Life Project Blog

1 Corinthians 7:17-24

In the last section, Paul spoke about marital status, as he does in the final part of the chapter, but here he takes one of his little asides. In doing so, he also clarifies some of his meaning in 7:8-16. The theme of 7:17-24 is ‘don’t change your status’.

7:17-20 If a man was circumcised when he was called (when he became a Christian) he should not become uncircumcised; considering the impossibility of that in the first century, we can safely infer that Paul is speaking metaphorically here. So, if a Jewish person becomes a Christian, they remain a Jew and become a Jewish Christian. If a Gentile (uncircumcised) person becomes a Christian, they do not become Jews; they become Gentile Christians. This was an issue that Paul dealt with a number of times in his writings, and his comments here are quite consistent with all of the others; I doubt this is terribly confusing to anyone reading this in the 21^st century. The next part, however, might strike some as a little more difficult…

7:21-24 If a person was a slave when they became a Christian, they remain a slave. If a person was free when they became a Christian, they must remain free. The exception is that if a person who is a slave can obtain their freedom, then that would be a good thing to do. Most of us today know about slavery from history, but not all are familiar with a form of slavery that came to be called ‘Indentured servitude”. An indentured servant was a person who sold themselves into slavery for a certain period of time to satisfy a debt, and indeed thousands of people in the 17^th and 18^th centuries sold themselves into indentured servitude to escape the oppression of England and pay for the crossing of the Atlantic to get to America.

In ancient Rome, people sold themselves into slavery to pay debts, or to feed their children. A person who had a past due account could be taken to court and put into slavery to satisfy their debt. If such people started fleeing their lawful (in those days) masters because they became Christians, that would have had a disastrous effect on the Gospel, and since our priority must always be on making disciples of all Nations, Paul gave the instructions that we see here.

At the same time, his advice to people who are not slaves means that they need to handle their financial affairs very carefully, lest they find themselves in bondage to more than one Master.

With this set of priorities in better focus, some of Paul’s comments in the last section are easier to follow, particularly those concerning separation and divorce. Consider this: If a person’s accepting Jesus Christ began to cause divorces all over town, how long would it have been before the cause of Christ found itself on the wrong side of a moral crisis? That would surely damage the cause of Christ and bring the Gospel into disrepute− thus Paul’s advice.

Now that we have a better feel for the context in this chapter, you can see why this letter is so tricky. If we took Paul’s comments in verse 10 that a wife must not separate from her husband, and applied that instruction to a woman in the 21^st century who was being regularly beaten up by her drunk husband, you would not only be doing a grave injustice, you would be engaged in false teaching, for the instruction was being given in a vastly different context in a vastly different set of circumstances that existed in c. 55 AD. Sadly, such false teaching has been going on for centuries, and it needs to stop.

I want you to know how hard I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

Colossians 2:1-5

In these verses, Paul mentions to his readers that he has been “struggling” for them (v. 1) and that his struggle was that they come to know the full riches of a complete understanding of the mystery of God, namely Christ (v. 2). We know that the “mystery of God” is one of the ways that Paul refers to the Gospel, so he is struggling so that the people might come to see all that they have in the Gospel.  To put it another way, Paul is struggling to make disciples, to assist these people in growing in their faith to a mature level of understanding.

It struck me that this is what we are all called to do.  To “struggle” so that our brother or sister may come to fully understand the riches that are in Christ is our purpose in this life.

In verse 3, Paul goes on to say that in Christ are all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and it strikes me that this statement runs counter to what the world around us sees as “wisdom and knowledge.”   Verses four and five are really telling: Paul tells his readers that he is doing this so they will not be deceived by “fine-sounding arguments.”  I love that, “fine-sounding arguments!”  What shall we take from this?  As I see it, we have a serious role to play in leading our “younger” brother to stand firm in the knowledge and truth of Christ, to help them, to guide them and yes, to struggle for them so that they will not be deceived by the “wisdom” of this age, and to nurture them into the fullness of Christ.  I wonder how often we see this imperative as our goal, rather than looking out for ourselves only…

1 Corinthians 7:1-7

Paul addresses himself to married couples in these verses; that is something that becomes clear as we read through it, and even more clear when we get to verse 8 and he addresses the unmarried. Essentially, his message to the married is that they should restrict themselves to sexual activity within the marriage, and that in this, neither partner should deprive the other of marital comfort except by mutual consent for a time of prayer (7:3-5), and then to come together once more so that Satan cannot exploit human weakness to lead them away from righteousness.

