Concerning Marriage Pt. 2

What have we seen in this chapter? (Summary)

Holman Concise Bible Commentary (Concerning Marriage (7:1–40))

The Corinthians had raised a series of questions for Paul. He responded to their concerns by addressing the issue and then offering principles for them to deal with the issue. Paul maintained marriage as the normal rule of life (see Eph. 5:21–33). He offered general principles for marriage. He then gave advice to the unmarried and then to the married.

In verse 10 Paul had appealed to Jesus’ teaching regarding the permanence of marriage. If a believer is separated from her spouse, Paul argued that in light of Christ’s command she is not to marry again. Rather, the separated couple should be reconciled. Verses 12–16 offer advice concerning separation/divorce when an unbeliever abandons a believer. In this case the abandoned believer is under no obligation to remain married to the unbeliever.

Paul offered further advice concerning contentment. He concluded this topic with counsel for virgins and widows.

For Virgins and Widows (1 Corinthians 7:25-40)

Paul summarizes his advice up to this point in the chapter in 1 Cor 7.27-28

1 Corinthians 7:27–28 CSB

27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28 However, if you do get married, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

An Eternal Perspective (1 Corinthians 7:29-30)

1 Corinthians 7:29–30 CSB

29 This is what I mean, brothers and sisters: The time is limited, so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn’t own anything,

1 & 2 Corinthians: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition Chapter 11: Should Virgins Get Married? (1 Corinthians 7:25–38)

Are you rejoicing at your marriage? It will not be long before we will no longer marry. Are you mourning at the passing of a spouse? It will not be long before widowhood is no more. Paul does not mean to minimize grieving or celebration, only to put them into an eternal perspective.

1 Corinthians 7:30–31 CSB

30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they didn’t own anything, 31 and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it. For this world in its current form is passing away.

1 & 2 Corinthians: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Chapter 11: Should Virgins Get Married? (1 Corinthians 7:25–38))

Paul is being very pragmatic here. He does not say that an unmarried Christian is a better or holier Christian than a married one. Even more importantly, Paul implies that a married person should be devoted to the concerns of his or her spouse. Some of the most influential Christian men of the past, including John Wesley, have neglected their wives in the name of ministry. Paul leaves no room for such a thing—it is not a sign of godliness. Paul assumes that a Christian husband or wife will attend to pleasing his or her spouse.

We can translate 1 Cor. 7:36–39 in two quite different ways: (1) in terms of a man thinking about marrying a virgin to whom he is engaged or (2) in terms of a father thinking about letting his virgin daughter get married. The NIV prints the first possibility in the main text, but also provides the second rendering in a note. While most ancient commentators preferred the second option, most modern interpreters have opted for the first.

Wrapping it up

What was God telling them?

1 & 2 Corinthians: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition Chapter 11: Should Virgins Get Married? (1 Corinthians 7:25–38)

Perhaps the way Paul chose to close the chapter hints at what the most prominent marital issues were for the Corinthians. A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives (7:39). We can probably infer that some Corinthian women wanted to divorce, and some Corinthian widows were contemplating remarriage.

Of great significance is the fact that Paul insists Christian women remarry “in the Lord”: Christians should marry Christians (2 Cor. 6:14). But Paul thinks it even better if they remain in the unmarried state they find themselves. In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is (7:40).

What is God telling us?

1 & 2 Corinthians: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition Chapter 11: Should Virgins Get Married? (1 Corinthians 7:25–38)

First, we recognize how significantly the nuances of a passage like this one can change as we learn more about its original situation. Since we will never know this situation fully, we must always be somewhat tentative in the way we appropriate it.

Secondly, doing exactly what they did is often not doing what they did—what certain actions meant in their world is often not what they would mean in our world. Like Paul, we need the Spirit of God in us to help us “rightly divide” the word of truth, so that we apply the spirit of the written word authentically to the world today.