First Corinthians Chapter 7
Originally posted Tuesday July 15
First Corinthians Chapter
7:1-16 Directions Concerning Marriage
The problems
that face the Corinthian church are more than spiritual rivalries that have led
to inappropriate judging of others, sexual immorality and disputes over
legal issues. There are also questions of how one lives the every day life of family,
the human condition and marriage. While in Ephesus Paul received questions from
the church related to these topics. They are an interesting insight
into the members' spiritual understanding as they try to harmonize
two distinct religious and sociological cultures. Marriage would be a
major issue. In the Corinthian church there are mixed marriages of
believers and non believers, often with children involved. There are unmarried
and widowed persons wondering about their standing with respect to marriage and
remarriage. There are serious divisions which have led to family dissolution
and divorce. This is a sensitive issue given Jesus' stand against
divorce and the more lenient view among Gentiles. Also there are questions from
the circumcised and slaves wanting to know their new religion's teaching on
their status.
The
most important question was the overall issue of marriage. This would have
affected essentially all of the adult members and their families in the
community. The question is framed in an apparent teaching someone other than
Paul has left with them, probably one of the itinerant prophets
that traveled from church to church proclaiming their latest "word
from the Lord" (Acts 11:27-30).
Most of these prophets were of the apocalyptic variety, stressing the nearness
of the Parousia (Jesus' return)."It is well not to touch a woman,"
they were told. The members want to know if this is from the Lord or an
opinion. Paul's reasoning may leave something to be desired in the realm of
advice for a good marriage. Marriage is better (acceptable) than
succumbing to sexual desires apart from marriage. He recognizes the
biological imperative of hormones! Once married the couple is to be
sensitive to each other's needs which he frames in an archaic notion of
conjugal "rights." His concept of marriage is based on a mutual
sharing of authority over each other's body which frowns on "depriving one
another" except for religious reasons (not headaches?). But even in such
situations they must beware that such self imposed separations are not too
lengthy. He seems to be thinking of a case in which one partner is taking a
brief religious sabbatical and the concern that the other partner may
not be so patient as to remain celibate too long. He believes
such connubial separations joined by a lack of self control will give
Satan an opportunity for temptation.
With
respect to the unmarried and widows who have not remarried, he thinks it is
better that they remain unmarried. Again, it is a matter of self control of
one's passions which is central to such a decision, "For it is better
to marry than be aflame with passion." Elsewhere Paul will write of the
roll of widows in the community.
Addressing
marriages of believers with unbelievers, Paul (and not the
Lord) suggests that remaining married depends upon the consent of the
unbeliever. Paul has in mind an established marriage in which either the
husband or the wife has become a believer while the other has not. He
hopes the relationship will withstand a mixed marriage thereby avoiding divorce.
If divorce does happen, the believer is free to remarry, for "it is to
peace that God has called [us]." He adds the serendipitous
possibility that by staying in the marriage the believer might save the
unbeliever for the unbelieving spouse is made holy by the believer and so their
children will be holy as well.
First Corinthians Chapter
7:17-24 The Assigned Life
Paul
recognizes that the community consists of the circumcised and uncircumcised,
free and slave. He understands their "location in life" is
the life the Lord has assigned and to which God has called them.
Therefore they should remain as they are. He rejects any need for the
Gentile to be circumcised and any submitting to the practice of epispasm
(de-circumcision) which many Jews underwent during the Hellenistic influence of
the previous four centuries. He reminds both Jew and
Gentile that circumcision counts for nothing with respect to one's
salvation. It will be their obedience to God's commandments that will matter.
As
with circumcision, the slaves are not to be concerned about changing
their status as slaves. After all, as slaves they are "freed
person[s] belonging to the Lord," just the same as any non-slave belongs
to the Lord, a slave of Christ. Paul does not mandate his position on remaining
in slavery. He concedes the possibility that some will be able to gain their
freedom and he does not think it wrong to do so. Rather, he exhorts the slave
to use the present time well until freedom is granted. He does not explain
what that might mean, or how the slave might act differently in the interim.
