8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

Flight on the Sabbath Day

When Christ told his disciples to pray that their flight (from the impending perdition of Jerusalem) should not be on the Sabbath day, it was for a reason similar to that which made him advise the same petition concerning the winter.

"Pray that your flight be not in the winter, nor on the Sabbath day:"

not in the winter, because of the hardship incident to flight in such a season; not on the Sabbath day, because of the danger belonging to a day when the Jews were specially helpless at the hands of the enemy, who knew their obligation to rest on that day, and accordingly increased their own activity and vigilance.

It was not on account of the sacredness of the day that Jesus prescribed non-flight thereon; for he taught the doctrine that it was lawful to do well on the Sabbath day; to rescue a daughter of Abraham from disease, and, therefore, any number of them from danger.

The day was truly sanctified under the Edenic dispensation, and its sanctity protected with special barriers under Moses; but we have passed in Christ from under both, as we have from the sacrifices pertaining to both. We stand in him and on his commandments, and he has not enjoined the observance of the day, but rather, by his apostles, discountenances it.—(Rom. 14:5–6; Col. 2:16.)

The Christadelphian, Oct 1874

19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.

People are sometimes moved to approach God from a desire for the good they hope to secure for themselves, without recognizing other elements involved. God certainly offers good--the highest good it is possible to conceive. He proposes to confer the perfection of well-being, and invites men to avail themselves of it: "whosoever will ": but men who come without respect to the conditions of the invitation, will find themselves repelled at last, like the crowd who followed Christ for the sake of the loaves and fishes, which he more than once provided in connection with his public ministrations.

Consider what those conditions are as involved in circumcision. Literally, circumcision was a cutting-off of the flesh of the foreskin, in token of the accepted covenant of God, to choose Abraham's posterity as a people for himself (Gen. 17:9-14). In virtue or efficacy, it was "nothing" in itself, except as a kept commandment (1 Cor. 7:19).

Its significance was everything; and this was double: first (as a token of the covenant) that rejected man had no relation to God except by Divine choice; and second, that this choice was based upon submission to the Divine will, even when involving the sacrifice of human pleasure.

Circumcision deprived the subject of it of the means of the destructive self-indulgence common among the Gentiles, and therefore always carded with it this hint or meaning, that the acceptable rule of life with God is the "denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts", in accordance with His commandments: that obedience and not gratification is the ground of acceptance with Him.

The common thought of the world ignores this feature of the Divine work. Human impression and human feeling are allowed to govern all conceptions of what is right in man. The will of God is forgotten. In fact, people do not generally realize that such a thing as the will of God exists.

They reason as if the universe existed by them and for them. They leave out of account the fact that God has made all things for Himself, and that man himself is but a permitted form of His power, whose part as a sinner is to bow in deepest reverence before Him, and to enquire in bated breath what He would have him do.

Law of Moses Ch 16

20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.

In the World But Not of It:—A Difficulty for Solution

The line is discernible; but requires a wide view to be taken of the mission of the truth. That mission is the same now as in the apostolic age. It comes to a world lying in wickedness and asks a people out of it, for a certain future purpose.

It does not require them to emigrate like the Mormons to a separate country in which to work out life on heavenly principles. It does not invite them to hope for the renovation of the world at all at the present stage. It recognises the world as a world of sinners. hopelessly beyond cure till the Lord take it in hand; and asks them to recognise it too, and to accommodate themselves to the situation and time.

"I pray not," said Jesus in prayer to the Father, "that Thou wouldst take them out of the world." and when Paul explains the bearing of the instruction he had given them about not keeping company with fornicators, he says

"Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, &c. . . . for then ye must needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, &c."

Now here is the problem: how can men, called out of the world to be a holy people to the Lord, sustain their holiness while continuing in the world, as that same calling requires them to do?

For instance, the truth calls a Lydia, at Thyatira, a seller of purple (Acts 16:14), in which occupation, she is called upon to minister to the pride of life as indulged by her lady patrons.

Or it calls an Aquilla, with his wife Priscilla, who as tent makers in Rome, are accessories to the equipment of the army. Or it calls a slave who is bound in various ways to minister to a master's lusts,—to accompany him to the idolatrous temples, to gladiatorial encounters and wild beast exhibitions in the amphitheatres, or to the revelries of the Roman patricians.

How were these and all such to act? Was Lydia to give up her purple selling? Aquilla to abandon tent-making for the army? the slaves to refuse obedience because all these things were related to the occupations and institutions of an evil world?

