From a letter written by the apostle Paul,
with Sosthenes,
to believers in Corinth and everywhere
Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price: be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.-1 Corinthians 7:18-24***Abraham (Abram the Hebrew), Nachor (Nachor), Haran, and Sarah (Sarai) were born to Terah. Lot and Milcah were born to Haran. Bethuel the Syrian (Aramean) was born to Nahor and Milcah. Ishmael was born in Canaan to 86-year-old Abraham (Abram the Hebrew) and Hagar, Sarah's maidservant. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord God gave him the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham circumcised 13-year-old Ishmael, and Abraham and all the males throughout Abraham's household and property immediately circumcised. Isaac was born to 100-year-old Abraham and 90-year-old Sarah. On the 8th day after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised Isaac. Laban the Syrian (Aramean) and Rebekah were born to Bethuel. Forty years after Isaac was born, he was married to Rebekah. Fraternal twin sons Esau (Edom) and Jacob (Israel) were born to 60-year-old Isaac and Rebekah. Esau was Isaac's favorite, and Jacob was Rebekah's favorite. In Padan Aram, Haran, Laban's oldest daughter Leah became Jacob's 1st wife, and Laban's youngest daughter Rachel became Jacob's 2nd wife. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and daughter Dinah were born to Jacob and Leah. Dan and Naphtali were born to Jacob and Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant. Gad and Asher were born to Jacob and Zilpah, Leah's maidservant. Joseph was the 1st son born to Jacob and Rachel, and Rachel and Joseph were Jacob's favorites. During Jacob's 20th year in Haran, he began journeying home to Canaan with his family, servants, animals, and possessions. Near Bethlehem, Benjamin was born to Jacob and Rachel, and Rachel died. Joseph was 17 years old when his brothers sold him to merchants traveling to Egypt and led Jacob to believe that Joseph was killed by a wild beast, and Joseph was 30 years old when Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, proclaimed him second-in-command. Jacob was 130 years old when he moved with his family from Canaan to Egypt. In Egypt, Jacob proclaimed Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons born to Joseph and his wife Asenath, to be his own sons, and the tribe of Joseph became the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Ephraim. Miriam and her younger brothers Aaron and Moses were born into the tribe of Levi to Amram and Jochebed. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83 when the Lord God sent them to speak to the Israelite elders and Pharaoh. The elders believed the words of the Lord God spoken by Aaron. Pharaoh did not believe, and he made work for the Israelites more difficult. After the Lord God brought the 10th and final plague upon Pharaoh and Egypt, Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron to get the Israelites and their animals and go worship the Lord God. Moreover, Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron to bless him. Before Moses and Aaron led the Israelites, and those with them, away from Egypt, across the divinely parted Red Sea, into the desert wilderness of Shur, and the desert wilderness of Sin, the Israelites asked for and were given an abundance of valuable goods, fulfilling the words that the Lord God spoke to Abraham. In the desert wilderness of Sinai, in the region of Mount Sinai, the Israelites heard the voice of the Lord God proclaim the Ten Commandments to them, and the Lord God began giving Moses judgments, statutes and laws for the Israelites, and the Lord God made a covenant with the Israelites, and the Israelites said they would obey the words of the Lord God. When Moses was upon Mount Sinai 40 days and nights with the Lord God, the Lord God gave Moses commands about the offering willing Israelites were to bring, and the Lord God described to Moses and showed Moses the likeness of the tabernacle, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the other sacred items the Israelites were commanded to make, and the Lord God told Moses that only Aaron, and Aaron's sons and the sons born to their descendants were to serve the Lord God as priests. Meanwhile, the Israelites thought they were abandoned and told Aaron to make gods to lead them. Aaron told the Israelites to bring him their gold earrings, and Aaron made a golden calf that the Israelites sacrificed to and worshiped. Before Moses returned to the Israelites, the Lord God spoke to Moses about the Sabbath day and Sabbath day laws and punishments and the Lord God gave Moses 2 stone tablets whereupon were written, with the finger of God, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord God told Moses about the golden calf. When Moses saw the golden calf and the actions of the Israelites, he threw down the 2 stone tables, and burned and ground the golden calf, and questioned Aaron, and asked the congregation a question. The Levites, the Israelites in the tribe of Levi, gathered alongside Moses and killed approximately 3,000 of their idol worshiping brethren, according to the command that the Lord God gave Moses. During the 40-year journey to Canaan,the Promised Land, Miriam the prophetess died and was buried in Kadesh, in the desert wilderness of Zin. Upon Mount Hor, 123-year-old Aaron the high priest died. When Moses went upon Mount Nebo, the Lord God showed Moses the Promised Land, and 120-year-old Moses the prophet died, and was divinely buried. Joshua, Moses' aide and successor from the tribe of Ephraim, led the Israelites across the divinely parted Jordan River and onto the land that the Lord God promised to give to Abraham, and Isaac, and to Jacob, and their descendants. In Gilgal, the Israelite males born during the journey were circumcised, according to the command that the Lord God gave Joshua. Over 1,300 years after 110-year-old Joshua died, and was buried in his tribe's portion of the Promised Land, the angel Gabriel appeared to elderly, childless Zechariah (Zacharias) the priest and told Zechariah that his prayer was heard, and told him about the conception, birth and purpose of the son who would be born to Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth (Elisabeth). The angel Gabriel told Zechariah to name the child John, and said the birth of John was going to cause rejoicing and gladness, and John would be great in the eyes of the Lord, and would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) while in Elizabeth's womb, and would bring many Israelites back to the Lord, and prepare people for the Lord. During the 6th month that elderly Elizabeth was carrying John the Baptist in her womb, the Lord God sent the angel Gabriel to Elizabeth's relative Mary, a virgin. The angel Gabriel said Mary was favored with grace, and the Lord was with Mary, and Mary was blessed among women. The angel Gabriel told Mary not to fear, and said Mary had favor with the Lord God, and Mary would give birth to a Son, and Mary was to name the Son Jesus, and Jesus, the Son of the Highest (the Most High) would be conceived of the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb. Joseph was the craftsman pledged to wed Mary. After Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb when Mary was a virgin, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph when Joseph was asleep and told Joseph, in a dream, not to be afraid to receive Mary as his wife, and explained that the child in Mary's womb was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and Joseph was to name the Son Jesus, and Jesus will save his people from their sins. Months after John the Baptist was born into the tribe of Levi to Zechariah and Elizabeth, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem into the tribe of Judah to Mary and her husband Joseph when Mary was a virgin. On the 8th day after John the Baptist was born, he was circumcised, and on the 8th day after Jesus the Christ was born, Jesus was circumcised. During the 12th year after John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ were born, Joseph and Mary found Jesus in Jerusalem, in the temple of the Lord, listening, asking, understanding, and answering. Approximately 30 years after John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ were born, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Jesus having prayed, the heavens tearing open, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and lit upon Jesus. The Lord God in heaven audibly acknowledged his Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert wilderness. Jesus fasted 40 days and nights and was tempted. Afterwards, Jesus was tended to by angels, and Jesus went to the area near John the Baptist, and John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, and testified that Jesus is the Son of God. In Galilee, Jesus told specific Israelite men to follow him, and Jesus began to preach, teach and perform miracles among the Israelites. Jesus revealed that:
-he had not come to abolish the law or the prophets, he had come to fulfill.
-all the prophets and the law prophesied until John the Baptist, and the law and the prophets were until John the Baptist, and from that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed and everyone forces their way into it.
-the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus the Christ.
-the great and foremost commandment is to love the Lord God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the 2nd greatest is to love one's neighbor as one's self, and there is no greater commandment.
Less than 3 1/2 years after Jesus was baptized, Jesus and his 12 disciples and apostles were at the Last Supper together, and the disciple and apostle Judas Iscariot left to betray Jesus. Jesus gave the other 11 disciples and apostles the commandment to love each other as he loved them. Jesus told the 11 disciples and apostles that if they loved him they would keep his commandments, and they are his friends if they do what he commands. Shortly thereafter, Jesus was arrested, crucified, buried in a tomb, and resurrected. On the 40th day after Jesus was resurrected, Jesus was returned to heaven. Paul (Saul) was an Israelite and a Pharisee from the tribe of Benjamin and did not believe Jesus to be the Christ. Throughout Jerusalem, Paul persecuted and imprisoned Israelites who believed Jesus to be the Christ of God. When Paul was journeying to the synagogues in Damascus, Syria, to find, bind, and take to Jerusalem any Israelite believers he found, Paul and those with him saw a light from heaven flash around them. Paul heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him, and Paul spoke to Jesus and obeyed Jesus. In Damascus, Paul was baptized. From thenceforward, Paul the apostle journeyed and wrote divinely inspired letters, teaching Israelites and Gentiles (uncircumcision), people not born into the Israelite tribes), the good news of Jesus the Christ and everlasting life. Paul revealed that:
-believers are not under law, believers are under grace,
-Christ Jesus is the end of law for righteousness to everyone believing,
-the one loving the other has fulfilled the law,
-those who bear one another's burdens fulfill the law of Christ,
-the entire law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. A person loving another person has fulfilled the law, and love does no evil to the neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers 13:1-14:45, 20:1-29, 26:1-27:23, Deuteronomy, Joshua 1:1-4:24, 23:1-24:33, Judges 1:1-2:23, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra 1:1-11, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts 1:1-34, 6:1-8:4, 9:1-28:31, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
Reference Information
abide = meneto/meno = remain, continue
called = eklethe/kekletai = kaleo = summoned, invited
care = meleto/melo = object of concern or anxiety
circumcised = peritetmemenos/peritemno = to cut around, to cut off
rather = mallon = all the more, more than
servant = doulos = slave, enslaved, bondman or bondwoman
uncircumcised = epispastho/epispaomai = to draw over, eliminate the mark or appearance of circumcision
use it = chresai/chraomai/chre = take advantage, make use of
Reference Scriptures
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.-1 Corinthians 6:19-20
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:-1 Peter 1:15-19
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