This seems to me to be in general accord with Paul’s teachings for husbands and wives elsewhere in the New Testament (see Col. 3:19 ff. and Eph. 5:29 ff.). It has a practical component in that he recognizes the fact that humans are sexual creatures, and that a man or woman who is unfulfilled in that area is more likely to be tempted to stray than one who is not. There is also a deeper recognition, although Paul seems reluctant to mention it here as he did in Ephesians 5: The physical union of husband and wife is illustrative of the union between Christ and His Church, and thus it must be respected by everyone.

Now we come to something quite interesting which may explain Paul’s general attitude toward this issue:

I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. (7:6-7)

Verse 6 tells us that nothing in the preceding verses is a command, for it is a concession. Whenever I read this chapter, I get the impression, rightly or wrongly, that Paul takes a rather dim view of sexuality. I ask myself why he would do that, and I never have a satisfactory answer, not even enough to be sure that he had the view I think I see, so I always just move on…

Yet my vague impression remains.

Look at the last verse: Paul concludes his thought by making the issue revolve around spiritual gifts, as so much of this letter does later on. Sex is not a spiritual gift, but celibacy is, so when Paul says that he wishes everyone could be like he is,(which is celibate) doesn’t it seem that he is telling us, between the lines, that he has the spiritual gift of celibacy?

I tend to think so.

Spiritual gifts are given by God at His sole discretion, so we can’t run out and get one on our own, and if we could choose our gifts, I doubt that most people would choose celibacy. Yet for Paul it was different, for I highly doubt that he could have served God the way he did if he had a wife and family back home to support.

1 Corinthians 7

Chapter 7 is a new section, the third in this letter. We can be certain that a new section has begun because Paul says in verse 1: Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

When we keep in mind that this letter was written to address problems that were facing the church in Corinth c. 55 AD, we can infer that they had written to Paul asking him for help in at least one area which we can glean from the text as concerning sexuality, celibacy, and marriage. Since we are inferring and gleaning, you can imagine how many theories scholars have debated concerning this short section and considering the delicate and personal nature of Paul’s subject matter, you can also imagine how fierce those debates have gotten over the years.

As amusing as such arguments might be for some people, I won’t trouble you with a listing here of arguments. Oh, it isn’t that some of them aren’t quite interesting, no. It’s because there is simply no way to settle any of them. Here’s what I mean: Notice verse 1 above… We can see that they wrote him a letter, but Paul doesn’t mention what the letter was actually about. Of course, he really didn’t need to restate its contents, for they would have known already. Yet for those of us who came along later, it sure would have been nice to know what Paul is talking about. Then he goes on to quote someone: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”  Who said that− Paul or someone else? Was that Paul’s conclusion to the matter, or was there a question associated with this statement in the letter? Did this mean that it was better for a man to be celibate, or that it was better for a man to be a homosexual? Was someone making that case in the letter, or… what?

If this were a traditional Sunday school exercise, these questions would never come up; instead everything wonderful and nice would be conveniently assumed, and you are welcome to make those assumptions if you like. However, we must acknowledge that there is really no way to answer these questions for sure, although we can gain insight from Paul’s comments, there is no absolute certainty and thus, context here cannot be a sure thing.

I did mention that this was a tricky book, right?

Look at verses 1 and 2 together:

Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.

