1 Corinthians chapter 7
Fall 2024
Key Text: “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2).
Summary
In response to letters from Corinthian believers about various marital issues, the apostle Paul stood strong on the sacred institution of marriage. He reaffirmed that marriage is the first and foremost pillar of society built on God’s masterplan for a life-long union between one man and one woman, with each spouse owing total marital fidelity one to the other.
Paul was not married. He stated that, because of persecution against Christians, marriage was unadvisable. The apostle stated, however, that marriage is unquestionably God’s provision for the natural desires of human nature. He clarified that celibacy is not God’s command, but it is commendable to those who have the gift of singleness, especially when used in Christian service. From his delicately phrased instructions regarding the marriage bond, we see how purity of life was at the top of the apostle’s mind.
A necessary history to understand Paul’s teaching on singleness
The reader of 1 Corinthians 7 may find it seemingly strange that Paul could discourage marriage. It may even appear contradictory when we discover that the same apostle taught the Ephesian Christians that marriage is a picture of Christ and His church, for which a man is to leave his father and mother, cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh (Ephesians 5:31). It is also strange because Paul wrote to Timothy that to forbid marriage is a mark of apostasy (1 Timothy 4:30).
There are, however, good reasons for this seeming conflict in Paul’s instructions on marriage. His advice to hold off on marriage or to choose a life of singleness must be read in the light of the persecution that Christians were either already facing or were soon to face. This perspective underlies his reference to “the present distress” (1 Corinthians 7:26). Throughout the first century Christians faced various waves of terrible and bloody persecution. Paul counseled that in such dangerous times marriage was not advisable.
While living in western countries, where many of our laws and customs are founded on Christianity, it’s not easy for us to realize the danger that Christians faced in the first century. Though living in the Roman Empire, Christians renounced idolatry to be separate unto the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:17). This was radically life-changing because idolatry permeated so much of Greek and Roman culture. Daily life involved eating meats offered to idols. Idols of Greek or Roman gods were on open display in homes and at feasts and even worn on clothing or put on as jewelry. Trades and professions including the military, architecture, education, manufacturing, and the athletic games required open loyalty to the gods and often by publicly offering sacrifices to idols before witnesses. Life as a Christian required daily courage.
Corinthian Christians were called to separate themselves from the lewd sins of fornication paraded in public. The temple at Corinth boasted of having a thousand prostitutes to whom soldiers, sailors, and others resorted with shameless pleasure. At Corinth, fornication polluted every fiber of society. By refusing to participate in all forms of idolatry and uncleanness, Christians stirred up the bad blood of die-hard Greek and Roman citizens. Christians, out of conscience, who rejected the commands of their pagan fathers, were disowned. Christians who dared to refuse orders from their slave-masters were often sold off into extreme hardship, or they lost their lives on the spot.
And because Christians often met for worship under the cover of darkness, they were accused of forming secret societies to commit heinous crimes. They were even labelled cannibals because they celebrated communion with bread and wine, which they referred to as the body and blood of a Godman. Because of their faithfulness to Christ and His commands, Christians were looked upon as a menace and counted as rebels against the Roman Empire. In the eyes of Roman citizens, a Christian was a criminal.
Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians around AD 57. In AD 64 vast areas of the city of Rome burned to the ground. The Emperor Nero blamed the Christians and hunted them to their death. Thousands of believers in Christ were tarred and burned as torches to light Nero’s palace gardens or were dragged to public execution. We know that Paul became a martyr for Christ, beheaded at Rome, a short time before Nero’s death in AD 68.
It is with these times of persecution in mind that we must read Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians 7. He wrote to single men, “I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be… Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife” (1Corinthians 7:26–27). The same perspective must be given to Paul’s words to widows, “But she is happier if she so abide” (1 Corinthians 7:40).
Today, a father or a pastor would give such advice in a time of war, or in a major societal crisis. But let it be known that in every other way, the apostle Paul stood strong for marriage as a union between one man and one woman: God’s sacred prescription for purity of life and for stability of society. So should we!