<p>7:18 <em>Was anyone called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has any been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised- </em>It was not possible for the circumcised to become uncircumcised. But Paul uses this example in order to underline the extent to which he so strongly feels that we should retain the position we were in when baptized. He sees that position, whether it be our marital status or the nature of our marriage, or our social situation as slaves, as all part of the gift of the Spirit we received. Those things are gifts, intended for us to use in our path towards eternal life at the end of the process. &quot;Every man hath his proper (Gk. <em>idios</em>, his very personal) gift of God...&quot;. The ideas are again linked in Rom. 11:29: &quot;The gifts and calling of God are without repentance&quot;. This idea of us each being given a gift at the time of our conversion goes back to the parable of Lk. 19:13, where each of us, Christ's servants, are given a gift to work with. The goods of the Father are divided between the sons, for them to use as they think best (Lk. 15:12). &quot;The Kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who <em>called </em>his own servants, and <em>delivered</em> unto them his goods&quot; (Mt. 25:14). Note how the <em>calling</em> of the servants and the giving them the gifts / goods are connected. The idea of called servants is alluded to later, in 1 Corinthians 7:22. We have each been given &quot;gifts&quot; at our conversion. Our 'calling' is related to our situation at the time of our conversion. There is a parallel between God distributing gifts to each of us, and Him calling us (1 Corinthians 7:17). This is to be expected from the allusion back to the parables; the gifts are given to each of us at our conversion or 'calling'. &nbsp;</p>