On this point Paul's judgment appears to have been asked. His answer is

"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called, being a servant (slave), care not for it, but if thou mayest be free use it rather . . Let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God."—(1 Cor. 7:20.) "Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God."—(Col. 3:22.)

This is highly reasonable. Out of evil, God is bringing good. We live in and by this evil world in which we are born, and we shall be saved by our deportment in those things arising out of our connection with it.

We are not responsible for the evil. This is provisionally allowed of God, and will be instrumental in developing good ends. Our individual part is all we are responsible for—not the evil of the work to which our individual part may stand related.

If it had been our lot to be born Roman slaves, subsequently enlightened by the truth, we should have been in the way of duty in carrying wine to the banquet-hall, though the wine we carried was to be consumed on the lusts of sinners.

To join in the revel, we should not be at liberty. Our part would be limited to the act of carrying. We should not be responsible for the use to which our master turned our time. We should be responsible for the manner in which we discharged our duties—faithfully or otherwise: or for the way we spent any time that might be our own. If we used such time to attend tables, we might have to answer for it.

Or had the truth found us sellers of purple, we should have been in the way of duty in executing an order for a rich lady. Our part would be to give a good article for a righteous price, and to use our gains in the Lord's service. We should be responsible, not for the use the robe might be turned to, but for the way we used the money we made by making it.

We are at liberty to make honest contracts of service without being responsible for the use to which the product of our honest services may be turned by the evil world in which we live. Thus in the various trades and occupations of our own day, we need not concern ourselves with the uses things are put to, so that our part in the matter be honourable and legitimate.

The Christadelphian, Mar 1872

21 Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.

‭Paul reminds the Saints in Rome that they were all the servants of sin once; but thanks God in their behalf, that they had been freed from sin, and were now the servants of righteousness, "having obeyed from the heart A FORM OF TEACHING, into which they were delivered" (Rom. 6:17).

‭They obeyed a form of teaching which emancipated, liberated, or set them free, from the lordship of Sin. This was Paul's mission -- to invite men to a change of masters. He addressed himself to free men and slaves, all of whom, whatever their political or social position, were in bondage to the devil or sin.

‭He did not invite slaves to abscond from their fleshly owners: on the contrary, he told men to remain in the several callings of life in which they were when they first heard the truth.

"Let every man," says he, "abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called, being a slave? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather."

‭Eureka 1.1.2.

Devonport

We have a soldier belonging to the 2nd Queen's Own, meeting with us. He is very attentive and intelligent. Suppose he applies for immersion, should it be administered? He is a sworn man to use the sword.

[Cornelius was in the same position, yet was immersed, and so far as we know, abode in the calling wherein he was called, in which, however, as an obedient disciple, he would do nothing forbidden by the Lord. If a man can be free it is better (1 Cor. 7:21), but if he cannot, let him like a certain believer of whom we heard during the civil war in America, who, being drafted, marched but never fought, and came out of the war unhurt.—Editor.]

The Christadelphian, May 1873

The agitation of slavery - [abolitionist movement]

àFinally, then, let abolitionist and slave-owner, bond and free, all slaves to the god of the world, hear what Paul says to those of them who accept the gospel call:

"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a slave—δουλος? Care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that in the Lord is called, being a slave, is a freed man of the Lord: likewise, he that is called, being free, is a slave of Christ. Ye are bought (both bond and free) with a price. Be not ye slaves of men, "in bondage to their traditions." "Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God"—1 Cor. 7:20:

and leave the outsiders and carnally-minded theorists of the world, to battle out their controversies among themselves. The man in Christ has no sympathy with the crotchets and fallacies which agitate and perplex the man in Satan.

Leave Satan to complicate his own affairs, which cannot be improved, and are only defiling to those believers who mix themselves up with them. Satan will rule till the Lord come, and then, but not till then, he will be bound, and vanish from the scene.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Sept 1860

This, of course, related to the slavery practised among the Romans, but the principle applies to the social relations of the present day. ...In the world it is the guiding star and the mainspring. The truth shows its power nowhere more strikingly than when it governs this: when it can make a man indifferent on the subject of his social position.

It contains this power, though all men feel it not. Industriously courted and distinctly realised, in the daily reading of the word, and in that communion with the Father, through the Son in prayer which it engenders, it is able to induce the uncarefulness prescribed by Paul.

