1 Corinthians 7
7:1-7. We can only guess at the questions by the content of Paul’s answers. Apparently there were certain ones in Corinth who were teaching the Gnostic view that matter was evil. This could express itself in two troubling ways. Some argued that sins of the body were indifferent, because only the pure spirit would survive in the after life and was untainted by the material body’s excesses (cf. 6:13-20). The other extreme, asceticism, is addressed here. Shouldn’t a spiritual man give up gross material needs of the body as far as possible, even to the point of sexual abstinence? Paul’s answer is that celibacy is a good thing and can be used to God’s glory by some, but that marriage is the best course for most people. For the sake of purity, marital duties need to be freely rendered, rather than limited (see 1 Tim.4:3).
7:8-16. Divorce is not the Lord’s will. This is the Lord’s own word (Mt.19:3-6). Moses allowed divorce to prevent worse evils due to the hardness of man’s heart (Mt.19:7-8). V.11 seems to recognize that same thing. But to leave one spouse for the purpose of marrying someone else would be adultery.
The children of a divided marriage are holy, and as covenant children, would have a right to baptism (14).
The unbelief of a spouse is no reason to break a marriage, but if the unbeliever leaves, let them go (15). (Christians differ on this point, but in my opinion the innocent abandoned spouse in such a case should be free to marry, as otherwise they would be bound by someone else’s sin after the marriage was already broken, and we are not under such bondage.)
7:17-24. God can use you where you are, and each called person has his own conscience and circumstances to deal with as best he can in the Lord. This applies to both Jew and Greek (18), for we are all responsible to obey the commandments of God (19), not to earn a righteousness of our own, but to do God’s will in whatever circumstance he assigns to us (17).
This applies to slave and free. But if a slave (or anyone) can better himself, let him do so (21). In every circumstance, the Lord is the master we serve, not man (22-23).
7:25-35. Paul’s advice to the unmarried is colored by the distress of the times he sees coming soon (26, 31). Whether he expected the second coming right away, who can say? But we are always to live in these last days as though that were the case. The form of this world is passing away. Watch and be ready. It is also a fact that famine and persecutions were very soon to come upon that generation.
7:36-38. Translators are divided as to the meaning of these verses. Some, such as the NASB, see it as advice to a father as to his giving his virgin daughter in marriage, or not. Others, such as the NIV and the RSV, see it as advice to a betrothed man as to whether he should take his virgin in consummated marriage, or not. Due to the immediately preceding context, and what I understand a truly literal translation of the Greek would say, I strongly lean to this second view.
7:39-40. This is all plain enough, though Paul’s opinion in v.40 may be colored by the culture and the times. V.39 is not opinion. Death ends the marriage bonds, and the surviving spouse is free to marry, but for the Christian, only in the Lord.