Tonight is part 2 of my attempt to make sense of what Paul is doing in the second half of 1st Corinthians 7. If you’re listening to this sermon online after the fact, and you haven’t listened to Part 1, it would be helpful to go back and do that first. I’m not going to rehearse all I said last week.
But by way of general review, so far we have seen that Paul’s counsel to the Corinthian believers is that they should remain as they are. Are you married? Stay that way, and remain faithful in your marriage. Are you single? Don’t seek to be married, but know that IF you do decide to get married, you haven’t sinned either.
Specifically, I attempted last week to try and make explicit the theology that is behind Paul’s logic in this text. Paul makes several exhortations in this text, exhortations that don’t initially seem to align with the Old Testament. So, I wanted to dig and try to figure out not merely WHAT Paul is saying, but WHY.
Last week I also noted a tension that arose within me as I studied this text. And the tension is this: how do I reconcile Paul’s commendation of singleness in this text with other biblical verses like Genesis 1:28 (“Be fruitful and Multiply”)? How can Paul commend intentional singleness while also affirming God’s statement in Genesis 2:18 (“It is not good for man to be alone”)?
These questions bothered me while I was studying. And, by God’s grace, that drove me to study scripture even more. But before we get to that, let’s read again our text. 1 Corinthians 7:25-40.
25 Now concerning[f] the betrothed,[g] I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 I think that in view of the present[h] distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. 27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman[i] marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. 29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
36 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed,[j] if his[k] passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. 38 So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
I stated last week that our three points for this text can be remembered with these three words: Remain. Remember. And Recognize. Remain, Remember, and Recognize.
We saw last week that Paul’s exhortation is for the Corinthians to Remain as they are. That was our first point: Remain as you are.
That exhortation to remain, even to remain in singleness, is what drove me to study God’s word and seek to reconcile the tension I mentioned earlier. And, to briefly recap the last half of last week’s sermon, we saw that the bible speaks of singleness and marriage in different, unfolding ways.
For example, Genesis begins with God blessing Adam and Eve and commanding them to be fruitful and multiply. The same command is repeated to Noah and his family after the flood. That link between blessing and offspring becomes formalized as a promise in the Abrahamic Covenant. God makes a promise to Abraham to give him a seed or an offspring, and he promises an inheritance, and a name, and blessing, blessing which He promises would extend to the whole earth. These same promises are re-iterated through Abraham’s son Isaac, and Isaac’s son, Jacob.
Later, God makes a covenant with the nation of Israel. This covenant tied together promises of blessing, and offspring, and inheritance, and a name for those that were faithful to obey God. Conversely, God also warned of curses of barrenness to those that were unfaithful. Indeed, he even promises to the unfaithful that He will blot out their names from among heaven.
But before we left the Old Testament, we also saw glimpses of hope and promise. Isaiah 56, for example, promises that the Eunuch would be blessed with a name, and an inheritance that would be eternal, an everlasting name that would be better than any sons or daughters.
So, the Old Testament closes with a tension. God unconditionally promises blessing to Abraham’s offspring, but he also warns of curses for the unfaithful. How do we reconcile these things?
To answer that we went to Galatians 3:16, where we saw Paul explain that the promises made to Abraham were not made to his OFFSPRINGS or to his SEEDS, but to his OFFSPRING, singular, who is Christ. Paul makes explicit that the Abrahamic promises are given to Christ.
The promise given to Abraham, that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed, that promise was not to be mediated through the Jewish nation’s faithfulness to mosaic law, but solely through Christ’s atoning death.
That means an everlasting name, and blessing, and fruitfulness, ALL of it are given to Christ. Christ was faithful, Christ earned the covenant blessings, Christ secured an everlasting inheritance in the new heavens and new earth, Christ earned a name above all names.
Indeed, as Paul makes clear, all that is needed to become a partaker of God’s blessings is faith. It’s not physical lineage that makes one part of the blessed community, it is faith. It’s not your own obedience that earns covenantal blessing, it is faith. And when we come to Christ, we are born again, born of the Spirit, and it is that second birth that makes us Abraham’s offspring, and therefore heirs of the blessing through union with Christ.
