Marriage among believers
7
📚 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 7:1 Paul taught elsewhere that it is also good for people to marry (1 Tim 5:14). He certainly would have agreed with Heb 13:4.⚜
2 📚Nevertheless, to avoid sexual immorality, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
7:2 The single life at Corinth at that time was good, but only if single believers could abstain from sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:13-18).⚜
3 📚Let the husband give to the wife the affection due to her, and likewise also the wife to the husband. 4 📚The wife does not have authority over her own body; the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 📚Do not deprive one another, unless it is with mutual consent for a time in order to give yourselves to fasting and prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you because of a lack of self-control.
7:3-5 Any marriage is headed for trouble when either husband or wife will not follow this principle.⚜
7:5 If they stay apart for a long time they may be giving Satan an opportunity to tempt them to sin with others.⚜
6 📚But I say this as a concession and not as a command.
7:6 He is probably referring here to v 2. He neither commanded believers not to marry nor to marry.⚜
7 📚For I wish that all men were even as I myself 📖. But each man has his own gift 📖 from God, one in this manner, and another in that.
8 📚Therefore, I say to the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they remain just as I am. 9 📚But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
7:9 Being aflame with desire, being always distracted with struggles against sexual temptations, is harmful to the spiritual life. And God wants His people to be spiritual and victorious whether they are married or unmarried.⚜
10 📚And to the married I give this command, yet not I, but the Lord: The wife must not separate from her husband; 11 📚but if 📖 she separates, she must remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And the husband must not divorce his wife.
7:10-11 What he has said before was not a command (v 6). Believers are free either to marry or not to marry. But having married they are not free to divorce each other. So he gives a command based on the teaching of Christ Himself – Matt 5:32; 19:3-9; Luke 16:18. Marriage between believers is a binding relationship as long as husband and wife live.⚜
12 📚But to the rest I say this (I; the Lord did not 📖): If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And the woman who has a husband who is an unbeliever, if he is willing to live with her, she must not leave him. 14 📚For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
7:14 Observe the way Paul uses the words “sanctified” and “holy” here. He uses it in the sense of being set apart. He is not saying that an unbeliever is cleansed from sin and becomes morally pure because of marriage to a believer. He means that such an unbeliever is set apart from unbelievers who are not married to believers – presumably God will deal with that unbeliever and with the children of such a marriage in a special way. Paul does not explain what he means by this, but we may reasonably think that the difference in treatment will be real and meaningful. On “holy” and “sanctification” see notes at Lev 20:7; John 17:17-19.⚜
15 📚But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave. In such cases a brother or a sister is not bound. But God has called us to peace 📖. 16 📚For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O man, whether you will save 📖 your wife?
17 📚But as God has allotted to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him live. And so I appoint in all churches.
7:17 We should not think Paul is speaking only about the situation in Corinth.⚜
18 📚Is any man called being circumcised? He should not become uncircumcised. Is anyone called being uncircumcised? He should not become circumcised.
7:18 Jews who became believers in Christ should not try to destroy the marks of their Jewishness, and Gentile believers should not think they must be circumcised (as some false teachers taught – Acts 15:1).⚜
19 📚Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. But keeping the commandments of God is the important thing.
7:19 In this Church era a mark in the body, or the absence of it, has no importance in God’s sight. Doing God’s will is the important thing. See Gal 6:15; Rom 2:25-29.⚜
20 📚Everyone should remain in the same situation in which he was called. 21 📚Were you called while you were a slave? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can become free, then use the opportunity. 22 📚For the one who is called by the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s free man. Likewise the one who is called while free, is Christ’s slave.
7:21-22 Slavery was very common in those days in the Roman empire, and many slaves believed in Christ. What should they do about their enslaved condition? Accept it with peace, gain freedom if possible (but not, of course, with violence), and recognize that Christ has made them free – free from bondage to sin, death and the law of Moses. Compare John 8:36; Gal 5:1. On the other hand those who are not physically slaves to men should recognize they are Christ’s “slaves” (Rom 6:16-22). In other words, believers in every condition of life should recognize that their relationship to Christ is the important thing and serve and glorify Him.⚜
23 📚You are bought at a price. Do not become the slaves of men. 24 📚Brethren, everyone should remain with God 📖 in the situation in which he was called.
7:17-24 In these verses Paul is speaking of marriage as well as the other conditions of life he uses as illustrations. God has “called” each one to a certain condition, and He has “assigned” each a certain place. The important thing for every believer is to know what God’s will for him or her is and remain obedient to it. There should be no grumbling and complaining about one’s lot in life, but a recognition that God’s will is best and a humble acceptance of it.⚜
7:24 The fact that this is the third time he has said this indicates its importance (vs 17,20).⚜
25 📚Now concerning virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful.
7:25 Verses 10,12.⚜
26 📚Therefore I think this is good in the present distress 📖: that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 📚Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you not bound to a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28 📚But even if you marry, you have not sinned by doing so, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless, such people will have trouble in the flesh, and I would spare you.
29 📚But this I say, brethren, the time is short 📖. So that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 📚and those who weep, as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy, as though they possessed nothing, 31 📚and those who use this world, as not misusing it. For this world’s present form is passing away.
32 📚But I want you to be without anxiety. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, 33 📚but he who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. 34 📚There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. 35 📚And this I say for your own benefit, not that I may put you under restraint, but to point out an excellent way so that you may be devoted to the Lord without distractions.
36 📚But if any man thinks he is not behaving properly toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of youth, and if it need be so, let him do what he wants, let them marry. He does not sin in this. 37 Nevertheless, he who stands firm in his heart, not being under compulsion, but having power over his own will, and having so determined in his heart that he will keep his virgin unmarried, does well. 38 📚So then he who gives her in marriage does well, but he who does not give her in marriage does better.
7:36-38 Paul wants it to be clear that he is not forbidding marriage to anyone. Even in those changing and difficult times he says believers had freedom to do what seemed good to them as they walked with God.⚜
39 📚The wife is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband has died, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, but only in the Lord.
7:39 Verse 10; Rom 7:2. Paul insists that believers should marry only believers. This is what he meant by “in the Lord”.⚜
40 📚But she is happier 📖 if she remains as she is, in my judgment. And I think that I also have the Spirit of God 📖.
7:1-40 Certain facts may help us to understand Paul’s teaching on marriage in this chapter. Paul believed in the full inspiration of the Bible (2 Tim 3:16), and would never have dreamed of contradicting anything that God had revealed in it. God Himself ordained marriage for the good of mankind (Gen 2:20-24; Matt 19:4-6). Paul himself elsewhere described the marriage relationship in beautiful and meaningful language (Eph 5:25-33). He did not forbid marriage to believers and knew that anyone who did so was deceived (1 Tim 4:1-3). He emphasized the freedom believers had either to marry or not to marry. He did not teach that being single was a holier state than marriage.
He was writing to Christians at Corinth who had written him a letter of enquiry. He was writing them in view of a “present crisis” (v 26), and the “time was short” (v 29). At such a time in his opinion it was better for those who were single to remain so, if they could (vs 8,9). Certain things Paul said here are general truths good for all time, others had to do with the particular circumstances in Corinth at that time.⚜