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Welcome to studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us even as we see the day approaching. And now here's Gary. First Corinthians 7. As you're turning to First Corinthians 7, I'm going to read Genesis 5, a couple of verses. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man in the likeness of God, made he him. Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day that they were created. Adam was the man of the earth made of earth, and his name, Adom means red soil. He's taken from ruddy soil, if you will, kind of like Oklahoma dirt. I don't know what his complexion was, but I gather that he had a kind of a ruddy or reddish complexion from all the commentary. But Adam was created male and female. Out of his side came Eve. Her name, Chava in Hebrew means life. She brought life to humanity. First Corinthians 7. Now, concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me, it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Well, that starts us right out there. Should we go farther than the first verse? Male and female. God created male and female for procreation, but also for mutual enjoyment and for the work that had to be done. A lot of reasons why God created male and female. This chapter 7 in First Corinthians is perhaps the best chapter in the Bible to illustrate the value of context. Very important that we consider the context in which this is written, including Paul's first statement here. Concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me, they wrote with a lot of questions. They lived in a tough place in a tough time. You think it's tough being a Christian in America? It's not. In Corinth, which was a pagan Roman capital, having a married Christian life, not only when Paul wrote this letter, but particularly in the years just following, was a rough, rough thing to do. Society mitigated against a successful Christian marriage for reasons that we'll see. He's writing to the Corinthians here in about AD 56, just before the rise of the first great Christian persecution. And it's in this context that he writes. He also writes in the context of the evil of Corinth, Corinth being a city wholly given over to idolatry and Roman culture. Concerning your questions, well, obviously they had written to him about marriage. How are we going to handle marriage in our situation in Corinth? Because everything is against it. Everything in Corinth rules against a successful Christian marriage. Now, two things. God created Adam and Eve. And Paul says, it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Let me get it straight right away that Paul had been a married man at the time that he wrote this. He was probably in his 50s, maybe approaching 60, nobody knows for sure, but he was apparently a widower at this time. He had had a wife, and there's no doubt about this because he had been a member of the Sanhedrin. You could not be a member of the Sanhedrin unless you were married. You had to be a family man. In fact, Sanhedrin, the Yebchomot on Genesis 5:2, which we just read, says, and I quote, a Jew who has no wife is not a man. This is from the Sanhedrin's own declaration. Couldn't be a single guy and be in the Sanhedrin. Well, Paul was not just in the Sanhedrin. He was one of the top people in the Sanhedrin. Therefore, no doubt that he had been married at one point and was a family man. And in First Corinthians 9:5, he writes, have we not the power to lead about a sister or wife, as well as other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas or Peter? He's talking about the disciples being married men and having wives and children, sisters and so forth. So Paul is not speaking these words in First Corinthians 7. As a single man with no experience in marriage. It's good for a man not to live in marriage with a woman. Touch a woman, meaning have married relations with a woman. Why would he say this? And then in the following verse, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. Let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, or that which is due her, and likewise also the wife unto her husband. The wife hath not the power of her own body, but the husband likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Mutual submission, the model in marriage in Corinth. The whole city of Corinth was overlooked by a huge hill there to this day called the Acro Corinthi. Upon the top of that hill was a temple to Diana. And also there were Delphic oracles. These temples made. Made sex a religion. And the temple virgins, the less said about them, the better. The whole subject of relations in this context, in this city at this time was pagan. There were street walkers. There were temple virgins, falsely so called. There were various kinds of religious practices throughout Rome, and particularly in Achaia, where Corinth was located, relations were made a religion. The wife in the Roman world was chattel property, literally. And it was common for Roman men to have several wives, as many as they needed to do the household work. And if you were a wealthy Roman nobleman, you might have five or six wives. And by the way, they were by no means secure in your household. If they displeased you, you could get rid of them and get another one. Women were chattel property. Relations were taken care of through the temple, on the street, or in the company of other men in bath houses. It was not a pretty picture. It was a decadent, decadent society. Hollywood squared. And so the people of Corinth had written. Paul, question concerning marriage. Wait a minute now. How are we going to operate? We're so different from all of society. As Christians, tell us how we should regard the subject of marriage. And by the way, this was a brand new thing. Judaism reigned in its own way throughout the Roman Empire and had its own legalistic views of marriage. Nevertheless, a Jewish male could stand up to his wife and say, I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you three times. And she was out the door. That was the law concerning marriage and divorce among Jews. A Roman man didn't even have to say that. Just take a broom and beat her and get her out of there. Tough, tough world. So along comes this new thing called Christianity, which rejected Jewish legalisms. It preached the gospel. It preached devotion to the man to be the husband of one wife. It preached to him that he had the primary responsibility for upholding the marriage. That was