ordinary christianity for the world.
Corinth, A Church Divided, 1 Corinthians 7:25-40
Poetic Praise
Persecution Preparation
1 Corinthians 7:25-40
The sense of verse 25 is the same as that of verse 12 in that Paul is not suggesting that people are free to disregard his advice. But rather that he is speaking about things that have not been covered in Scripture before.
The first concern is to discover who Paul is talking to and who he is talking about. The ESV translates the Greek word (parthenos) as betrothed. The ESV is the only version to vary from the well-established translation as virgins, and I see no good reason to translate the word as anything other than virgins.
But we also need to remember that the word virgins in Paul's day simply indicated unmarried females living in their father's home. Paul, no doubt writing a letter to be read to a gathering of men, was simply turning his attention from the special case of mixed marriages to the case of potential marriages & young girls. It was as if Paul said, "Gentlemen, let us now consider your unmarried daughters." No doubt, some of these daughters were engaged, others would have been involved in the various stages of the marital partner selection process. I suspect that the mate paring process was begun very early in the lives of children. All young women would have been very concerned about their future roles as wives, mothers and homemakers.
Again, Paul reminded his audience that they would not find similar instructions anywhere else in Scripture because he was in the process of applying what he knew about Scripture, and about Christ's role as Messiah, to their present circumstances. Previously he had dealt with the new circumstance of mixed marriages. Here Paul was addressing another unusual circumstance that First Century Christians had been thrown into. That circumstance was not only the gospel explosion that was growing in the wake of persecution, but the fact of persecution itself.
Verse 26 mentions a "present necessity" or "present distress" (KJV). He was not talking about life as it normally unfolds, not about ordinary circumstances involved in raising a family, but the extraordinary or special circumstances that surrounded the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. Consequently, what he had to say to and about unmarried girls during a time of the persecution of the church does not have the same application to Christians living during ordinary times, more peaceful times. He would go on to say that there would be great difficulty establishing a home and rearing a family during the period of great social upheaval and widespread persecution against Christians that was underway at the time.
He was also saying that the Christian faith is more important than family values. Ideally they work together, but when they don't, Christian faith trumps family values. Christians needed to be light on their feet, ready at a moment's notice to run and to hide. And having a family & babies and children in tow & would add to the stress and difficulties that would be involved. The same advice would apply to the Jews in Germany during the Nazi persecutions. It just wasn't a good time to try to establish a new Jewish family in Germany at that particular time in history.
Following his rule for all people in all churches (1 Corinthians 7:17), he recommended that people & daughters & remain in whatever state they were in. They should not draw attention to themselves by engaging in the legalities of marriage or divorce. They should avoid garnering public attention to themselves.
At the same time, Paul was well-aware that the complete avoidance of marriage was neither possible nor necessary. "But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned" (v. 28). He was not saying that it would be a sin to marry during such a time. Only that marriage would be difficult, more difficult than usual because of the growing persecution. Verse 28 goes on to say, "Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that."
Worldly Troubles
Exactly what kind of troubles did Paul mean? A more literal translation renders the phrase "trouble in the flesh" (LITV). The Greek word is sarx and refers to the meaty covering of the human skeleton.
There are two biblical purposes for marriage: 1) companionship and 2) progeny & children. Paul was referring to children. He said that during the time of persecution, children would be an additional burden for Christian families. During times of persecution Christians would need to move quickly, run fast and hide quietly & and children would add to the difficulties of doing these things. Paul was not speaking about sex, except that children are the natural product of sexual relations. He was not speaking about the experience of sex, but about the product & children.
Paul was aware that this recommendation would be both difficult to understand and difficult to accomplish. He went on, "This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short" (v. 29). What appointed time? The Greek word is kairos, which literally means the "right or opportune moment." The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. The former refers to chronological or sequential time, but the latter signifies "a time in between," a moment of undetermined duration in which something special happens. It refers to a period of time in which several dynamic events overlap to produce a particularly meaningful historical or personal event. The birth of Christ, for instance, was such a kairos moment in history.
In this case Paul was referring to the impending destruction of Jerusalem. He was aware of the winds of war & the political rhetoric, the growing persecution and the movement of troops. It was in light of these things that Paul spoke to these new Christians, and to the fathers of young girls and their impending "prospects," to use a word from a former age. The winds of change were about to sweep the establishment of Judaism from the stage of history. War was immanent, Roman soldiers were gathering outside Jerusalem.
Paul went on, "From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none" (v. 29). What in the world does this mean? Were husbands to ignore their wives? To walk out of their marriages? Not at all, that's not what Paul meant. But there is a sense in which Paul was recommending that husbands ignore their wives. Paul was trying to say as delicately as possible that the next few years or decades would not be a good time to have children. So, if you are married, if you have a wife, behave in this regard as if you do not.
But that was not all. Paul continued, "and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it" (vs. 30-31). Here Paul went on to say that these new Christians needed to make a small public footprint. They needed to avoid public events wherein they would be identified as Christians & funerals (avoid mourning), parties (avoid rejoicing) and other public gatherings or institutions.