He had evidently been asked how a knowledge of the truth affected a man's relations as master and servant. Must a believer cease to be a master? Or if a slave, must his brethren buy him off? The answer to both questions is, No, not of necessity. If a man called by the gospel be a slave, let him continue in that position, unless he can command his freedom, and then, of course, he is at liberty to choose it "rather."

If he be unable to deliver himself, he is to "abide" in his position with resignation, not, however, as a matter of iron-handed duty, but in recollection of the fact that though a slave, he is Christ's freeman, and, therefore, will obtain his liberty in due time.

There is great power and consolation in this thought, which may be applied to every lowliness that is incident to the believer in this present probation. In Christ we are made free. This is true in a very real sense We may not at all times realise it; we may be like the Israelites in Egypt, who, for anguish of spirit at their burdens, hearkened not unto Moses, who had come to deliver them; but it is nevertheless a fact that fully justifies the practical application that Paul gives it.

A man being Christ's free man is a great reason why he should patiently endure the humiliations and bondages that belong to this life. Our present probation is only for a season, and that a short one. It will assuredly come to an end.

The toil, and the monotony, and the weariness of body and mind, as we grapple with the duties of our position, are each day lessening in their duration. The days hurry by, and hasten us to the freedom that awaits us in Christ; and any day the change may burst upon us like a lightning flash; whether we think of the coming of Christ or of that dissolution in death that awaits us all in the ordinary course.

Sunday Morning 55, The Christadelphian, June 1874

23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

He invited Sin's servants to become Yahweh's servants upon the principle of purchase; so that, in addressing those who had abandoned the synagogue and temple for the house of Christ, he says to them, "Ye are bought with a price." They were "not their own," being bought bodily and spiritually; "therefore," said he, "glorify God with your body and with your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 7:23; 6:19,20).

When a man's body and spirit become another's property, all property in himself is surrendered to the purchaser. All that he used to call his before he was sold, is transferred to his owner; and, if allowed to retain it, he must use it as the steward of his lord.

Redemption is release for a ransom. All who become God's servants are therefore released from a former lord by purchase. The purchaser is Yahweh; and the price, or ransom, paid, the precious blood of the flesh through which the Anointing Spirit was manifested. It is therefore styled, "the precious blood of Christ": as it is written in the words of Peter to his brethren, saying,

"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conduct paternally delivered; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish" (1 Pet. 1:18.)

Eureka 1.1.2.

24 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.

The Office of A Constable in the Truth

"Would you fellowship a brother holding the office of constable?"—L. A.

Answer.—Not if he taught rebellion against the Lord by contending that a brother might lawfully thrust at another with a cutlass, or knock a man down with a truncheon, or kill him in self-defence. If, being found by the truth in a constable's office, he accepted and strove to obey the prohibitions against personal violence imposed by the truth, seeking peacefully to exercise the harmless duties of his office, duty and mercy would require his recognition at the hands of the brethren, leaving the Lord to judge the doubtful part of the case.

A brother joining the police-force would be in a different position. He would go into the snare with his eyes open, and would rightly forfeit the approbation of his fellow-believers, and incur the possible condemnation of the Lord.

The office of police-constable involves the employment of personal violence. In this respect, it is on a footing with the calling of a soldier. Our duty in relation to both must be determined by the more general question of whether the servants of Christ are permitted to use force in either the punishment of evil doers, or the protection or vindication of themselves. For if they are not allowed to do this for themselves, it cannot be that they are at liberty to do it for others, as in the case of a soldier or policeman who is hired.

But the truth may find a man a soldier or a constable. What is he to do? If he can leave the service or the force, let him do so, and find his livelihood in ways more consonant with the calling wherewith he has been called. If he cannot, let him at least, in his calling, act on the principle of absolute harmlessness which belongs to the present Lamb-stage of our heavenly vocation. He will be disqualified for some of the duties of his office, but it may be that in the kindness of God, he may never be called upon to perform them.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1898

29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;

The conjugal relation

And alluded to also by Jesus when he says-

"If a man come to me, and hate not . . . his wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

It seems at first sight impossible to reconcile this with the love that a man is enjoined to bestow on wife and children. It is one of those sayings that are apt to make a man feel as certain disciples felt who left Christ, saying of another matter,

"This is an hard saying: who can hear it?"

Persistent dwelling in the word will open this as well as other dark matters. The allusion to a man's "own life" shows the sense of Christ's words. A man is not to value any human thing on a level with the things appertaining to Christ.

The things that are seen are all temporal-short-lived and inferior: the things of Christ, not yet seen, are all eternal and lofty and glorious. Christ asks us to hate the one by comparison with the other. He asks us to put him first-before wife and child and life.