Perhaps we are to conclude, based on Paul's opinion of staying within one's
status, that the soon-to-be-freed slave could honor the Lord with his life
as a freedman as much as he did as a slave. That may be the heart of his
message on both questions - circumcision and slavery.
First Corinthians Chapter
7:25-40 The Unmarried and the Widows
Many
New Testament scholars point to this passage as evidence that First Corinthians
contains more than one letter which has been place together. Here Paul
"returns" to the subjects of marriage and widowhood. The material is
in response to further questioning from Corinth. Apparently eighteen months
with Paul as a teacher has left a few loose ends. As one issue is resolved side
issues arise. He begins by addressing the community's virgins whom he supposes
to be all the women that have never been married, a reality he cannot be sure
of in a Gentile city known for its temple prostitution and otherwise loose
sexual proclivities. He offers his opinion - a trustworthy one,
of course. His opinion is rooted in his apocalyptic outlook which tells him the
end is near and the time of the end will be filled with distress. He
characterizes this approaching time as the "present necessity;"
meaning the absolute necessity to be ready and unflinching in one's faith.
"Remain as you are," he writes. If married, stay married; If not, do
not seek to be. But if one does marry there is no sin in doing so but one must
thereby be prepared for distress "in the flesh (severe
temptation)." The world will be as if it were upside down and inside out,
for "the appointed time has grown short," and the very
"form of this world is passing away." As he envisions the coming
reign of God he sees the new age, the kingdom of God, as the time when all
normal pursuits, positions and human entanglements will be utterly changed. Nothing
and no one will be the same as before. It is in this light that he can write
the litany of opposites: from now on let even those who have wives or mourn or
rejoice or purchase goods or deal with the world act as if the opposite were
so, for none of these things will matter when the time arrives.
To
keep one's eye on the present world is a mistake. To seek the things of the
present, such as marriage, is to lose sight of the future and be filled
with anxiety. By example he points to marriage: those who are married set their
minds on the demands of married life while those who are not set their minds on
the affairs of Christ. In the approaching hour one needs to have an undivided
mind and "unhindered devotion to the Lord." It is easy for us to
dismiss Paul's compression of time as if the critical moment were as a sign in
the sky. He has an intense certainty which escapes our understanding. We do not
live as if we were at the intersection of the ages. History is
littered with failed predictions of an imminent cosmic cataclysm. Perhaps
it is as it should be. Perhaps we were meant to focus on the present, to do the
best we can to live faithfully now, one day at a time, loving kindness, doing
justice and walking humbly with our God. Perhaps Jesus was correct, that today
has enough concerns to keep our attention and we should leave tomorrow to God.
We will probably get more accomplished if we do.
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Note
Some
social and religious historians have been highly critical of Paul's silence on
the institution of slavery in the Roman world. It has been
estimated there were as many as 2.7 million slaves in the Roman
Empire of the first century. They were the engine of wealth much as they were
in our country. Think of what would have happened to the Christian movement had
Paul called for the abolition of slavery or he had instigated a slave
rebellion, even a quiet "slow down" of work? Paul did not support
slavery. He understood a more basic reality: all human beings are equal in
status in God's mind just as all were equal in the church. All Christians were
known as slaves of Christ, owing their lives, obedience and
eternal destiny to him, not to any human master. Paul called for the slave
to be as much a Christian in slavery as he or she would be as a non-slave. In
our modern world we strive for advancement. We change careers, residences and
even spouses to climb the ladder, not quite sure where it truly leads. Of
course, there is nothing wrong with advancement which allows the use of our
talents, skills and gifts. However, as Christians we are obliged to be prepared
to answer the question of our conscience: are we practicing the highest values
of our faith wherever we are, however low and however high? Does our success
project the best of what it means to be a Christian or does the world in which
we live hardly notice the one whose servant we pledged to be on that day
standing before the Altar of God?
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