1 Corinthians 7 21-24:Don’t Worry, Be Happy; It’s Just Adiaphoron

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on August 31, 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay

06 April 2014 version available here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/04/1-corinthians-717-24-dont-worry-about.html

Today’s passage speaks about slavery. This is actually a big social justice issue in the Salvation Army. Coming up this 28 September, The Salvation Army is asking us all to pray for the victims of today's sex slave trade. Social Justice is something about which we are very concerned.

Now when I think of justice, I must confess the first thing that comes to my mind these days are my daughters (6&7), they are concerned about justice – particularly as it relates to themselves. I don’t know how many times from downstairs, I hear, “Daddy she hit me” or “Daddy she won’t stop touching me” or “Daddy it’s not fair; why does she get to do that?”

I remember this too from when I was a child – there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9) - that justice is usually more about justice for ourselves than for anyone else. I can remember when I was a child whenever I felt hard done by; whenever I felt that the world was ganging up on me; whenever I would get a detention for something that I didn’t do at school or whenever I got in trouble for something that my little sister did at home – all of a sudden justice became important. It is funny how important justice is when we feel wronged. Now, when I got upset about this unjust world that was ganging up on me, I would do something. I would do something: I would complain.

I would go to my mom. I would rant on and on about how life is treating me so poorly and how my rights are being trampled and how I deserve so much more and when I inevitably finish my whining and complaining and making much of an ado about whatever, my mother would answer my complaints with these important words of comfort.

“Michael, suck it up – stop your whining – deal with it.”

In the 80’s there was a song that would sum it up in a more positive phraseology – it was Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry. Be Happy”[1]

This is actually part of what our text today, 1 Corinthians 7:21-24, is talking about– and I’ll come back to that in a minute. First we should address a real social justice issue here because if we don’t it may bug some of us a little bit – after all how can we sing “Don’t Worry. Be Happy” when we are talking about slavery.[2]

One thing that we should make clear in this passage is that Paul is not saying that slavery is good (cf. re slavery.1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28, 4; Eph. 6; Col. 3-4; 1 Tim 1:10, 6:1; Titus 2:9; Phil 1:16).[3] Paul is not endorsing slavery here[4] – but neither is he condemning it - and many of today when we think of slavery will immediately get images in our minds of Amistad[5] and the other slave slips bringing kidnapped people, bound and subdued to be tortured and abused when they are sold on the US slave market. This – like the illegal sex slave trade of today - was slavery at its worst for sure and be convinced that Paul is not explicitly addressing the 17th - 19th century American slave nor the 21st century's sex slave with his “don’t worry, be happy” as it were – these events are too far in the future for Paul to even consider.

Slavery was very different in the world of Paul’s day and, as Richard B. Hays cautions us, what is known about ancient slavery and how Paul is using this illustration are important. Hays:
“Slavery in the ancient Greco-Roman world was a pervasive institution but was not invariably perceived as oppressive… Dale Martin’s book ‘Slavery as Salvation’ has shown that slavery provided for many people not only economic security but also upward social mobility. To be the slave of a powerful master could be an honourable station, and slaves were sometimes highly educated and entrusted with major administrative responsibilities…many of the early Christian converts came from these lower ranks in society, being either slaves or former slaves.”[6]

The institution that we refer to with the word ‘slavery’ then wasn’t inherently bad like we would say it is today. It was just a different economic system and as that was the case Paul did not outright condemn it (but cf. 1 Tim 1:10) – nor did he exalt it. It was simply a common way to express one employer-employee relationship of his day. Paul actually isn’t speaking about the institution at all he is speaking about the people involved in it (and some of them – like some employees of today- were certainly abused.)