The MKJV better translates Paul's advice about buying, "And they who buy are as though they did not possess" (v. 30). In other words, persecuted Christians should not try to preserve their possessions when it came time to run. They should not worry about the things they owned, because at a certain point they would be lucky to escape with their lives. And the same perspective must be applied to all of their dealings with the world; "and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it" (v. 31).
Why was Paul so concerned? "For the present form of this world is passing away" (v. 31). What did he mean by "the present form of this world?" While the KJV translated the word as fashion (schema), it would be a mistake to think that Paul was now talking about clothing styles or popular trends. He was talking about the scheme, the cultural order of the then current period of Jewish history, the Temple administration. It was the same thing that he was talking about in Hebrews & the closing of the Hebrew era and the opening of the Christian era. He was talking about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He was talking about the reason that the calendar started over at the birth of Jesus. Everything they knew would change in the light of Jesus Christ. The social and political system of Temple sacrifices would soon be gone, swept from the stage of history by the hammer of the Roman army by the hand of God. That was the present form of the world that was passing away. And it was passing away in the midst of turmoil and persecution. He was telling young Jewish families that if they clung to the past, to their traditions, to their property, their stuff, they would be swept away too. He essentially said, when the time comes drop everything and go.
And yet, in spite of the impending turmoil and persecution, Paul wanted them "to be free from anxieties" (v. 32). Jesus taught the same thing, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" (Matthew 6:25). "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27).
Paul went on to talk about how married people are concerned about pleasing one another, and that unmarried people are concerned about how to please the Lord, about holiness. Clearly, that period of history has passed away. His argument is a bit labored because he was trying to make a recommendation against worldly entanglements during the period of persecution, but at the same time he wanted to make it clear that entering into such entanglements was not to be considered sinful. No one argued more clearly or vociferously than Paul that God would finish what he had begun with their callings and conversions to Christianity, and that God would provide for and protect His people in the midst of this fallen and sinful world.
His message in this section is actually pretty simple: avoid worldly entanglements regarding marriage, children and business as much as you can. This will help to prepare you for the impending persecution. But don't go overboard by jumping into some hyper-survivalist way of life. Don't hoard weapons and food. Don't go off into the desert to live. Don't be afraid to marry and have children and do business. Just be aware that at some point in the near future, God may well separate you from everything you currently know. So, be ready to go with the flow.
In verse 35 Paul said that his purpose for having this little talk was not "to lay any restraint" upon them. He was not binding their freedom in Christ. Rather, his purpose was "to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord." He urged them all to be like unmarried couples in their devotion to God and to holiness, to purity of life and thought. They were not to abandon the ordinary practices of marriage and family life. But neither were they to abandon the practice of holiness, faithfulness and devotion. They were to bring the practice of holiness into their marriages, and not get distracted from God by their service to one another.
At the same time, Paul said in verse 36, if you get caught up in passion with your wife, don't worry. Don't be anxious about it. It's not a sin. Paul goes back and forth between these two perspectives in these verses.
In verse 37 he comes back to the theme of continence in marriage. The idea of being "firmly established in his heart" is to be steady and well-grounded, not to be dominated by one's feelings but to demonstrate equanimity in the face of temptation. He counseled them not to act under "necessity," not to be driven by perceived needs, not to be emotionally needy, but to have their "desire under control," not to be driven by desire. To have "determined this in his heart" means to have made a commitment to do or not to do a particular thing, to have the matter settled in one's own mind, and to be firm about it.
To have decided what? To be firm about what? "To keep her as his betrothed" (v. 37). To behave as if they were not yet married. To abstain from sexual contact. According to Paul, anyone who could do this, who could make this commitment and stick with it would "do well." It was a preferable course of action in the face of the impending persecution that was being released upon the Christian community.
So, Paul concludes in verse 38, those who heed what I have said will do well to marry. So, don't be afraid to marry. And don't worry if you have children. God will look after you.
But the better course of action is not to give your daughters to be married at all. Paul was hearkening back to Luke 21:20-24, where Jesus said, "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
Paul was simply being faithful to the teaching of his Lord. So, if you take anything away with you today, see the context of these verses and understand that Paul was not arguing for perpetual Christian celibacy. He was not arguing that the single lifestyle was preferable to marriage & not at all. He was simply telling the gathered fathers that when God's hammer fell on Jerusalem in the coming years, pregnant and nursing mothers would fare poorly. It was not a new teaching, but simply reflected the teaching of Jesus about the end of Jerusalem.
Paul wrapped up this talk to fathers of young women with two comments. First, he said that he believed that the young women would be happier, that they would have a better life, if they remained single, at lease until the winds of change settled down. Second, he told them that he believed that this advice was given by the authority of the Spirit of God. That is, he believed himself to have been inspired.
There are two elements of his inspiration. One pertained to the instructions he gave to young families. The other pertained to the impending destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus had predicted it, and Paul said that it was eminent, that it would be upon them within that particular generation.
And it was. Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians while he was in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, about 55 a.d. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 a.d.