And that means that when we come to faith, when we repent of our sins and unite with Christ as our savior, we too are given access to the covenantal blessings.
In Christ, we’re given a new name. That’s why Revelation 22 tells us that the people of God have the LORD’S name upon their forehead. We are forever apart of his family. Forever adopted into the household of Faith, which is the church. And because Christ has earned us a new name, we don’t have to worry about our name EVER being blotted out from heaven. His name is an everlasting name, and we become partakers of that everlasting name through faith and union with HIM.
But not just a name. In Christ, we’re also given an inheritance. But this is not merely a physical plot of land in Palestine, but rather a spiritual inheritance, one that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4).
But the good news isn’t just a name and an inheritance. We’re also given the hope of future offspring. And this hope isn’t just for the married; it’s also for the singles too. Christ’s kingdom isn’t a physical kingdom, like Israel was. That’s why he said my kingdom is not of this world. He is king over a spiritually-reborn people, who possess a spiritual kingdom. And is one born into this spiritual kingdom by the new-birth. By the work of the Spirit. And how does the Spirit work? Through the proclamation of the good news of Jesus, the gospel.
So that means, that even if a man is not called by God to beget physical offspring in this life, he is still a part of the kingdom of God, part of the church, and thus is called to take part in the proclamation of the gospel so that new children may be born into the kingdom. It is through evangelism that we become, as it were, midwives to the kingdom, helping newborn believers come into the fullness that God would have for them.
And thus it is, that we are all able to be fruitful and multiply. Most of us will marry and bear physical children, but ALL of us are called to join in the great commission, and pursue spiritual offspring, sons and daughters in the faith, that we may in Christ subdue and have dominion over this fallen earth, one heart at a time.
So to finally land this plane, I think this is the theological framework that permits Paul to say what he is saying in this text. He can affirm the goodness of God’s original pattern for marriage. He can also, unlike the Jewish tradition, affirm the goodness of intentional singleness for the sake of the kingdom. Both permit fruitfulness and offspring, and both proclaim the gospel.
Marriage proclaims the gospel through its complementarity. Marriage between Man and woman, fit for each other, is a picture of Christ and the church, which Paul makes clear in Ephesians 5.
But godly singleness also proclaims the gospel. Have you ever considered that? Marriage proclaims the gospel in its complementarity; but singleness proclaims the gospel in its sufficiency. A person who is contented in the Lord and serving the kingdom in their singleness, proclaims the sufficiency of the gospel, proclaims that Christ is enough. Proclaims that Christ and the blessing found in Him, is more than enough to compensate for any temporal sense of loss in this life.
Christ is enough to keep a single content through seasons of loneliness. Christ is enough to overcome any sense of loss of legacy or name. Christ is enough to compensate for the absence of a physical helper. Christ is enough, He is sufficient.
I believe that this is the gospel framework that is undergirding Paul’s practical exhortations in this chapter.
But, before we get to some practical applications, let’s move on to our second point from the end of 1 Corinthians 7.
We saw above the exhortation to Remain as you are. Now in the second point we see the exhortation to Remember what is to come. Remember what is to come.
Paul’s conclusion is that, in one sense, he agrees with the celibacy zealots, that singleness actually IS preferable. BUT, and this is crucial, the way that he argues for that conclusion is not the same as their argumentation. He may reach the same destination, but the route he uses to get there is significant.
And as a footnote, this is an important observation. HOW we argue a point can be just as significant as WHAT conclusion we’re actually seeking. In theology, just like in logic and in law and in politics, HOW you argue can be just as important as WHAT you’re arguing for, so be careful with your reasoning.
Paul, like the celibacy crew, is advocating for singleness. But the celibacy team wanted singleness to be a matter of law, a matter of righteousness and sin. Paul, on the other hand, has already reframed the discussion in terms of gift (verse 7) and in terms of calling (verse 17), and now he’s going to re-frame singleness in terms of the end, in terms of the final destiny of all mankind. He’s reframing the discussion of marriage and singleness by zooming out and thinking about eschatology, or the doctrine of last things. Look at verse 29:
29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
He doesn’t argue that we should all seek to be single, nor that we should all seek to be married. Instead, he says that we all ought to be thinking and living in light of the end. He commends eschatological urgency; urgency in our lives because the end is near.