This is reasonable.

The family relation is ephemeral, an adaptation to the needs of a transitory phase of the world's history. Enlightened husbands and wives will recognise this, and while loving each other as is meet they will each give to Christ the higher place.

Seasons 1.85.

There is, therefore, every reason for Paul's remark: "I would have you without carefulness," that is, carefulness in the sense of worldly anxiety. Peter tells us to "Cast all our care upon God, for He careth for us." Faith will confide and good sense will abandon useless fret. We have the authority of Jesus for saying that

"the Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask him;"

and that the benevolence spontaneously exercised towards the birds of the air and the grass of the field will not be invoked in vain by those who fear him.

Marriage, comfort, worldly possessions, &c., are all very well in their place; that place is at the footstool of the truth.

"But this I say, brethren, that the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use this world as not abusing it."

It may trouble some to think of husbands and wives "as though they had them not," but the trouble will give way before enlightened apprehension. Wives and husbands in the Lord will not be separated though their relation will be changed. They will be mutually dearer than ever, only a thousand others will be just as dear.

The circle of select friendship will be widened out to take in a great many. These being approved of the Lord and glorified, will be as true and beloved as the dearest friend we ever clasped to our bosom.

We can, therefore, take in Paul's thought easily, and treasure it too, that the present time being a short time and a provisional time, it is wise and needful that we hold loosely all its relations and institutions, in prospect of the day when the perfect being comes, that which is in part will be done away with—swallowed up in the

"exceeding and eternal weight of glory"

that shall be revealed for all such as hunger and thirst after righteousness, and walk in the narrow way that leadeth unto life.

Sunday Morning 55, The Christadelphian, June 1874

31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

The present form of this age is passing away

We do not learn of God's matters in the clouds. There is nothing in the sky, or sea, or landscape, or town, or business, or home, or body, or blood, to tell us of them: quite the contrary. We know of them only through the word preached as read; and as faith cometh by hearing, so faith continueth by the same instrumentality.

...When we achieve the victory, in a constant appliance to the word of Christ, our position is one of surpassing interest, even if of present pain. We realise where we are, what we are about, and what great things are ahead, by the power of which we can reconcile ourselves patiently to present disadvantages, and rightly look on the scene which is passing around us.

We stand on an elevation, so to speak, looking down on the busy world around. We see the crowd of fashion, resplendent in the varied beauties that wealth has generously lavished, cultured in all the superior mannerisms and intelligences of the natural man, and mutually attentive and loving.

It is a pretty picture, albeit we know it is mostly hollow; but the truth enables us to say, "We can afford to endure this picture. We are not of these people. We cannot be of them, because their gaynesses and their comforts are not mixed with God".

We may feel that we should like to share their amenities, their sociabilities, their pleasant company, their good graces; but it is not possible. There is a gulf between us. It is a pity: we feel it; we are sensible of the deprivation to which the truth subjects us in the isolation it imposes, but we know it is only for a season.

This is the day of Sin's sons and daughters. The day of God is at hand, and, with it, such company will be brought to light as will make Fashion's ranks appear meagre and poor. This company is ours, if we are content, like the Head of it, to be, while in the world, not of it.

Sunday Morning 60

The Christadelphian, Nov 1874

32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

Without carefulness

that is, carefulness in the sense of worldly anxiety. Peter tells us to

"Cast all our care upon God, for He careth for us."

Faith will confide and good sense will abandon useless fret. We have the authority of Jesus for saying that

"the Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him";

and that the benevolence spontaneously exercised towards the birds of the air and the grass of the field will not be invoked in vain by those who fear Him.

Marriage, comfort, worldly possessions, are all very well in their place; that place is at the footstool of the truth.

‭Going To Extremes

‭The man who goes to an extreme in saving money, becomes more and more saving. The man who goes to extreme in developing business, becomes more and more devoted to that object, and increasingly indifferent to everything else.

‭The man who goes to extremes in careful provision for family exigencies, becomes more and more careful and anxious, until the words of Christ, which tell us to be without carefulness, cease to have the least meaning for him. All these classes of extremists -- and they are legion -- sink at last into a state of spiritual turptitude, in which all sensibility is gone.

‭The present world, which they have loved, has slain them, while they continue to think they are alive.

‭Bro Roberts

35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

‭ Attend upon the Lord without distraction.

