Remain or Repent; Which is it?
It has become popular to use the expression, “God made me who I am,” as an excuse toward all sorts of behaviors the Church teaches against. “God doesn’t make mistakes,” is another excuse. I say excuse, because we never want to remain how we are if we don’t like who we are.
Brethren, in whatever state each was called, there let him remain with God. Now concerning the virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is well for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a virgin marries she does not sin. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
1st Corinthians 7.24-35
If God didn’t want us to change through repentance, He wouldn’t have commanded us to “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3.2) Christ wouldn’t have taught, “sin no more,” (John 8.11) if He wanted us to remain ‘how we were’ in our sin.
Why then did Saint Paul suggest we remain in the state in which we were called? If we were in a state of sinfulness when we were called to Christ, why would anyone want to remain? The point Saint Paul is making in this chapter of 1st Corinthians is to focus our attention on Christ.
Since Saint Paul believed Christ would return ‘any day’ he felt compelled to help people focus on what mattered most. This chapter of his letter isn’t a blanket excuse to remain in sin. Rather, it is a challenge to focus on what really matters.
Being married vs single; being circumcised or not, being a slave or free; none of which will keep us from Christ. Saint Paul is challenging us “promote good order and to secure [our] undivided devotion to the Lord.”
Our preoccupation with ‘being who we are’ is not focusing on Christ. Insisting that Christ ‘made us who we are,’ and therefore shouldn’t need to repent, isn’t focusing on Christ. When we are Christ-focused, we understand we are not living as Christ wants, so we willingly repent.
Repentance doesn’t mean giving up who we are. Repentance understands we fall short of who God wants us to become. Repentance helps us see who we can be by God’s grace, rather than who we want to be in our selfish heart.
So, if you are already living a holy life as God commanded, by all means remain how you are. If you are like the rest of us and have fallen “short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3.23) then repent with us. Instead of remaining in sin, remain in Christ through repentance.
