And if we are the servants of Christ, we shall be set free, in the measure in which we are His, from the slavery which daily becomes more oppressive as the means of communication become more complete, the slavery to popular opinion and to men round us.  Dare to be singular; take your beliefs at first hand from the Master.  Never mind what fellow-slaves say.  It is His smile or frown that is of importance.  ‘Ye are bought with a price; be not servants of men.’  And so, brethren, ‘choose you this day whom ye will serve.’  You are not made to be independent.  You must serve some thing or person.  Recognise the narrow limitations within which your choice lies, and the issues which depend upon it.  It is not whether you will serve Christ or whether you will be free.  It is whether you will serve Christ or your own worst self, the world, men, and I was going to add, the flesh and the devil.  Make your choice.  He has bought you.  You belong to Him by His death.  Yield yourselves to Him, it is the only way of breaking your chains.  He that doeth sin is the servant of sin.  ‘If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed,’ and not only free; for the King’s slaves are princes and nobles, and ’all things are yours, and ye are Christ’s.’  They who say to Him ’O Lord! truly I am Thy servant,’ receive from Him the rank of kings and priests to God, and shall reign with Him for ever.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

   ’Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein
   abide with God.’—­1 COR. vii. 24.

You find that three times within the compass of a very few verses this injunction is repeated.  ‘As God hath distributed to every man,’ says the Apostle in the seventeenth verse, ’as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk.  And so ordain I in all the churches.’  Then again in the twentieth verse, ’Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called.’  And then finally in our text.

The reason for this emphatic reiteration is not difficult to ascertain.  There were strong temptations to restlessness besetting the early Christians.  The great change from heathenism to Christianity would seem to loosen the joints of all life, and having been swept from their anchorage in religion, all external things would appear to be adrift.  It was most natural that a man should seek to alter even the circumstances of his outward life, when such a revolution had separated him from his ancient self.  Hence would tend to come the rupture of family ties, the separation of husband and wife, the Jewish convert seeking to become like a Gentile, the Gentile seeking to become like a Jew; the slave trying to be free, the freeman, in some paroxysm of disgust at his former condition, trying to become a slave.  These three cases are all referred to in the context—­marriage, circumcision, slavery.  And for all three the Apostle has the same advice to give—­’Stop where you are.’  In whatever condition you were when God’s invitation drew you to Himself—­for that, and not being set to a ‘vocation’ in life, is the meaning of the word ‘called’ here—­remain in it.