Lessons From 1 Corinthians – Lesson 6
We are not going to go thru all of chapter 7. If we had some engaged people in the room we would go thru it all, but we don’t want to ignore it either. So I will only hit the highlights.
1 Cor 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
Paul will clarify the It is good for a man not to touch a woman a few verses later. He is talking about how a man can be more attuned to following Christ if he can devote 100 percent to doing that, and how that is not possible if a man is married.
Because if a man is married, then he hast to spend some time, and rightfully so, working to please his wife. It would be wrong for a husband not to!
Some, for example Catholics, misunderstand verse 1 because they do not take in in the context of the surrounding verses. It is not hard to understand, Paul makes it clear in the same chapter.
1 Cor 7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
Let every man. That would include every man. This clearly teaches against what Catholics do with priests and monks.
1 Cor 7:3 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
Marriage is to be a union of respect, it is to be a partnership where respect, and kindness, and care goes both ways. Benevolence means kindness and giving. And it is due. They have earned it. Both the husband and the wife have it rightly coming.
Verses 4 thru 6 is about how sex should not be used as a weapon in the marriage. Or a tool of manipulation.
Verses 7 thru 17 are about circumstances of staying together even when the spouse is lost, and about what to do after a death or a divorce.
For example it is better for widows to remain widows and be dedicated full time to the Lord, but verse 9
1 Cor 7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
Verses 13 – 17 It is better to stay in a marriage with a lost spouse because in time the spouse might get saved.
But if the lost spouse leaves, then verse 15.
1 Cor 7:15 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
Verses 18 thru 24 have to do with the statement made in verse 20
1 Cor 7:20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
If you are a circumcised Jew then abide there and if you are uncircumcised just stay that way. Abide there.
Whatever your state in life use it to walk with God.
1 Cor 7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
1 Cor 7:24 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
And verses 25 thru the end Paul again covers what is clearly stated in verse 32 and 33
1 Cor 7:32 He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
1 Cor 7:33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
Some men have a need for a wife, which is a good thing, and those men can do more in their service for Christ with a good helpmeet by their side. And even though they have to spend time taking care of their wife, they will do more for Christ with her than without her.
Some men (I think very few) do not need a wife, like Paul, and they can put 100 percent of their time serving the Lord.
Every man is not the same and God does use different men differently. It is a mistake to take these verses to teach that all preachers need to be single. Another proof of this is elsewhere the Bible says that one of the requirements of being a pastor is to be husband of one wife.