Christian freedom: God paid a high price for you, so don't be enslaved by the world. 1 Corinthians 7:23

It is very reliable that Paul's stay in Corinth convinced the apostle to write his famous letters, and in his first letter to this Church, the apostle showed the depth of his theological knowledge by teaching the ethical foundations of the spiritual doctrine of the Kingdom of God. The apostle Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, explained that Christian freedom and faith are not based on the compliance of outward signs such as circumcision or the sacrifice of animals as was common in Old Testament times. This is why the apostle to the Gentiles wrote with wisdom to the new Christian believers: "Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised" 1 Corinthians 7:18. In Pauline thought, the only valid circumcision is the conversion of the heart. Therefore, the only valid external signs for a Christian are the sacraments such as baptism and communion, which accompany the grace of the Spirit.
Just as Jesus taught and as Paul realized, ethics and faith must go hand in hand, and this is because faith demands good words and good deeds. Accepting Jesus as savior is, therefore, accepting a new kind of freedom, because it must be understood that good does not originate in human reason but in the grace of God, because, as Jesus taught, only God is good, and he is the very source of good. Christian freedom and ethical living, then, means living the gifts, because all gifts are good because their origin is God; and this spiritual truth ultimately consists also of rejecting the concupiscences of the world that limit man's freedom, like the love of money, and lust, for example. This is why Paul also wrote: "God paid a high price for you, so don't be enslaved by the world" 1 Corinthians 7:23. Christian freedom, then, means seeking the most excellent and brilliant path in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the apostle Paul, freedom was synonymous with ethics, and this is something no Christian should forget, as he taught in his epistle.

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