The Greek noun apeleutheros refers to a person who has been freed from slavery — a libertus or freedman in Roman society. This person occupied a middle status between slave and freeborn citizen. Paul uses it to illustrate spiritual freedom in Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 7:22, Paul performs a stunning reversal of social status: 'the one who was a slave when called to faith is the Lord's freedman (apeleutheros); similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ's slave.' In Christ, the highest human freedom becomes voluntary slavery to love, and the deepest human bondage becomes divine liberation. The apeleutheros image disrupts every social hierarchy — in the kingdom, what matters is not one's legal status but one's relationship to Christ the Liberator.