1 Corinthians 7

1. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch 2 a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let 3 every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevo- 4 lence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, 5 but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you 6 not for your incontinency. But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. For 7 I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, 8 one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, 9 It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: 10 for it is better to marry than to burn. And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the 11 Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain un- 12 married, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife. But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be 13 pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an hus- 14 band that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by 15 the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. But if the unbe- lieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: 16 but God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him 18 walk. And so ordain I in all churches. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not 19 become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Cir- cumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments 20 of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called 21 being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that 22 is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, 23 being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. 24 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. Now concerning 25 virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath ob- 26 tained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose therefore that this is good for the pres- 27 ent distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. Art thou bound unto a wife? seek 28 not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall 29 have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it 30 remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they 31 that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. 32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things 33 that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the 34 things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the 35 world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the 36 Lord without distraction. But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely to- ward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he 37 will, he sinneth not: let them marry. Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart 38 that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; 39 but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom 40 she will; only in the Lord. But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.

EACH man’s wisdom and happiness must consist in doing, as well as his faculties will admit, the work which God sets him. So thought and so wrote, by immediate inspiration, the great apostle of the Gentiles. He did not counsel his converts to join himself and Barnabas in their missionary tours; but while reminding them ever and anon that the great system of society would ere long run down and come to an end—ringing ever and anon the great funeral knell of the world, “the fashion of this world passeth away”—he told them distinctly and emphatically that so long as the system still worked on, each one was to retain his position in it. “Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.” Ah! “with God.” Those words wrap up the secret of which we are in search, the secret by which we may do God service in our daily business, and convert the most secular occupation, so long as it be an innocent one, into fine gold of the altar. E. M. G.

This world is not yours; thank God it is not. Things are passing; our friends are dropping off from us; strength is giving way; our relish for earth is going; and the world no longer wears to our hearts the radiance that once it wore. We have the same sky above us and the same scenes around us, but the freshness that our hearts extracted from everything in boyhood, and the glory that seemed to rest once on earth and life, has faded away for ever. Sad and gloomy truths to the man who is going down to the grave with his work undone. Not sad to the Christian, but rousing, exciting, invigorating. If it be the eleventh hour, we have no time for folding of the hands; we will work the faster. Through the changefulness of life; through the solemn tolling of the bell of Time, which tells us that another, and another, and another are gone before us; through the noiseless rush of a world which is going down with gigantic footsteps into nothingness. Let not the Christian slack his hand from work; for he that doeth the will of God may defy hell itself to quench his immortality. F. W. R.

Is the application of the principles of Christianity to the varying circumstances of life, innumerable difficulties had arisen, and the Corinthians upon these difficulties had put certain questions to the apostle Paul. We have here the apostle’s answers to many of these questions. It is manifestly plain that there are many questions in which right and wrong are not variable, but indissoluble and fixed; while there are questions, on the other hand, where these terms are not fixed, but variable, fluctuating, altering, dependent upon circumstances. As, for instance, those in which the apostle teaches in the present chapter the several duties and advantages of marriage and celibacy. There may be circumstances in which it is the duty of a Christian man to be married; there are others in which it may be his duty to remain unmarried. These are questions of casuistry, which depend on the particular case; from which word the term “casuistry” is derived.

6. The real distinction is not between inspired and uninspired, but between a decision in matters of Christian duty and advice in matters of Christian prudence. It is abundantly evident that God can not give advice; he can only issue a command. When we come to advice, there is introduced the human element. In all such cases, therefore, as are dependent upon circumstances the apostle speaks as one whose judgment we have no right to find fault with or to cavil at, who lays down what is a matter of Christian prudence, and not a bounden and universal duty.

10,11. The apostle here gives his inspired decision, first, concerning the sanctity of the marriage-bond between two Christians. His verdict is given in the tenth verse. He lays down the principle that the union is an indissoluble one. Marriage is of all earthly unions almost the only one permitting of no change but that of death. It is not a union merely between two creatures, it is a union between two spirits; and the intention of that bond is to perfect the nature of both, by supplementing their deficiencies with the force of contrast, giving to each sex those excellences in which it is naturally deficient; to the one, strength of character and firmness of moral will, to the other, sympathy, meekness, tenderness. And just so solemn, and just so glorious as these ends are for which the union was contemplated and intended, just so terrible are the consequences if it be perverted and abused. For there is no relationship which has so much power to ennoble and to exalt. Very strong language does the apostle use in this chapter respecting it: “What knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?” The very power of saving belongs to this relationship. And, on the other hand, there is no earthly relationship which has so much power to wreck and ruin the soul.

