You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.
Parallel translations
- KJV Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
- BSB You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
- ESV You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
- NKJV You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
- NASB You were bought for a price; do not become slaves of people.
- NLT God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
You were purchased at the costly price of Christ's blood, so do not become enslaved to the demands and opinions of men. Your ultimate allegiance belongs to your Redeemer.
Overview
The "price" is Christ's atoning death, which makes every believer God's own possession (cf. 1 Cor 6:20). Because of this redemption, believers must not surrender their consciences and souls to human masters or worldly pressures. Whatever one's earthly station, the deeper reality is being owned by Christ, and that ownership sets the limit on every other loyalty.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Cor 6:20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
- 1 Pet 1:18–19knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
- Titus 2:14who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
- Lev 25:42For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
- Rev 5:9They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
- 1 Pet 3:18Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
- Acts 20:28Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
- Gal 2:4This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;
- Matt 23:8–11But don’t you be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 7:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.