But how does this apply to us? None of us are here are directly involved in the slave trade and not all of us are involved in employer-employee relationships. How does this passage of scripture affect us? There are a number of ways. One is as it relates to the prosperity heresy that is prevalent in parts of the US and Korea today – this heresy says that God – like a Genie or an employee at your command - God only wants you to be happy and rich; so if things are going well and you are getting rich then God is blessing you but if your selfish desires aren’t being met, if things are going poorly for you or if you can’t make ends meet or if you even get ill (or go bald – like the prophet Elisha) then that must be because you have sin in your life. Now we all know this is wrong from the Law and the prophets (cf. Elisha and Amos) and we all know this is wrong from the story of Job and also know this is wrong from Luke’s account of the Beatitudes (Blessed be the poor…Blessed are the hungry; Luke 6:20ff…) and Paul intentionally strikes out against this heresy here in his verse (cf. also Ps 73; Acts 11:29; 20:35), as it were, of the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”[7]

Paul says here that whether you are a slave or whether you are free, it is not an indication of favour with God. He is saying rather that it doesn’t matter. The Greek word that Paul uses here is significant; it is ‘adiaphoron’ and this literally means ‘an indifferent matter.’ He is saying, as he does elsewhere, that whether you are free or a slave, Paul is saying it is ‘adiaphoron’. It is an indifferent matter; so don’t worry, be happy because all believers can experience that we really have been bought new by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 7:23, 6:20. cf. also Gal. 3:28).[8]

This is neat actually, if we look at this pericope (1 Cor. 7 21-24) in the context of all of Chapter Seven[9]. In verses 1-16, Paul is talking about marriage and how one should not get divorced –but if one’s spouse dies then they are certainly free to re-marry (cf. Romans 7:1,2). And then he talks about circumcision and slavery, (vv.17-20; 21-24) and then continues (v. 25 ff.) talking about marriage and virgins and marriage again and how one is bound to one’s husband or wife until death (7:39).

In the middle of this discourse about being married for life – Paul brings up the topic of slavery. So what is Paul saying? You've heard the expression, 'the old ball and chain'? Is he saying that being married is like being a slave? I think I’ve heard some people say that…He also brings up circumcision – that can hurt – so what is he saying? Is he saying that marriage is as pleasant getting circumcised? No, I don’t think so.

How this whole chapter ties together is actually quite interesting. There is an early refrain that Christians used to repeat when they were being baptised. It went along the lines of “for into one Spirit we were all baptised into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink one Spirit”[10] (1 Cor 12:13). Or, as in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in the body of Jesus Christ.” This is neat because in Chapter Seven, Paul talks about the slave and the free (vv. 21-24), the male and the female (vv 1-16, 25-39), the Jew and the Greek (vv.17-20). He brings it all together and why does he do it like this?

Why does he lump these things together? He does it to let his audience know that none of these things that mattered so much to people then and there – gender, nationalist (or racist) pride, and status issues – he does this to let them know that none of these things matter at all. It is important for us too today to know that the things that matter so much to us today – gender issues, nationalist (or racist) wars, wealth and status issues, our petty differences with one another - these things that matter to us today are just ‘adiaphoron’, a matter of indifference. They don’t matter. So we really shouldn’t worry (Matt 6:25ff; Luke 12:22ff; cf. Matt 10:19, 13:11; Luke 12:11, 21:14) about these things we should simply be happy in the Lord (Philippians 4:4; cf. Matt 5:12; Luke 6:23; John 16:22; Ro 5; Philippians 2:17-18, 3:1; 1 Pet 4:13)

The concerns of this world: our employment, our status, our wealth, our pride, whatever it is that is getting under our skin, this stuff means so much to people, they are all ‘an indifferent matter’...it reminds me of a fictional story.

At the end of the last century there was a revolution in one of the North Western African countries. As it became obvious that the government was going to fall, the wealthy North Americans had to flee. They really made it just by the skin of their teeth. Some boarded the last plane out and others just managed to get on an oil tanker that was leaving. Everyone got out just in time before the freedom fighters liberated the country.

A disappointing thing happened on the plane. You see it was a commercial airline that had a first class section that had so much more comfortable seating than the rest of the plane. Now on this plane were all rich, famous and important people. One of them first got it in their mind that because of who they were they deserved the good seats. Then someone else; then the next; soon everyone on the plane was fighting. They were so busy fighting that they did not notice that the plane was going down...in a sad irony while they were fighting about who was the most important in this life – the plane crashed and they all wound up faced with the next life – where none of the things of this world matter anymore.

As our lives are like this plane going down or like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg, worrying about our wealth or status or pride or the small selfish things that try to bother us in this life is like, as the expression says, 'rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic'. It is ‘adiaphoron’ - it doesn't matter! This is what Paul is saying in Ch 7. So then, if these don't matter, what does matter?

