1 Corinthians 7:19 - Exposition

Circumcision is nothing. The Jews regarded it as everything; and to make this assertion at so early an epoch of Christian history, required all the courage of St. Paul, and proved his grand originality. He was the first to prove to the Jews that circumcision had become a thing intrinsically indifferent, which might, under some circumstances, be desirable (as in the ease of Timothy), but could never be reckoned among essentials. And uncircumcision is nothing. The same sentence occurs three times in St. Paul, summing up, as it were, the liberty which it had cost him endless peril and anguish to achieve. Each time he concludes it with a weighty clause to show what is everything: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God" ( 1 Corinthians 7:19 ); "... but faith which worketh by love" ( Galatians 5:6 ); "... but a new creation" ( Galatians 6:15 ). But the keeping of the commandments. So St. John says, "Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments."