Called as a Slave, Free in Christ
…at times, though they had received the faith, they were seeking to be made complete in the flesh, just as some in Galatia did, whom the inspired Paul rebukes, saying, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made complete in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).
So the way had to be opened wide for them by a clear and most vivid proclamation of the truth: that circumcision is nothing when it lacks the other commandments of God, and in the same way uncircumcision is nothing unless it is adorned with a life worthy of the Gospel (compare 1 Corinthians 7:19). It is fitting, then, that the one who has been called should remain in his calling, in whatever state he may be (compare 1 Corinthians 7:20).
He then passes, of necessity, to the need to drive off once more, as it were, another slander against the divine proclamation. For there was a spirit of slavery in those under the law; but the decree of the Gospel says that the Spirit of adoption is given to those who are willing to believe, and that it no longer calls them to slavery but to the dignity of the free (compare Romans 8:15).
By the same Cyril, from the fourth tome of his work on the Epistle to the Corinthians.
“Were you called as a slave? Do not let it trouble you” (1 Corinthians 7:21). Since some who had been counted worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit were shaking off the yoke of slavery according to the flesh, he writes in another place too, “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Galatians 5:13). Here also he wins them over, as it were, speaking with great grace: “Were you called as a slave? Do not let it trouble you; but even if you can become free, rather make use of it” (1 Corinthians 7:21).
That is: even if you were called through faith into free sonship while you still bore the yoke of slavery according to the flesh, even if you have become a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), rise above faint-heartedness; you will find that the toil you bear in slavery is not without its reward. For the Creator knows our nature as free, since it was made so by him; but a kind of greed, slipping in somehow over the course of time, has ruined the beauty of freedom.
Those who have suffered this must by all means throw off the burden of this evil, since Christ is refashioning all things to what they were in the beginning. For what is in him is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and there is neither slave nor free, but he himself is all and in all (Colossians 3:11). Indeed Isaiah cried out beforehand about the state of the life we await, the life that is to be, and about the equality that is found with God, saying, “And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as his master, and the maidservant as her mistress” (Isaiah 24:2).
So, he says, even if you could become free, rather make use of it; for, as I said, the yoke is not without gain for those who have shown good will and have lived rightly under it. That slavery according to the flesh has now been laid on some out of greed will do no wrong at all, so long as freedom is kept for all alike, in equal manner and measure, before God, who judges what is just and weighs our affairs in holiness.
Besides, he says, since we are human beings, it is not possible for us to escape the name of slavery. For everything that has been made is a slave, and all that has been called into being is subject to the divine scepter. So the slave is Christ’s freedman, and the one called to freedom is surely a slave as well (compare 1 Corinthians 7:22), as the psalm says, “for all things are your slaves” (Psalm 119:91).
Yet the guide into the mysteries shows in another way too that those saved through Christ are helped by him. That is why he says, “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23). For we were, beyond dispute, bought with a price, since Christ, the Savior of us all, paid his own blood for us; we have been rescued from the greed of the devil and from the cruelty of the demons, and we have been called to freedom through Christ (compare Galatians 5:13). So, as those who have been bought and who owe their own life to the One who purchased them, “do not become,” he says, “slaves of men.”