12,13. The second decision which the apostle makes is as to the sanctity of the marriage bond between a Christian and one who is a heathen. With his usual inspired wisdom he decides that the marriage bond is sacred still. Diversities of religious opinion can not sanction separation.

14. They are holy. It follows, if the children are holy in this sense of dedicated to God, and are capable of Christian relationship, then the marriage relation was not unhallowed, but sacred and indissoluble. The value of this argument in the present day depends on its relationship to baptism. The baptismal question is this: whether we are baptized because we are the children of God, or whether we are the children of God because we are baptized. The apostle’s argument is full, decisive, and unanswerable. He does not say that these children were Christian, or clean, because they were baptized, but they were the children of God because they were the children of one Christian parent.

17-22. The third decision which the apostle gives, the third principle which he lays down, is but the development of the last. Christianity, he says, does not interfere with existing relationships. Christian men were to remain in those relationships in which they were when called, and in them to develop the inward spirituality of the Christian life. Then he applies this principle in two ways. With respect to the Church, he says: “Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.” Christianity required no change in these outward things, for it was not in these that the depth and reality of the kingdom of Christ consisted. Lastly, the apostle applies this principle to that civil relationship which, of all others, was the most difficult to harmonize with Christianity—slavery. “Art thou called,” he says, “being a servant? Care not for it.” This occurred in an age in which slavery had reached its worst and most fearful form, an age in which the emperors were accustomed, not unfrequently, to feed their fish with living slaves; when captives were led to fight in the amphitheatre with wild beasts or with each other, to glut the Roman appetite for blood upon a Roman holiday. And yet, fearful as it was, the apostle says, “Care not for it.” F. W. R.

Verse 21 ought to stand, “Wast thou called being a slave? Care not for it: nay, even if thou canst be made free, use it [slavery] rather”; i. e., “abide in the calling wherein thou wast called.” As the English version now stands, it bears a sense directly contrary to that which the apostle is enjoining; viz., the sense that the slave should get liberated if he could, which would be to desert the calling wherein he was called. Throughout this passage “servant” should be “slave”; otherwise the strong recommendation of the apostle is weakened. A.

24. Having found him, the business of life is to follow Christ. In following our respective callings we are to follow him. We may not perhaps be called away from our counters like Matthew, or our ships and nets like Peter and John, or our law-studies like Paul, but we must give up ourselves, in all these pursuits, to Christ, and must pursue them for Christ, and pursue him in them. A merchant who truly pursues his business for Christ, and maintains always a frame of heavenly-mindedness, may be so far forth a greater Christian than a minister of the gospel, who pursues his business for Christ; there being more to be overcome in the former case, greater difficulties in the way, and perhaps greater temptations. And certainly a man’s crown of glory by and by will be determined, not by the position he filled, but the manner in which he filled it, whatever it might be; the sacrifices he made, whatever they were. G. B. C.—To Paul, the work to which Paul was called of God, and for which Paul was prepared of God; and to you, your work, to which you have been equally called, and for which, doubt it not, you have been equally prepared. Whoever you are, and whatever you may have to do, be content with the task which is fallen to you; and while magnifying it, if God shall afford you the opportunity, be less solicitous to magnify than to fulfill it, that is, to leave no part of its duties which shall not be entered and penetrated by your action. Monod.

Abide with God. Certainly no man’s calling is a calling away from God or godliness. Those are very ignorant who think themselves so closely tied up to their particular callings six days in the week that they must not intermeddle with any religious duties during those days. God, who is the Lord of time, has reserved some part of it to himself every day. Though the Jews were commanded to labor six days of the week, yet they were instructed also to offer up the morning and evening sacrifice daily. Brooks.

26-28. In the Church of Corinth there were two opposite parties holding views diametrically opposed to one another—one honoring the married and depreciating the unmarried life—the other attributing peculiar dignity and sanctity to celibacy, and looking down with contempt upon the married Christian state. Paul does not decide, as we might have been led to suppose he would, from his own peculiarity of disposition, upon one side only; but raises into relief the advantages and excellences of both. He attributes no intrinsic merit or dignity to either celibacy or marriage. The comparative advantages of these two states he decides with reference to two considerations: first of all, with respect to their comparative power in raising the character of the individual, and afterward with reference to the opportunities which each respectively gives for the service of God.

29-31. Observe the deep wisdom of this apostolic decision. In point of fact, it comes to this: Christianity consists of principles, but the application of those principles is left to every man’s individual conscience. With respect to all the questions which had been brought before him, the apostle applies the same principle; the cases upon which he decided were many and various, but the large, broad principle of his decision remains the same in all. You may marry, and you have not sinned; you may remain unmarried, and you do not sin; if you are invited to a heathen feast, you may go, or you may abstain from going; you may remain a slave, or you may become free; in these things Christianity does not consist. But what it does demand is this: that whether married or unmarried, whether a slave or free, in sorrow or in joy, you are to live in a spirit higher and loftier than that of the world.

