Listen for God’s word to you from 1 Corinthians 7:17-24…
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. 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. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.
Bloom Where You Are Planted
Paul makes the same point three times over in this passage. In verse 17 he says, “Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.” In verse 20 he says, “Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.” And in verse 24 he says, “Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.”
Tom Wright summarizes this principle in the words, “Stay the way you were called.” William Barclay says, “Be a Christian where you are.” And it occurred to me, as it has occurred to others, that what Paul is saying is very much like the slogan: “Bloom where you are planted.”
1 Corinthians 7 comes as close as any passage in the Bible to saying: “Bloom where you are planted.” But Jeremiah 17:7-8 says something similar,
But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
The phrase “bloom where you are planted” may be traced most directly to Saint Francis de Sales, who lived from 1567 to 1622. When he was the Bishop of Geneva, Saint Francis is recorded as saying this…
Truly charity has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence.[1]
Circumcision
Paul addresses people in four different circumstances and suggests they should bloom where they are planted. Paul applies this principle to Jews and non-Jews, to slaves and free people.
First let’s look at what Paul says to his fellow Jews as well as to Gentiles. He says that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. This is an amazing statement coming from a Jewish man of the first century. Circumcision was the key marker of who was a Jewish man and who was not. Yet, Paul says it is not important. What is important is keeping God’s commands.
Is Paul being funny? Isn’t circumcision a command? Perhaps Paul is making a humorous point. But behind it is a more serious note.
If Paul knew nothing else of Jesus’ teaching, he probably knew what Jesus said were the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Perhaps what Paul is saying is that obeying the two great commandments is what really matters. Circumcision is so much less important that it isn’t even worth considering.
So, Paul tells those who are Gentiles when they come to faith in Christ: don’t get circumcised. And he says to his fellow Jews who have come to faith in Jesus as Messiah: don’t get uncircumcised.
The latter statement raises the question: was this even a possibility? There is an interesting history behind this. We have talked before about Antiochus Epiphanes, the King of Syria who ruled Palestine from 175 to 164 BC. He tried to abolish the Jewish religion. He was trying to spread Greek culture everywhere. Part of that Greek culture was for men to engage in athletic exercises in the nude. This was the practice in the Greek gymnasium. Thus, Antiochus built a gymnasium in Jerusalem. Some young Jews in Jerusalem at that time wanted to fit into Greek culture and so they submitted to a surgical operation to conceal the fact that they had been circumcised (1 Maccabees 1:15). Paul may have this historical background in mind. But there is no evidence that Jews in Corinth in the first century were tempted to try the same thing.
Paul’s point is … stay the way you are. Be a Christian where you are, either as a Jew or a non-Jew. Bloom where you are planted.
Slavery
The next key distinction Paul mentions is slavery. What, from a Jewish perspective, were the key markers of human status? Circumcision was one. Gender was another. And slave or free was the third. Paul mentions all three in Galatians 3:28. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Wow! Paul says that none of these distinctions, that were so important in the first century, ultimately matter. All that matters is being in Christ Jesus.
If Paul were here today, he might say something like this to us. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, Gay or Straight, Rich or Poor. None of these distinctions ultimately matter. What matters is being in Christ Jesus.
The Bible is a collection of books that was appealed to by abolitionists as well as those who were in favor of slavery in years gone by. Here’s how I look at the issue… Paul does not condemn slavery outright. If he had, Christianity might not have gained traction in the first century. But Paul’s teaching here and elsewhere in the New Testament is so radical, one can see how it led, eventually, to abolition of the slave trade that so dominated the ancient world.
Yes, Paul is telling slaves in this passage to stay as they are, to bloom where they are planted. But he also adds: unless you can gain your freedom. If they can do so, Paul urges them to take the opportunity. Paul would later write to his friend, Philemon, to accept his runaway slave Onesimus back home, no longer as a slave, but as a dear brother. (Philemon 15-16)
Nonetheless, from Paul’s perspective, being slave or free is not the most important thing. Belonging to Jesus as his slave is what really counts. After all, we have been bought with a price. And what is that price? It is the blood of Jesus shed on the cross that has bought us, that has redeemed us from slavery to sin. Now we belong to Jesus and to him alone.
