1 Corinthians 7:18
Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.
The verse teaches that one called while circumcised is not to become uncircumcised, and one called in uncircumcision is not to be circumcised. No change of outward status is required for salvation, for the ceremony whether performed or omitted has no saving power. What matters is keeping God's commandments.
Circumcision was an Old Testament rite that became a subject of dispute in the early church. It was practiced by converts from the Jews, while Gentile Christians were not circumcised. It was a local and temporary precept with an antitype, nailed to the cross, and it is not a continuing requirement nor a condition of Christian faith.
Circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing and have no saving power, while keeping God's commandments is what matters and remains essential. The commandments are something; they are not nothing and have not been abolished. This proves the ten commandments remain in force, so the seventh-day Sabbath is a perpetual institution to be kept by all men in all time. Circumcision belongs to the ceremonial law nailed to the cross, while the Sabbath belongs to God's eternal moral law.
The verse stands in a chapter giving plain teaching on the marriage relation for every man and woman. It carries the thought of consecration before God into married life. That consecration was especially needed then because of heathen customs on every side, and it is needed now because of looseness on all moral questions. The chapter's counsel applies to Christians who discover after marriage that they differ in faith: one already married to an unbelieving husband should remain with him and seek to win him through good living.
The chapter's teaching also covers conflicts over health reform when an unconverted husband requires cooking meat, tea, coffee, and everything contrary to health reform. A wife cannot be a conscience for her husband or compel him to obey in her place, because obedience is of the heart. The principle in the heart determines the character of the act. The chapter does not forbid bringing children into the world under proper conditions for their care, education, and training for immortality. But it condemns selfish yielding to appetite that has been the curse of the marriage relation since sin came into the world, from which those who are candidates for translation must be delivered before the close of probation.