The apostle gives us two motives for this Christian unworldliness. The first is this: “The time is short.” He turns, as it were, entirely away from the subject, as if worn out and wearied by the comparatively trivial character of the questions, as if this balancing of one earthly condition or advantage with another were but a solemn trifling compared with eternal things, and speaks of the shortness of time. The thought of time is solemn and awful to all minds in proportion to their depth. Let but a man possess himself of this thought, that time is short, that eternity is long, and he has learned the first great secret of unworldliness. The second motive which the apostle gives us is the changing character of the external world. “The fashion of this world passeth away”; literally, “the scenery of this world,” a dramatic expression drawn from the Grecian stage. The principle of Christian unworldliness is to “use this world as not abusing it.” The spirit of the world says: “Time is short, therefore use it while you have it; take your fill of pleasure while you may.” Christianity says: “Use this world”; but in opposition to the spirit of the world it adds: “Do not abuse it.” Unworldliness is this: to hold things from God in the perpetual conviction that they will not last; to have the world, and not to let the world have us; to be the world’s masters, and not the world’s slaves. F. W. R.

Paul was in the midst of work, full of the interest and joy of living, holding the reins of many complicated labors in his hands, and he quietly said: “This is not going to last long. Very soon it will be over.” There is simply a calm and satisfied recognition of a fact. It is the quiet statement of a great eternal necessity, at which the wise man must feel the same kind of serious joy as that with which he follows the movements of the stars, and looks to see day and night inevitably give place to one another. P. B.

30. Paul found the secret of the wisdom that at once allows these tender alternations of human feeling, and yet subjects them to a holier faith: “They that weep should be as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not.” Because there is a life, possible to the soul through the Spirit, in which fear and mourning and suffering and death itself are swallowed up and lost, like bubbles on some calm, deep stream. F. D. H.

31. Use this world.** Religion bars not the lawful delights that are taken in natural things, but teaches the moderate and regular use of them, which is far the sweeter; for things lawful in themselves are in their excess sinful, and so prove bitterness in the end; and if in some cases it requires the forsaking of lawful enjoyments for God and for his glory, it is generous and more truly delightful to deny them for this reason than to enjoy them. Men have done much this way for the love of their country and by a principle of moral virtue; but to lose any delight or to suffer any hardship for that highest end, the glory of God, and by the strength of love to him, is far more excellent and truly pleasant. L.

Religion is the art of being and of doing good; to be an adept in it is to become just, truthful, sincere, self-denied, gentle, forbearing, pure in word and thought and deed. And the school for learning this art is not the closet but the world; the common world, with its cares and temptations, its rivalries and competitions, its hourly, ever-recurring trials of temper and character. Prayer, praise, and holy ordinances are necessary to religion—no man can be religious without them. But religion is mainly and chiefly the glorifying God amid the duties and trials of the world; the bearing us manfully, wisely, courageously, for the honor of Christ, our great leader in the conflict of life. Caird.

As not abusing it. All immoderate use of the world and its delights wrongs the soul in its spiritual condition, makes it sickly and feeble; benumbs the graces of the spirit, and fills the soul with sleepy vapors; makes it grow secure and heavy in spiritual exercises, and obstructs the way and motion of the Spirit of God in the soul; therefore, if you would be spiritual, healthful, and vigorous, and enjoy much of the consolations of heaven, be sparing and sober in those of the earth, and what you abate of the one shall be certainly made up in the other. L.—A pleasure-seeking soul never can be unselfish, magnanimous, serene, brave, pure. Such qualities come from sources far higher than the love of personal enjoyment. They come from the love of truth, from the practice of duty, from the habit of self-sacrifice, from seriousness, reflection, prayer. The love of pleasure can not give these things, but the love and pursuit of pleasure can take them away; will certainly much diminish their strength, and put them all in peril. It is therefore one of the Christian’s daily lessons to teach himself effectually how to “use this world as not abusing it”; i. e., how to extract from present things all fair and honest enjoyment, without allowing selfishness and mere appetite so to touch and transmute them in the process that the enjoyment shall have some admixture of baser elements, and be no longer the thing which the divine beneficence provides for man’s hunger and thirst. A. R.

In verses 36 and 37, “his virgin” should be “his virgin daughter.” The case supposed is that of a father, doubtful whether he shall or shall not give his daughter in marriage. A.