This passage, when read in context makes it clear that blooming where you are planted doesn’t mean staying stuck. The Bible in general, and Paul in particular, both encourage us to grow. There are times to bloom where we are planted, and times for us to be transplanted so we can bloom even better elsewhere. If we keep in step with the Holy Spirit, then we will know when it is time to stay planted and time to uproot.
There was a time when the Jews were in exile in Babylon when they were just itching to get home to Jerusalem. But Jeremiah sent word to them saying…
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)
At that time, the Lord wanted his people to bloom where they were planted… in Babylon. But a time came years later when he led them out of exile back to the Promised Land. As it says in Ecclesiastes 3…
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Paul addressed Christians at a time when he expected Jesus to return at any moment. If one expects the world to come to an end soon, long term programs of social reform, like the abolition of slavery, probably seem relatively unimportant.
Paul did think the Second Coming was imminent. He wasn’t thinking that the Christians of his time would have long to stay rooted in one place. And even Paul himself did not stay planted in any one place for very long.
The context makes clear that “Bloom where you are planted” is not an absolute principle to be applied always, no matter what. For example, most of the time, Paul was against Gentile converts to Christianity being circumcised. But on one occasion at least, he made an exception to his rule. Paul had his protégé, Timothy, circumcised, to win his fellow Jews to Christ. (Acts 16:3) Paul did not insist on Timothy remaining uncircumcised even though that’s the way he was when Christ called him. “Remain as you are” was not an absolute principle for Paul.
My mother used to quote to me the words of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators: “Keep your heart open and your bags packed.” That saying is a good complement to “Bloom where you are planted.” Both sayings have their validity, their time to be practiced, and a sense of rootedness in biblical wisdom. We will know when to do one or the other if we stay connected to Jesus through prayer.
Conclusion
Now, if you remember what the rest of 1 Corinthians 7 has been about, then you may be wondering why Paul takes this seeming rabbit trail at this point. You may be saying to yourself: “Wasn’t this chapter all about sex? If so, why does Paul talk about circumcision and slavery?”
Well, again, when we think of 1 Corinthians 7 in the context of Paul’s total teaching, we see how it all fits together. Again, Galatians 3:28 is the jigsaw piece that makes sense of the whole puzzle. Paul has been talking in 1 Corinthians 7 about how male and female relate in marriage. That leads him to think of the other two great distinctions in his world: the distinction between Jew and Gentile, as well as the distinction between slave and free. Paul’s bottom line is that none of these status markers ultimately matter. They are mere human distinctions. They are not the important thing in God’s eyes. Being a child of God through his Son Jesus Christ is more important than everything else.
How does this apply to you and me today?
To answer that question, let me ask another: What gives you a sense of worth? Being a husband or a wife? Being a parent or a grandparent? Being known by your profession, your job? These distinctions, as important as they may seem, are not ultimate. The only ultimate is God and your relationship with him. You are a child of God. That is what matters.
One of my favorite authors is Henri Nouwen. I receive a daily email from the Henri Nouwen Society. The email I received on the day I was writing this sermon was so appropriate. Nouwen says…
Personally, as my struggle reveals, I don’t often “feel” like a beloved child of God. But I know that that is my most primal identity and I know that I must choose it above and beyond my hesitations.
Strong emotions, self-rejection, and even self-hatred justifiably toss you about, but you are free to respond as you will. You are not what others, or even you, think about yourself. You are not what you do. You are not what you have. You are a full member of the human family, having been known before you were conceived and molded in your mother’s womb. In times when you feel bad about yourself, try to choose to remain true to the truth of who you really are. Look in the mirror each day and claim your true identity. Act ahead of your feelings and trust that one day your feelings will match your convictions. Choose now and continue to choose this incredible truth. As a spiritual practice claim and reclaim your primal identity as beloved daughter or son of a personal Creator.[2]
If you know deep in your heart that being a beloved child of God is the most important thing in the world then you will be content to bloom where you are planted as a child of our heavenly Father. If you are living as a beloved child of God, in close communion with your heavenly Father, you will also know, deep down in your soul, when it is time for you to move and be planted elsewhere for God’s kingdom and his glory.
[1] https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/is-bloom-where-you-are-planted-in-the-bible-origin-and-meaning.html
[2] Henri J. M. Nouwen, You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living, January 4.
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