We do not say that he is urging them to leap out of slavery according to the flesh; rather he teaches this, and very rightly: not to be slaves to those who try to carry off…
Greek
ὅτε παραδεξάμενοι, ἐπετελοῦντο σαρκὶ, καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ τῶν ἐν Γαλατίᾳ τινὲς, οἷς καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος ἐπιπλήττει λέγων "Ἐναρξάμενοι πνεύματι νῦν σαρκὶ 9 ἐπιτελεῖσθε;" ἔδει τοίνυν σαφεῖ καὶ ἐναργεστάτῳ κηρύγματι τῆς ἀληθείας αὐτοῖς ἀνευρῦναι τὴν ὁδὸν, καὶ ὡς ἡ περιτομὴ οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν ἄλλων ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστερημένη· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀκροβυστία οὐδέν ἐστι μὴ εὐαγγελικῷ βίῳ κεκοσμημένη. Προσήκει τοίνυν τὸν κεκλημένον ἐν τῇ κλήσει μένειν ὅπως ἂν ἔχοι σχήματος· μέτεισι δὲ ἀναγκαίως ἐπὶ τὸ χρῆναι πάλιν δυσφημίαν ἑτέραν μονονουχὶ ἀποσοβεῖν τοῦ θείου κηρύγματος· πνεῦμα μὲν γὰρ δουλείας ἦν ἐν τοῖς ὑπὸ νόμον· τὸ δὲ θέσπισμα τὸ εὐαγγελικὸν, τῆς υἱοθεσίας τὸ πνεῦμα τοῖς πιστεύειν ἐθέλουσιν ἐνίεσθαί φησιν, καὶ οὐκ ἔτι καλοῦν εἰς δουλείαν, ἀλλ' εἰς ἐλεύθερον ἀξίωμα. ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ∆ ΤΟΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ. ∆οῦλος ἐκλήθης; μή σοι μελέτω. ἘΠΕΙ∆Η τινες τῆς τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἀξιούμενοι χάριτος, τὸν τῆς κατὰ σάρκα δουλείας ἀπεσείοντο ζυγὸν, ἐπιστέλλει μὲν καὶ δι' ἑτέρων "Μόνον μὴ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν εἰς "ἀφορμὴν τῇ σαρκὶ," καταγοητεύει δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ διὰ τούτων αὐτοὺς ἀστειότατα λέγων ∆οῦλος ἐκλήθης; μή σοι μελέτω· ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ δύνασαι ἐλεύθερος γενέσθαι, μᾶλλον χρῆσαι· τουτέστι κἂν εἰς τὸν τῆς δουλείας τῆς κατὰ σάρκα ζυγὸν ἐπηρτημένον ἔχων ἐκλήθης διὰ τῆς πίστεως εἰς ἐλευθέραν υἱότητα, κἂν εἰ τῆς θείας φύσεως γέγονας κοινωνὸς, ἄμεινον ἔσο μικροψυχίας, οὐκ ἄμισθον εὑρήσεις τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ δουλείᾳ πόνον· οἶδεν μὲν γὰρ ἐλευθέραν τὴν φύσιν ὁ δημιουργός· πεποίηται γὰρ οὕτως παρ' αὐτοῦ· πλεονεξία δέ τις παρεισδραμοῦσά πως κατὰ καιροὺς τῷ τῆς ἐλευθερίας κάλλει διελυμήνατο. δεῖ δὲ δὴ πάντως τοὺς πεπονθότας, ἀποφορτί 274 σασθαι τὸ κακὸν, μεταστοιχειοῦντος ἅπαντα πρὸς τὸ ἐν ἀρχαῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ· καινὴ γὰρ κτίσις τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ οὔτε δοῦλος οὔτε "ἐλεύθερος ἀλλὰ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν" αὐτός. καὶ γοῦν ὁ Ἡσαΐας τοῦ προσδοκωμένου καὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος ἔσεσθαι βίου τὴν κατάστασιν καὶ τὴν ἰσότητα τὴν παρὰ Θεῷ προανακέκραγεν λέγων "Καὶ ἔσται ὁ λαὸς ὡς "ὁ ἱερεὺς, καὶ ὁ παῖς ὡς ὁ κύριος, καὶ ἡ θεράπαινα ὡς ἡ "κυρία." οὐκοῦν κἂν εἰ δύναιό φησιν ἐλεύθερος γενέσθαι, μᾶλλον χρῆσαι· καὶ γάρ ἐστιν, ὡς ἔφην, οὐκ ἀκερδὴς ὁ ζυγὸς τοῖς ἀγαθῇ κεχρημένοις εὐνοίᾳ καὶ ὀρθῶς ἐν αὐτῷ διαγεγονόσιν· ἀδικήσει δὲ τὸ σύμπαν οὐδὲν τὸ νῦν ἐκ πλεονεξίας ἐπεῤῥίφθαι τισὶ τὴν κατὰ σάρκα δουλείαν, ἔσται ἂν ἅπασιν ἐν ἴσῳ τρόπῳ καὶ λόγῳ σώζηται τὸ ἐλεύθερον παρά γε τῷ τὰ δίκαια κρίνοντι καὶ τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ὁσίως ταλαντεύοντι Θεῷ. ἄλλως τε, φησὶν, οὐκ ἂν εἴη τῶν ἐνδεχομένων ἀνθρώπους ὄντας ἡμᾶς τὸ τῆς δουλείας ὄνομα φυγεῖν· δοῦλον γὰρ ἅπαν ἐστὶ τὸ πεποιημένον καὶ τοῖς θείοις ὑποφέρεται σκήπτροις πᾶν ὅπερ ἐστὶ κεκλημένον εἰς γένεσιν· ὥστε καὶ ὁ δοῦλος ἀπελεύθερός ἐστι Χριστοῦ, δοῦλος δὲ πάντως καὶ ὁ κεκλημένος εἰς ἐλευθερίαν, καθά φησιν ὁ ψαλμός "ὅτι τὰ "σύμπαντα δοῦλα σά." Ἀποφαίνει γεμὴν ὁ μυσταγωγὸς καὶ καθ' ἕτερον τρόπον ὠφελουμένους Χριστῷ τοὺς δι' αὐτὸν σεσωσμένους· ταύτῃ τοί φησι Τιμῆς ἠγοράσθητε, μὴ γίνεσθε δοῦλοι ἀνθρώπων· ἠγοράσμεθα μὲν γὰρ τιμῆς ὁμολογουμένως τεθεικότος ὑπὲρ 275 ἡμῶν τὸ ἴδιον αἷμα τοῦ πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ, ἐξῃρήμεθα δὲ τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου πλεονεξίας, τῆς τῶν δαιμονίων ὠμότητος, κεκλήμεθα δὲ πρὸς ἐλευθερίαν διὰ Χριστοῦ. οὐκοῦν ὡς ἠγορασμένοι καὶ τῷ πριαμένῳ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ὀφείλοντες ζωὴν, μὴ γίνεσθέ φησι δοῦλοι ἀνθρώπων. καὶ οὔτι φαμὲν ὡς τῆς κατὰ σάρκα δουλείας ἀποπηδᾶν ἀναπείθει, διδάσκει δὲ μᾶλλον ἐκεῖνο καὶ μάλα ὀρθῶς μὴ δουλεύειν τοῖς ἀποφέρειν