Do you see how verse 2 begins with the word “but”? Grammar aside, a reasonable person might look at this and come away with the impression that Paul is telling people that marital sex is only appropriate when there is sexual immorality in the church or community. Of course, that would be silly in light of what comes later, but that is exactly how teaching with “proof texts” works, and since the exact context of this chapter is so difficult to establish, a fair argument could be made for that proposition. Of course, a better argument could be made that Paul is saying that husbands and wives should be celibate in their marriage unless they just can’t control themselves. Oh yes, from this chapter such an argument could (and has) been made, and it would be very difficult to overcome.

I would never make that argument myself however.

I’ve taken you through this little exercise so that you might get a feel for how tricky this section is to keep straight. As we go through the section, I will take big pieces of it, and try to glean basic principles that are in harmony with Paul’s other writings, and the New Testament as a whole, rather than discuss what this or that particular statement might mean for us, as I usually do. 

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Colossians 1:21-23

In the previous section, we had a look at verses 19-20 and saw that God through Christ made peace with all things by the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross. Now we finish this amazing paragraph…

There was a time when each of us was alienated from God; we saw ourselves as His enemy because of our evil deeds.  I broke this into two parts, because I’d like us to think about two ideas here.  First, we saw or thought (in our minds) that we were God’s enemies.  In Scripture, God never made us His enemy; it is we who made the choices that headed us in this direction.  It is (or was) our own attitudes that created the problems. It was never God; it was always us.

Second, “because of your evil deeds.”  Which evil deeds do you think Paul is talking about?  I would suggest that most people, certainly most preachers, would assert that Paul is referring to some sort of list of infractions, a Bill of Indictment, so to speak.  I hope we might take a different approach, and hope you will give this a little thought.  It isn’t so much a list of violations that Paul is talking about here; it is the very condition of being in rebellion against God that he is talking about.  If we are in rebellion against God, then we are not in relationship with Him.  If we are not in relationship with Him, what are the rules, anyway? Consider the Jews and the Gentiles.  From the Jewish point of view in the Old Testament, a Jew was good or bad based upon his or her keeping the Law, the 613 laws of Moses.  If they disregarded the law, they had problems, if they kept the law all was as it should be.  The Gentiles, on the other hand, weren’t even in the ball game.  Nobody expected them to keep, or even to know the law.  They had no covenant with God; they had no Law.  How could they “get right” with God? Not an easy thing to do: The very fact that they were Gentile made them evil and unclean. We were enemies with God in our minds because of our evil deeds of rebellion against Him, and this transcends a rule book and petty violations.

“But now he has reconciled you…” (v. 22) Because of what Christ has done on the cross, everything is completely different.  He made a peace treaty; you accepted its terms and signed on to it. Now you are in a whole new kind of covenant, and that covenant has made you as clean as though you had never sinned, in God’s sight.  All of that rebellion is forgotten, expunged from the record− over.

Well, now we haven’t quite finished the sentence.  This is a tough spot, beginning at verse 23 with the word “if.”  You may agree with me, or you may disagree, but as I see it, the word “if” makes this a conditional statement. “…free from accusation—ifyou continue in your faith,…” As I see it, and I think the rules of grammar back me up in this, we have the blessings of the promises in the New Covenant, unless we decide to totally renounce our faith in Jesus Christ and go off and follow other gods.

This passage ends with Paul pointing out two things, did you catch them? The work of Jesus Christ on the cross has established peaceful relations between God and Man; your sins are taken away and you are blameless before God.  This is the Gospel, and it is the first point of summation.  Paul has become a servant of this Gospel (and by extension, so have you and I).  This is the final point of summation.

So what do you think?  Are you thinking that you’ve heard this a thousand times and there’s nothing new in this text for you?  I sure hope not, maybe you might reflect a little more, and seek His presence asking what He has to say to you in this.  I know that I’ve taught it many times, and each time is just as exciting as the first time I grasped it…

God loved us so much, while we were still thinking of ourselves as His enemies, that He went and did all of this…?  Really…? And not only that, but we are a part of the spreading of this awesome demonstration of the boundless love of our eternal God…?

May He draw all of us closer to Him in His Word today.  May He fill our hearts with glad assurance of the truth of His Word, and may He increase in our lives as we grow in our faith and in our desire to draw ever nearer to Him in everything that we do.