Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches (1 Corinthians 7:17).
People complain about their situation. That’s just what they do. People complain about their families, their jobs, their government, their city, their friends, and so on. I’m no exception. I can whine with the best of them. It’s pretty basic to our lives. When we’re alone, we long for people. When we’re with people, we long for retreat. We’re hard to please.
In light of that fact, we have a surprising perspective here in this passage: we should accept the situations we are in. Why? Because God put us there. They are a result of God’s providence. God’s providence is God’s care and government of the world. Everything that happens is the result of His plan for the world.
Since all things come under God’s providence, that means that God has put us where we are. He has put us in the nations in which we are born. He has given us particular parents, children, gifts, resources, and communities.
What does this mean for us? Part of living well in obedience to God is to accept the role that He wants us to play. William Shakespeare captured this reality in his play As You Like It:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts . . .
This is a great metaphor for understanding our lives. God is the author and director of the play. He assigns us our parts. It is our job accept the part He wants us to play and play it well. He is in charge of the play, and He is bringing it to a good end.
That’s precisely what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7. “Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them” (1 Cor. 7:17). In verse 20, he repeats it: “Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them” (1 Cor. 7:20). He concludes that section by repeating it again: “Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them” (1 Cor. 7:24).
What does this mean concretely? We should look at our situations as the place where God put us. We should accept and assent to them as coming from God. For example, we have the parents that God gave us. We should accept that these are from God and seek to honor and love them. God has given us the financial resources we have. That means we have more than others but less than some. Can we be O.K. with that? Our current situation is beyond our control and calls for many of us to stay at home. Can we accept even this hard situation as coming from God’s providence?
Learning to Accept Our Situation
In 1 Corinthians 7, The Apostle Paul gives us good reasons to accept our situation. First, he says that our situation is far less important than where our heart is.
In Paul’s day, some in the church were really proud of their Jewish heritage. This led some people to reject their Gentile heritage and want to become Jewish (get circumcised, 1 Cor. 7:17). Some Jews saw what God was doing among the Gentiles, and they wanted to reject their Jewish heritage. Paul says, don’t do it. Don’t become “uncircumcised” (1 Cor. 7:18). What matters, he says, is keeping God’s commands. That’s the most important thing you can do. Being a Jew or Gentile doesn’t matter for that. It’s about living for God in the situation you’re in.
After speaking of Jews and Gentiles, Paul then directs his words to slaves. He says, amazingly, that if you are a slave, don’t let it bother you. Now, he does say that if you can gain your freedom, do it, as we shall see below. However, he says that they can even be a slave and be O.K. Why? Because they are truly free. They are truly free because the Lord has freed them from guilt, sin, and death. If they accept where God puts them and want what God wants, then they are doing exactly what they want to do. This makes them more free than anyone else. They can align their will with God’s will.
In speaking to those who were free, i.e., not slaves in a civil sense, he says the reverse. They are God’s slaves. This means that they serve the Lord. Being free means learning to submit to God’s will. “[T]he one who was free when called is Christ’s slave” (1 Cor. 7:22). True freedom means wanting what God wants even when it conflicts with what we might want.
So, our faith recommends a basic bias that we accept where God put us. The most important thing is our character, not our circumstances. Accepting God’s will is far more important than any change in our situation. If we are overly burdened with our circumstances, then we are saying that our situation and not enjoyment of God is most important to our happiness. On the other side, if we accept our situation, then we are proclaiming to the whole world that God is enough.
When to Change Our Circumstances
All that said, this does not mean that we should never change our circumstances. When we think about God’s will, we can ask about this in two different ways. We could say, God has put me where I am, so I should not change it. We could also say, God has given me this opportunity, so I should take it. Which one do we choose?
We have to evaluate this on the basis of wisdom. Here are a few guidelines.
Get out of slavery, if you can. Paul says to Christian slaves, “Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so.” This means that we should not hesitate to make our situation better if it can get us out of an oppressive situation. But this means more than physical slavery. If we can get out of any situation that inhibits us from serving the Lord to our full potential, we should do so.
This is really important to say. Abusers often use “God’s will” to urge those they are abusing to stay with them. This is a despicable distortion of the doctrine of God’s providence.
Second, don’t put yourself into slavery. We also should be careful not to put ourselves into situations that will restrict our freedom or cause unnecessary suffering. “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings” (1 Cor. 7:23). This means that we are called to serve the Lord. When we contemplate a move, a marriage, or another change, we should ask, will this restrict me serving the Lord?
Third, seek greater fruitfulness. When we think about opportunities, we should ask: does this give me greater fruitfulness in service to God and others? If a new situation will enable us to bring more glory to God and be more useful to others, then it is an opportunity we should take. We need to work to grow the gifts God has given us and develop our potential.
Conclusion
When we understand God’s providence, we can see that God has put us where we are. He has given us various circumstances and situations. He has put different people into our lives. We should accept that knowing we can serve Him well in any and all situations by His grace. Even suffering can be used for our good and God’s glory in God’s plan.
So, how are you doing at that? Do you tend to look at your life as being something from chance or accident, from people of bad will, or even as a punishment from God? Or, do you see the place where God puts you as being from His Fatherly hand?
That’s what I’d like you to take from this message. Look at where you are, see it as God’s will, and accept it as God’s providence. Look beyond what appears and see the heavenly Father who, not having failed to give you His own Son, has put you where you are and will not fail to give you all other good things as well.
That’s how you can face this week with confidence. The situation you face tomorrow will not be something outside of God’s control. It is where God has put you, and His purpose for it is good. Amen.
Benediction: Go out this week and believe that what you are facing is ultimately about you and God and not anything else. Trust that He has put you where you need to be in His providence. If you see an opportunity to avoid suffering or become more fruitful, take it. This is also from God. But if you can’t, then trust that He will be with you and has you where He wants you for your good and His glory.
And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit fill your souls and make you fruitful in every good word and work. Amen.
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Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash
Grief and loss. That’s a good way to describe what people throughout the world are experiencing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Loss of normalcy. Loss of connection. Loss of church life. Loss of vacations. Loss of school. That’s a lot of loss.
Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
God gives us two different days. He gives us the day of prosperity, and He gives us the day of adversity. We must recognize that “surely God has appointed the one as well as the other” (Eccl. 7:13–14).