If ever we are to appreciate what freedom means in the full sense of the scriptural

meaning of the term, we must learn the truth of the seeming paradox of I Cor. 7: 22.

One of the first lessons we have to learn, not only in relation to freedom, but in

relation to practically all the doctrines of redemption, is that no blessing or gift is of value

for its own sake. To seek liberty because to our natural temperament bondage is galling,

is to seek, under the cloke of the term liberty, the satisfaction of the flesh. To fail to "use

liberty rather" if the opportunity is given because it brings with it irksome or hazardous

responsibilities, is likewise pandering to the flesh. By nature we judge by outward

appearances. It is God who looketh upon the heart.

The very slave, if a believer, may rejoice in the fact that in spite of all the shackles

made by man, he is free--the Lord's freedman. In the same way the man who is master

of his own time, who owes no man anything, if he is the Lord's, should remember that he

is the very slave of Christ. The heartburnings, the envyings, the frettings that seem so

synonymous with bondage to the mind of the flesh; the boasting, the patronizing, the ease

that so often accompany the conception of freedom to the man of the world, vanish when

viewed "in Christ".

This same spirit is observed in other connections. For example, "For in Christ Jesus

neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith through love

working" (Gal. 5: 6).

From our position we can readily appreciate the teaching that circumcision avails not

anything, but we have not truly grasped the teaching of that statement if we do not as

truly and as enthusiastically endorse the other phase, namely, that uncircumcision is

equally of no avail. That this thought is very closely related to the spirit of I Cor. 7: 22

will be readily seen by reading back a little in I Cor. 7: to verses 18 and 19. The

same argument that is used concerning the slave and the free, is used of the circumcision

and the uncircumcision. The same neutralizing of disabilities and advantages which only

obtain in the flesh and in the world are found again here.

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but keeping the

commandments of God". If we read this verse with Gal. 5: 6 we shall know how to

interpret the words, "but keeping the commandments of God". Had we read on in

Gal. 5: to verse 13, we should have seen another close parallel. "For brethren, ye have

been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love

serve (as a slave) one another".