1 CORINTHIANS 7:23 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.”
You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. — The redemption language recurs (ēgorasthē = you were bought at cost), connecting to 6:20. The prohibition 'do not become slaves of men' (mē ginesthe douloi anthrōpōn) forbids selling oneself into bondage for any cause—social advancement, wealth, security. The believer's slavery is exclusively to Christ; no human claim supersedes that ownership.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 7:23
“You were bought with a price: become not bondservants of men.” This saying is addressed not to slaves only but also to free men. For it is possible for one who is a slave not to be a slave; and for one who is a freeman to be a slave. “And how can one be a slave and not a slave?” When he does all for God: when he feigns nothing, and does nothing out of eye-service towards men: that is how one that is a slave to men can be free. Or again, how does one that is free become a…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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