What matters is what will happen when Jesus returns. What matters is not our happiness in this short voyage on a sinking ship (or crashing aero plane), what matters is our AND OTHERS’ eternal salvation. Our life here is going to end – as such our position and our petty complaints and whining in it doesn't matter – what really matters is what happens afterwards and afterwards though all may be eligible for heaven, some will choose to crash and burn and experience the fires of hell but others - others will choose to be saved.

I am reminded of the 'Empress of Ireland'. It was a ship that sank in 1914. “When the 'Empress of Ireland' went down with a hundred and thirty Canadian Salvation Army officers on board [29th May 1914], one hundred and nine officers were drowned, and not one body that was picked up had on a life-belt. The few survivors told how the Salvationists, finding there were not enough life-preservers for all, took off their own belts and strapped them upon even strong men, saying, "I can die better than you can;" and from the deck of that sinking boat they flung their battle-cry around the world – Others!”[11]

The boat of our lives is sinking. No man knows the time or the hour when it will end (Matt 24:26, 25:13; Mark 13:32; Lk 12:39-40, 46). Are we more concerned with having a comfortable deck chair or we are serving God by handing others the life-preservers?

This is very much what the scripture here is saying: Nothing else matters but serving Christ and experiencing salvation. All else in this world is ‘adiaphoron’ – it is an indifferent matter.

So whatever it is that is getting in the way of us praying for the salvation of the world; whatever else it is that we are concerned about; whatever selfish thing that we have been worrying about; whatever it is that is stopping us from serving the Lord and giving our life-preservers to the lost, I invite us now to come and bring it to the Lord because like Paul says, when in our world, to live is Christ, then we are certain, that when we die, it will indeed be gain (Philippians 1:21).

Let us pray.

----------------

[1] The song reached number 1on the top 100 Billboard in September of 1988.
[2] JustSalvos: Men women and children are trafficked across borders at a rate of one per minute: http://www.justsalvos.com/userfiles/file/traffic_a4_LOWRES.pdf
[3] He speaks more than once in scriptures about how masters shouldn’t mistreat their slaves.
[4] This is important because there is still slavery of the worst kind going on today – Coming up this 28 September, The Salvation Army is asking us all to pray for the victims of the sex slave trade. We are presently fighting the sex slave trade and the Army has even appointed Canada’s previous leader, Commissioner Christine MacMillian (a great women you can read about her in the September edition of the Salvationist) as an ambassador to the UN on Social Justice issues. Danielle Strickland, (another great women) who was one of the Officers who sent Susan and I into training to be Officers holds The Salvation Army’s social justice portfolio in Australia. Social justice is important to The Salvation Army and slavery is one of the things we are currently fighting. Now, historically, you know of course too that Christians helped to end the legalized world slave trade (cf. 1 Tim. 1:10) and the person who wrote the great anthem of the Church, ‘Amazing Grace’, John Newton, himself, was a reformed slave trader who gave it up after accepting the Lord and he was one of the influential Christians who worked to end this world slave trade.

[5] There was a famous 1997 movie about the 1839 mutiny aboard this boat.
[6] Richard B. Hays. Interpretation: First Corinthians. P. 124.
[7] W. Harold Mare. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:1 Corinthians/Exposition of 1 Corinthians/VII. Christian obligation to live according to God's call (7:17-24), Book Version: 4.0.2: Observe, however, that the Bible teaches that Christianity does not guarantee material or social betterment but makes it a matter of individual responsibility (cf. Ps 73; Acts 11:29; 20:35).
[8] J. Paul Sampley. NIB X. ‘1 Corinthians’, p.881.
[9] Michael Ramsay. Mark 3:20-35 The Family of God. (Feb. 17, 2008) available on-line at http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html: An “inclusio” is a story within a story and this is sort of like that here albeit in an expository letter form.
[10] J. Paul Sampley. NIB X. ‘1 Corinthians’, p.882.
[11] http://www1.salvationarmy.org/heritage.nsf/36c107e27b0ba7a98025692e0032abaa/df2ca83194d5599b802568cd00377023!OpenDocument