1 Corinthians Chapter 7
By Pastor Neil
Reflections on 1 Corinthians Chapter 7
1 Corinthians chapter seven is one of those chapters that always make me scratch my head. What in the world am I to make of this chapter? I think I struggle with it because I simply do not know enough about the social structures of the people in the Corinthian church to untangle Paul’s instructions to these people about marriage. What do we make of instructions about how a man should treat the woman to whom he is engaged when the bottom line is that the best course of action is not to get married? He suggests that if a man is unmarried he should not seek a wife but, if they do get married it’s not a sin. What’s that about? I think that Paul is struggling with several important issues in the earliest church that are very hard for us to understand.
For instance, what was the point of getting married if Christ was coming back in the very near future? Or, if the best thing is to be about evangelistic endeavors with all of one’s time and strength, how would you ever take care of a wife and family as you should? Paul even says at one point “I wish that all men were as I am.” (v. 7) Well, was Paul married or not? Later in the chapter (v. 32) Paul seems to say that being unmarried is best of all since single men can give the Lord all of their time and energy without feeling guilty about a wife who is being ignored or neglected.
The more you read the chapter and try to make it fit today’s world, the more likely you are to just lay it down and just walk away, hoping that the next chapter is more understandable. One of the most interesting verses is verse 12. How fascinating it is to see Paul admit that the “commands” he is giving are from him and not the Lord! Apparently Paul is owning up to the fact that he thinks he’s got things figured out and even though he doesn’t have any teaching from the Lord about these matters, he’s willing to go out on a limb and suggest how to sort out some of the things that were troubling the Corinthian people in the church. Some ideas are his (v. 12) and some from the Lord (v. 10. How interesting is that?
Perhaps it is precisely because Paul is struggling to speak to issues without clear instruction from the Lord that the chapter seems so convoluted and hard to comprehend. It’s as if Paul wants everyone to be as effective in the ministry of the gospel as possible but he acknowledges how tangled our lives can be with earthly cares. What can seem simple as a command to share the gospel has complicating factors in our lives. I like to think of this chapter as illustrating how simple the gospel is and how complicated it can be when we begin to struggle with how it works in our own lives. Although I cannot untangle this chapter for us in a short devotional, I can say to us all, trust the Lord, there is a way to find God’s will no matter how convoluted, how hard to understand it may seem to us. I’ll be interested to be with the Lord some day and ask Him to explain this chapter to me!
