1 Corinthians 7:24

“Brethren, let every man wherein he was called, therein abide before God.”

The principal idea is not that of abiding before God in that state; it is abiding in that state, and that before God. By these last words, Paul reminds his readers of the moral act which has the power of sanctifying and ennobling every external position: the eye fixed on God, walking in His presence. This is what preserves the believer from the temptations arising from the situation in which he is; this is what raises the humblest duties it can impose on him to the supreme dignity of acts of worship. Hofmann seeks to give to 1 Corinthians 7:24 a different meaning from that of 1 Corinthians 7:17; 1 Corinthians 7:20, by referring the two pronouns ᾧ and τούτῳ to the person of the Lord. But the parallelism with 1 Corinthians 7:17; 1 Corinthians 7:20 is obvious at a glance; and the repetition is easily justified by the importance of the principle enunciated.

In fact, this principle has been of incalculable importance in the development of the Church. It is by means of it that Christianity has been able to become a moral power at once sufficiently firm and sufficiently elastic to adapt itself to all human situations, personal, domestic, national, and social. Thereby it is that without revolution it has worked the greatest revolutions, accepting everything to transform everything, submitting to everything to rise above everything, renewing the world from top to bottom while condemning all violent subversion. Whence has the apostle derived this principle in which there meet the most unconquerable faith and the most consummate ability? “I say unto you by the grace given unto me;” so Paul expressed himself when opening a series of purely practical prescriptions, Romans 12:3. Wisdom from on high did not less direct Paul the pastor than Paul the teacher. And then it is probable that he was not unacquainted with the Master's homely saying: “And she put the leaven into the meal, until the whole was leavened.” The Holy Spirit had given him the commentary on this short parable.