1 Corinthians 7:18 Commentary and Bible Study

You must appreciate that in this verse, the apostle Paul speaks literally of circumcision, but he also speaks metonymically of circumcision; that is to say, he uses it as a kind of chief rite of all the rites of the Jews. So he is not really only referring literally to circumcision; he is referring to everything, all the ceremonial, including, let us say, the food laws, and so on. ‘Is any man called being, by practice, Jewish? Let him not cease to be that’: it refers to everything. ‘Is any called as a Gentile in uncircumcision without the ceremonies of the ancient law? Let him not adopt them – circumcision and all that goes with it, because these things are nothing.