NOTES for Co1 6:17-20

Modern people do not much like feeling that they are merchandise. Was I bought? Am I someone else's property? These words sounded somewhat different in a slave-owning society, where buying and selling people was an everyday practice. But one day it might happen that someone was not bought but redeemed; after this, the person ceased to be a slave or merchandise and gained freedom. The apostle Paul speaks of such an event and asks us to value what has been accomplished for our sake and glorify the One who accomplished it. The best gratitude is not to return to slavery to sin, but to conform in body and spirit to God's standards for the life of a free person.