He’s not saying that if we’re married, we should seek to pretend to be single, or that if we’re feeling sad, pretend to be happy. Rather, he’s saying that we can’t let our temporary, practical situations dictate the priorities of our lives.
Let me put it this way: marriage is temporary, but God’s kingdom and the souls of men are forever. Don’t let your marriage and the practical concerns of it impede your focus and attention on eternal realities.
Now, marriage is not necessarily an impediment to kingdom work; to the contrary, marriage can be a great aid to kingdom work. That’s why God gave Adam a helper fit for him. However, marriage, and all the practical concerns related to it, does have the potential to distract us from eternal realities. Schedules and finances and relationships and chores and everything else tied to marriage and the home have the potential to either enable and accentuate kingdom efforts, or they have the potential to distract from kingdom efforts.
So, Paul says, in whatever condition you find yourself (married, single, weeping or rejoicing, buying or selling), use it for the kingdom. Live as though these temporary states are just what they are: temporary. Because what really counts is what is done for Christ, and in and through Christ. That’s what will last.
When you’re planning your calendar, don’t let your priorities get out of whack. When you’re thinking through your budget, remember what is important, and prioritize those things in light of the end. Seek first the kingdom of God, Jesus says, and all these things will be added to you.
I won’t press this point much further, because Shawn’s sermon this morning covered a similar topic. But in short, Paul would have us all, singles and married, to Remember what is to come.
Next, our third and final point, Paul spends the rest of the chapter urging the Corinthians to Recognize the benefits. Recognize the benefits of singleness. Look at verse 32:
32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
36 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed,[j] if his[k] passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. 38 So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
Paul says that he wants them all to live lives that are free from unnecessary anxieties. He says the married man is necessarily anxious about worldly things, which I don’t take as necessarily sinful things, but instead proper concerns that are necessary for living with a spouse in an understanding way.
We must note that: “Marriage does not prevent great devotion to the Lord, and singleness does not guarantee it. But singleness [does have] fewer hindrances and more advantages, Paul is saying. It is easier for a single person to be single-minded on the things of the Lord. The married Christian has no choice. His interests MUST be divided. He cannot be faithful to the Lord if he is unfaithful to his family. “If anyone does not provide for his own, especially those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). The single person, however, has a choice. He is free to marry or not. He is not under restraint to remain single. His choice is not between right and wrong, but between good and better.”[1]
That’s why he says what he does in verse 38: he who marries, does well. He who refrains, does even better. The point is not that marriage is less spiritual, OR that singleness is necessarily more spiritual. Both are callings from the Lord, and are enabled through the gifting of the Holy Spirit.
The point is not to be our circumstantial status, but rather our faithfulness in whatever status to which we are called. Are we living for Christ in our singleness? Are we contented in him and him alone?
Or if you’re married, are you living for Christ in your marriage? Living contented in him and him alone?
Too often we look at other people and covet their situation. I wish I had a spouse like them, wish I had kids that behaved like theirs, wish I had their marriage, their joy, their bank account, their whatever. We’re tempted, whatever OUR situation, to wish it was more like SOMEBODY ELSE’s situation.
Now, to want something else isn’t necessarily sinful. Indeed, to desire a spouse isn’t a sin. But the moment that desire turns into a dissatisfaction with what God has given us, that’s when it becomes a sin. Our desire for a spouse, or desire for peace, or desire for stuff, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re sinning, but the moment we become DIS-content with God’s calling on our life, THAT’s when we’ve crossed the line.
And each of us is guilty of that. We’ve all grumbled about what God has given us. We’re like the Israelites in the desert: grumbling over the provision of quail and manna, longing to go back to Egypt to eat their vegetables. But God would have more for us. And that provision for us in found in Christ alone, not in our earthly situation.
Christ is the one who died for our grumbling and our discontentment. Christ is the one who remained contentedly-focused on His Father’s work in this life, not letting the distractions and the cares of this life shift him from the plan of God. He was content with the provision of his Father, even when that provision was to taste bitterness and death.
And because he was undistracted-ly devoted to the things of the Lord, you can be forgiven of your distraction. Because He contentedly served God, even unto death, you too can be forgiven of your discontentedness. That’s the good news of the bible.
