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Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God is unavailable, but you can change that!

“For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God” (1 Corinthians 7:19). The apostle Paul’s relationship to the Law of Moses is notoriously complex and much studied. Difficulties begin with questions of definition (of the extent of Paul’s corpus and the meanings of “the law”) and are exacerbated by numerous problems of interpretation of the key...

distinctions and distinctive concerns of life in this present age (cf. 1 Cor. 7:29–31). The tension and relationship between the ‘already’ and ‘not-yet’ aspects of Christian eschatology must inform the moral and ethical thinking and behaviour of the believer. Only in this light can Paul say that circumcision is nothing. In one sense, Paul’s sentiments in verses 18–19 concerning the relative irrelevance of circumcision, despite the obvious contradiction of Genesis 17:10–14, and other texts, finds
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