it would alienate them from the harvest field that God would give them the most fruit in.
Now, in verse 18 he says, “Is any called in uncircumcision?” Were any of you saved while you were Gentiles? “Let him not be circumcised.” Now, some Gentiles came to Christ. And what would the Jews say? “Oh, it’s so nice that you’ve come to Christ. But if you want to get in the kingdom, you got to have this operation.” Here they’re trying to show them that they had to have this to get the full blessing.
And you know what? The Gentiles looked down on the circumcision and the Jews as a despised people. And, then he would have alienated himself from the harvest field that God had designed him to reach. Do you see the point? God says, “Just stay where you are; that’s where I have your for the reason that I have you there, to reach those people. Don’t worry about your social status. It doesn’t matter.”
Verse 19, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.” The only issue is a moral issue, a spiritual issue, not an external. It doesn’t matter what operation you had or didn’t have. The thing that matters is keeping the commandments of God. Let’s focus on what is important. Let’s not get bogged down in the externals, the superficials.
Verse 20, “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.” Let every person stay in the same situation he was in when he was saved. Concentrate on the spiritual. Emphasize the Christianity, not the circumstances socially. Christians need to be preoccupied with spiritual. Because Christianity is compatible with any social situation. What he is saying is don’t disrupt the social balance in the name of Christ.
Verse 21 - 23, and this is illustration number two. “Were you called while a slave? Don’t let it concern you. But if you can become free, by all means take the opportunity. 22 For he who is called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who is called as a free man is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of people.” If you were called as a slave, it doesn’t matter.
You can be a Christian as an anything, socially speaking. I’m not talking about moral things, but social. Paul is not approving of slavery; he is merely saying that slavery is not an obstacle to Christian living. He says, “If you’re a slave” Ephesians 6:5 says, “be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as unto Christ.” Just be a good slave.
Did you know that the concentration of righteousness that was in Christianity really became the catalyst that ultimately abolished slavery in the world? Christianity has done that. The important thing is to serve God. And a slave shouldn’t worry about the fact that he’s a slave; he should just serve God. And as this whole righteous kind of life begins to penetrate and spread, the downfall of an enslaving system will occur.
Paul didn’t want a lot of Christian slaves revolting. They expected Jesus to come as the Messiah and overthrow Rome. Then Christianity would have gone down in all of history as a political movement. Slavery is fine, if God has called you in that status. And built into the Christian righteousness pattern, like leaven, moving through a society, is the dissolution of evil in that society as Christianity penetrates.
Verse 22, “For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who is called as a free person is Christ’s slave.” What does it matter that you have to serve somebody else? I mean you’re really God’s free man. All he’s simply saying is, “You may be a slave physically, but you’re a free man spiritually. And you may be a free man physically, but you’re a slave spiritually.”
In other words, he just kind of shows the fact that nothing really matters on the surface. It doesn’t matter whether you’re physically bound or free, it only matters that you’re both spiritually bound and free in the paradox of Christianity. Christ has totally set you free to be His servant. Don’t worry about the superficial situation you’re in. Verse 23 says, “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”
In verse 24 it is repeated, “Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called.” Whatever status in life you’ve been allotted by the divine sovereignty of God, maintain it. All of life is God’s; we are all His servants. Let’s concentrate on spiritual service, and on obedience. Let the social thing take care of itself as the leaven of righteousness will permeate a society to bring about change. Let’s pray.