That our sins can be washed away, because of the work of another, Christ. Do you believe that? Do you believe in this Christ, and His incredible message of forgiveness and redemption from sin? I hope you do, and I hope if you don’t, that you will consider it. What more is needed? What more does Christ need to offer to you?
Nothing is lacking from is atonement, and nothing is deficient from His provision. The gospel is enough. Christ has come, and by his coming and dying, he has earned us life. That’s the best news of all, and that good news is what can keep us content and focused, regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves.
Are you single? Devote yourself anew to contentment in your calling. Remind yourself that Christ is enough. Christ is sufficient. And if you desire to marry, you’re free to do so, just count the costs, Paul would say.
Are you married? Devote yourself anew to contentment in your calling. Remind yourself that Christ is enough. Christ is sufficient, and don’t let marriage distract you from devotion to the Lord. Seemingly neutral, worldly cares can pull us away from the things that really matter most, the eternal things.
In whatever situation we find ourselves, we are to recognize the benefits, and trust Christ through it all.
Now, before I close, I want to offer some practical applications from this theology of singleness that Paul has shown us in chapter 7.
First, a word to the singles, then a word to the married.[2]
To the singles:
- You are a valuable and needed part of our body. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that the Holy Spirit distributes gifts according to His will, and so if you’re single, that’s a gift that he has given to you in this moment, and that gift if something this body needs. Lean into that gift, don’t resent it, because our body would not be complete without all the gifts that the Holy Spirit intends for us to have. You are a valuable and neededpart of our body.
- Second, Not only are you valuable and needed, but you’re a FULL member of the body. You’re not second tier. You’re not leftovers. You’re not a spare part that’s just waiting around for a match. Singleness isn’t second best. Press into the kingdom, and use the gifts that God has given you. You’re just as much a member of the body of Christ as any other married believer.
- Third, Do all you can to be godly.It’s easy for those who are single to lapse into a selfish, self-centered lifestyle, and into sexual sin, whether in thought or deed. Be self-disciplined and accountable to others. Do all you can to be godly in this season of singleness.
- Lastly, I’d encourage singles Don’t be over sensitive. Don’t be over sensitive. Here’s what I mean. A lot of well-intended, otherwise godly saints have said things to singles that were less than helpful. Things like,
- Don’t you want to be married?
- I can’t believe you’re not married yet.
These statements are usually not intended with malice. Don’t let them drive you to discontentment. Remember the preceding points.
Now, To the married, I give these practical encouragements:
- Be sensitive with your words. Singleness can be a confusing state. Singles can wrestle with balancing a godly desire for a spouse with godly contentment in their singleness. They can feel very acutely loneliness and fear of the future. They can even wrestle with big questions like, “why would a good God make me with sexual desire, but no avenue to express it?”
- Just like everyone else in the church, we should be sensitive and compassionate, and encourage them in the Lord. If they’ve asked for your prayers for them to find a spouse, then of course pray for that; but don’t simply assume that a single person needs a spouse. To do so, is to forget Paul’s theology of singleness in our text.
- If they’re struggling with contentment, help them in that. If they’re lonely, encourage them with fellowship. In all things, point them to Jesus, who is sufficient for all these things.
- Second, Don’t think of singleness as second best. Don’t think of singleness as second best.Singles aren’t stuck in the on-deck circle until they get married. Rather, they possess the fullness of the Holy Spirit just like married people. Indeed, some singles are able to minister in ways that we marrieds never could. So, treat them like the full brothers and sisters that they are. And related to that:
- Third, Remember that your family is the whole church. Remember that your family is the whole church.We should seek for there to be no lonely people in our church. We need to be opening up our homes to one another and relating to one another not just in the nuclear family, but in the entire church family.
- Lastly, Keep your eyes fixed on heaven. Keep your eyes fixed on heaven.Human marriage matters, but it will not last forever (Mark 12:25). Our relationship with Christ must come first. Keep your eyes fixed on heaven.
[1] John MacArthur and John MacArthur, 1 Corinthians, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), 184.
[2] Some of these exhortations are from: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/four-things-god-says-singles/ (accessed 11/17/2021).
