Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.
God wants us to discover how to live Christianly in the situations to which he has assigned us: our marriages, our friendships, our workplaces, our communities.
Can you be a real Christian in your ordinary life? Some Christians would say “No.” They believe the only way to be a true Christian is to leave one’s normal life and live radically for Jesus. Centuries ago, for example, some immature Christians in Corinth thought they had to leave their marriages if they were going to be true followers of Jesus. The Apostle Paul helped them to see that they should remain in the condition in which they were called into a relationship with God through Christ. Not only can we be real Christians in our ordinary lives, but, in fact, God wants us to discover how to live Christianly in the situations to which he has assigned us: our marriages, our friendships, our workplaces, our communities.
We can tell from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians that these new believers got some things right and some things wrong when it came to living as a Christian. For example, they got it right that believing in Jesus wasn’t just a minor add-on to one’s otherwise ordinary life. They correctly concluded that it meant living in a whole new way, with new values, priorities, and practices. Yet, many of the Corinthian Christians wrongly concluded that this new way of living required a radical change in one’s personal situation. Some who were married to non-Christian spouses, for example, believed that they should leave their marriages in order to be fully committed to Jesus. They assumed that it was not possible to be a real Christian in their ordinary lives.
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul sought to correct this misunderstanding of the Christian life. He urged the Corinthians in verse 17 to “lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you.” He said something similar in verse 20: “Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.” This translation rightly conveys the basic sense of the original language. Curiously, though, what Paul actually wrote was, “Let each one remain in the calling [klēsis] in which you were called.” One’s situation in life at the time of one’s calling (or conversion) was not merely an accident. It was something intended by God, something God planned to use for divine purposes.
So, if we were to ask Paul, “Can I be a real Christian in my ordinary life?” he would almost surely answer “Yes.” In fact, he would tell most believers that God’s plan was for them to live out their faith precisely in the context in which they were living and working when they first said “Yes” to Christ. I say “most believers” because Paul would not endorse every possible context in which a person was called. In Ephesians 4:28, for example, Paul wrote, “Thieves must give up stealing.” So, if your situation were to involve outright sin, such as thievery, it would be right to leave it. But, for most believers, their challenge was to discover how to live as genuine Christians in the context of their calling.
Now we mustn’t turn this into a hard and fast rule. Sometimes our personal context changes for good reasons. Moreover, sometimes God calls people away from one situation to a very different one. Abraham and Sarah, for example, we're called to leave their home and journey to a new, distant land (Genesis 12:1-3). Yet, for the most part, God expects those he calls to believe and to serve while remaining in the context where they were when they heard and responded to the gospel. This context could, in some ways, even be seen as one’s calling, one’s divine assignment.
The implications of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 are powerful, especially if you sometimes doubt whether you can be a real Christian in your ordinary life. Today, there are some well-intentioned Christian teachers who believe that the only way to truly follow Jesus requires a radical rejection of ordinary life. Real Christians, in this view, aren’t folks who work as teachers, bankers, house painters, and parents. They have to do radical things for Jesus, like move across the world and invest their lives in the fight against poverty. But, while it’s true that God does call some to very different ways of living and working, it’s not true that all genuine Christians must abandon their current circumstances. In fact, from the perspective of 1 Corinthians 7, these circumstances could even be seen as our calling.
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