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By Pastor Glenn Pease
John Woolman, the Quaker, demonstrated the power of the question to change lives.
In the 18th century many of the wealthy Quakers were slave holders.
He was convinced this was inconsistent with Christian compassion, and he vowed he would rid the Quakers of this terrible blight.
His strategy was not to picket, or hold rallies.
He did not publish vindictive sermons against slavery, and those who practiced it.
Instead, he spent 30 years traveling up and down the length of the land visiting the slave holders.
He would accept their hospitality, and ask them questions about how it felt, as a child of God, to own slaves.
He did not condemn, but just kept asking disturbing questions.
What does owning slaves do to you as a moral person?
What kind of an institution are you passing on to your children?
These honestly asked questions sensitized the conscience of the Quakers, and brought forth something noble in their hearts.
The result: One hundred years before the Civil War not a single Quaker held slaves.
By means of questions Woolman changed the course of history for his people.
Robert Louis Stevenson was right when he said, "You start a question and its like starting a stone from on top of a hill; away the stone goes, starting others."
Questions are the key to education.
Every student needs to ask questions to learn.
Every teacher needs to ask questions to teach effectively.
The Bible is full of questions that have changed lives and history.
Paul asked on the Damascus Road, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"
The answer has changed the entire world.
The Philippian jailer asked, "What must I do to be saved?"
The answer of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ led him and millions since into the kingdom of God.
Jesus was a Master at the art of using questions.
To the group of His disciples he would ask, "Who do men say that I am?" Then He would draw from them what they had heard, and by so doing keep His finger on the pulse of the times.
To Peter He asked, "Lovest thou me more than these?"
And by this got Peter's personal commitment.
After His parables, He would often ask the Pharisees questions like, "Who then was truly a neighbor to the one who fell among thieves?"
Or, "Now which of them will love Him more?" Jesus was using questions all the time.
The point is, questions are vital to growth.
They get us into new territory.
This whole chapter of I Cor.
7 is the result of questions the Corinthian Christians asked Paul.
Paul is here being the Ann Landers, and Dear Abby of the early church.
They are constantly being asked questions about the male and female relationship.
It just goes to show you, no matter how much things change, they are still the same.
The questions asked of Paul 2000 years ago were the same questions that are asked everyday in advice columns.
The reason for this is simple, no matter how much technology changes human life, it does not change the basic problems of the male-female relationship.
The computer does not change the fact that they still love each other, lust for each other, and in varying degrees, hate each other.
Progress has not changed this one iota.
The major theme of social questions has always been, and will always be, how do I relate to the opposite sex.
You cannot escape these issues, for they are like the air we breathe, and are everywhere present.
It is part of the human environment, and even monks who live in the desert discover that one of their biggest problems is the battle with the issue of sex.
Nobody escapes.
I Cor.
7 leads us into the universal topic man is capable of considering.
It is the battle of the sexes.
This is one of the most complex battles of life,
and the result is, we see Paul being more flexible and more cautious in this chapter than anywhere else in his epistles.
He makes clear the distinction between what is God's command, and what is his own conviction.
Paul was an idealist, and he could conceive of ways that life could be better, but he was also a realist who knew life was not that way, and so we see him operating on two different levels right from the start.
His first piece of advice sets the tone for the whole chapter.
He starts off with this lofty statement, "It is well for a man not to touch a woman."
He is not referring to Typhoid Mary either, but to all women.
But then, as if to say, I know that is like asking a fish not to touch water, he goes on to deal with how men ought to touch women, and vice versa.
In other words, Paul is saying, it would be great if we did not have to struggle with all of the complex issues of sexuality.
Just think of all the social issues that would be resolved if men would not touch women.
It would end prostitution, rape, abortion, population explosion, child abuse, wife beating, and divorce, just to name the most obvious.
The world could be changed by this simple formula.
The major weakness of it is simply, nobody is interested in applying the formula.
This is the primary reason all simple solutions do not work.
Paul knows it is an ivory tower formula, and that is why, even though he really means it, he goes on to deal with the issues of sex.
Paul has an extremely high view of marriage and sex.
There is no higher view anywhere.
Therefore, let us not think that Paul urges singleness because he has a low view of the union of the sexes.
He even warns about the heresy of those who forbid marriage.
Paul is just pointing out that singleness has a place in God's plan, and some Christians would be better off to remain single.
Paul had the gift for being single, and he knew others had it also.
They might all be able to ride in a chariot at the same time, but they are there in every church.
Some people are gifted to be single, and not just to grin and bear it, but to love it like Paul.
In verse 7 Paul wishes those who had this gift were the majority, but he knows it isn't so, and he recognizes the variety of gifts in the body.
He will not try to impose his gift on those who do not have it, for he knows it is a mistake for a Christian with a strong sex drive to try and live the single, or celibate life.
History reveals the terrible battles Christians have fought who tried to follow Paul's example without his gift of a fully controlled sex drive.
Henry Martyn, the famous missionary, is a powerful illustration of the ungifted trying to imitate the gifted.
As a young single pastor Henry could perform weddings, and be grateful that he did not feel any need for a wife.
Then Lydia Greenfell came into his life, and he lost his certainty.
He could not get her out of his mind.
He would toss and turn in his bed at night, trying to keep this idol out of his mind, so he could pray and not think of her.
He was soon to leave for India as a missionary.
Some felt he should marry before he left, but others said no, and in spite of the fact that he loved Lydia, and he could not stop dreaming of her, he listened to those who urged celibacy.
He was so miserable in India, and so lonely without her, that the leaders on the field agreed he should marry.
He wrote to her and asked her to come to India.
It was agony waiting for her reply.
It took 18 months for a letter to get to England and a reply back.
Meanwhile, he was in torment as he fought off lust for the women in India.
He begged Lydia to come and be his wife.
He had no gift for singleness at all.
He was like those of whom Paul wrote, "It is better to marry than to burn."
Paul was talking of the very lust that Henry was battling.
Henry Martyn became the first missionary to live in Persia.
He had a gift for languages, and was an excellent translator of the New Testament.
He laid the foundation for the church in several languages.
He died trying to get back to England, and to his Lydia.
He died at age 31.
He died single, but not successfully so.
The evidence would indicate that his life would have been more effective for the glory of God had he married.
Singleness is not for everyone.
John Fletcher, another preacher, came to realize this.
For years he remained single, for he believed it was the best, but then he got to thinking about Enoch in the Old Testament.
He was a man who walked with God, yet he bore sons and daughters.
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