The truth concerning Christ is simple and perfectly glorious. He is offered unto men for justification unto eternal life, on condition of faith in the good that God has testified of him—that he was the son of God, brought into the world to take away sin, God laying upon him the iniquities of us all; that he was raised from the dead, and having immortality conferred upon him, has become the High Priest of his own house, to make intercession for their sins, according to the will of God; that in course of time he will return again, to set his own house in order, to sit in the high places of the earth, and to give his people honour, glory, and immortality in the kingdom which he will establish.

These are the simple, easily-comprehended, and delightful tidings, good news, or gospel, concerning Christ preached for the salvation of the Gentiles. Any system of teaching that runs away from the real thing, or that has a tendency to distract attention from or lessen the importance of "first principles," is but vain jangling, and which brings no nourishment, or cheer, or good, but blights the spiritual man.

Milk, not vinegar; beef, not pickles, is the demand of a healthy appetite. Vain jangling is like whiskey toddy; exhilarating to those who have no better way of spending their time, but destructive to the constitution. We have seen illustrations of vain jangling in our own time—men taken up with crotchets which they have magnified into importance; starting discussions which have no practical bearing whatever, and upon which even no certain judgment can be arrived at.

Such a policy is ruinous in relation to the truth. The atmosphere created by vain jangling is highly unfavourable to spiritual health. The atmosphere, and those who create it, ought carefully to be avoided. There is only one sensible and healthy course.

Considering the important business that we are engaged in—the business of being saved—considering the difficult object we are striving to accomplish—the difficulty of laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth most easily beset us, and running with patience the race that is set before us—the difficulty of purifying ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and conforming to the will of the Father in all things—

I say, considering the importance and the difficulty of the great task that all have in hand, who have named the name of Christ, how exceedingly unwise and dangerous are these vain janglings in which people exercise themselves about things which they cannot understand, and which even understood, have little to do with the purpose we have in hand.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1869

36 But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.

Let them enter in convenant of marriage - 1 Cor. 7:36–37

relates to the long betrothal preceding marriage which is the custom in the east. This betrothal dates back to early youth, and in some cases, to childhood. Paul had recommended the indefinite continuance of this betrothal state, as better in the present distress of that time (verse 26) than entering the married state: but he here says that if circumstances in any sense require the marriage consummation there is no sin (Heb. 13:4): let them marry.

The notion that he countenances impropriety would only be cherished by such as seek an excuse for sin. Fornication is not to be named among saints. The whole chapter is founded on this axiom.

Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband—verse 2.

The Christadelphian, April 1875

39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

There is nothing to prevent marriage with a Chinese woman or any other female of the‭ ‬genus homo,‭ ‬provided she be a believer.‭ ‬It is all a matter of taste.

‭ ‬It is not usual for brethren to officiate in marriage,‭ ‬except in Scotland.‭ ‬It is unnecessary,‭ ‬however,‭ ‬to submit to clerical manipulation,‭ ‬as the law in Britain allows the registrar of the district to perform the ceremony.‭

How it is in China,‭ ‬you will know best.

TC 10/1887

A brother would not be "justified in engaging himself to a Christian young lady who is looking into the truth," unless she had actually come to a decision in its favour, and made up her mind to yield the necessary submission in baptism.

Your question presupposes that you recognise marriage with the unbeliever to be unlawful. If so, you must recognise promise as equally unlawful, for the promise of a son of God is binding. Wait till she decides.

"Looking into the truth" as a rule leads to its acceptance, but it is not certain, and where would you be if after you had given your promise, she should decide against the truth? In a false and embarrassing position that would create difficulties for yourself and everybody else.

The Christadelphian, April 1898

Paul doubtless interdicts believing widows from marrying unbelievers (1 Cor. 7:39), and there can be no question that the interdict applies equally to virgins, and indeed all who have put on the name of Christ.

It would be a strange incongruity if the obligation to marry believers rested only on widows. The restriction, as applicable to all believers, is founded on principles of the commonest, yet highest, wisdom, and no wise man or woman will disregard it.

In marrying an unbeliever, a believer mortgages to the world half (and sometimes more than half) of herself or himself which belongs wholly to Christ, and takes a yoke round the neck which is liable to sink the wearer at last to death.

The Christadelphian, June 1874

40 But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

Paul,‭ ‬when allowed by permission to give his own judgment,‭ ‬guided by the Spirit of God‭ ‬was not outside the action of inspiration,‭ ‬but only subject to a different form of it from what he was under when the Spirit spoke by express commandment.

The Christadelphian, April 1886