an absolute inversion of everything that Judaism, Judeo, Gnosticism, Hellenistic Judaism and Romanism taught in that day. Man, forget it. If what goes on in the household doesn't please me, you're out of here. You don't even take three strikes, you're gone. Paul and the others come along in this hostile world and they start preaching marriage based upon devotion to one spouse. You talk about a revolution. And so the people had written to Paul saying, how do we operate? How do we view marriage, Particularly in light of the complexities that have arisen? And these complexities are many. For example, let's suppose you're a wife, and one of the apostles or their disciples has an opportunity to witness to you, and you receive Christ, and you go home and tell your pagan Roman husband that you've just become a Christian. Oops. He's going to say, that is a stupid superstition. I'M not living under the same roof with you. I divorce you. There are many permutations and possibilities, but you get the idea. In this particular kind of a society where divorce was daily routine, Paul and the others were trying to build the institution of marriage based on Christianity as a brand new entity. Nothing ever like it before was not based on Judaism, was not based on Romanism because Judaism had a very legalistic view of marriage. Christianity has an utterly non legalistic view of marriage. Judaism says we build our house on the 613 commandments, and Christianity says we build our house on the agape love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Totally, totally, totally different. That's the context. That's why it's so important to look at context when you look at the Bible, because it'll help you to understand what Paul and the others were writing about. This is the situation. Verse 4. The wife hath not the power of her own body, but the husband. Likewise, the husband hath not the power of his own body, but the wife. Tell that to a Roman nobleman who's used to beating his wife. Tell that to a Jew who takes pretty much the same view of a wife. If you know anything about the history of militant Judaism, the wife came out below the family dog in terms of ranking in those households. Christianity, no such thing. Husband doesn't control his body, the wife controls his body. Wife doesn't control her body, Husband controls her body. Mutual submission. Whoever heard of such a thing? And by the way, how's mutual submission going to work anyway? There's no law concerning mutual submission. And they're writing all these questions to Paul, how does this thing work? How are we going to make this work? So he writes this very, very pragmatic answer to their questions. Defraud ye not one another or deprive ye not one another, except it be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and then come together again. That Satan tempt you not for your incontinence. Notice verse 6. I speak this by permission and not commandment. He says this is a guideline. This is not a commandment. What I'm saying here is a guideline, folks, not a commandment. Lest you get the idea that you can write all this down in a book and create a bunch of little laws for get it? This is guideline guidelines from Paul. The problem that I have seen with Christianity is that people take Paul's words and they try to hammer them into law. They try to heat them up, forge them out while they're red hot, like a blacksmith, you know, clang, clang, clang. And then when they're through, they plunge it in a bucket of water and it's a law. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was, I believe, seven noes there. Not a law. Paul says, I speak this as a guideline, not as a commandment. And the Context of Chapter 7 is guideline, not law. And it's based on love, the love of Christ. The internal stimulation of human love in a marriage relationship as prompted and led by the Holy Spirit. No law can ever, ever create that condition. Now, there you were in Corinth, overseen by the temples of Diana and the temple of the Pythians, the Delphic oracles, soothsayers, pagan prophets, students of the fresh entrails of slain goats, trying to divine the future terribly pagan world. A world in which women were chattel property, whether they were Jew or Gentile. Paul came along and he lifted woman from the place of slavery. And believe me, she was a slave. In the pagan world, you were a slave if you were a woman. He lifted her up and made her the companion of man. He restored her to her rightful position as originally created by God through the work of the second Adam. Paul was in Ephesus when he wrote this letter. In Ephesus, the same thing was going on over there. There was a temple of Artemis, Diana of the Ephesians. The whole city was pagan, Roman, Greco Roman and Hellenistic Jew. And it was operated by Roman law and Jewish law. Paul came along and said, I, out with the law. There's a better way. Having said that, let's look at the letter to the Ephesians. Paul was over there in Ephesus when he wrote this. Ephesians 5. Let's set the context a little more firmly. Ephesians 5, 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Oh, the guys love this one, right? Oh, yeah. Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. And if you don't, I'm going to show you the back of my hand. No, it doesn't say that. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ the head of the Church, he's the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. There's that word submit in there. There are several ways in Greek you can say submit. There's hupotage, which means get in line. It's a military term. Submit yourselves in discipline. Then there's a Greek word, huperejo. Huperejo means it's a formal demand for submission by a superior or by one of royal blood. Means you better submit or you die. It's tough, but the word that's used in Ephesians 5:22, Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands. Is a different word, hupotasso, which in context means self submission. But the word we would use in modern English is response or respond. Wives, respond unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Wives, respond to your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, let me ask you what kind of a Lord the Lord is. And we're talking about the Lord Jesus here. What does he make you do? The Lord Jesus? What did he make you do this last week? Did he make you get down on your knees and pray? Did he make you tithe? Did he make you observe traffic laws? Did he make you or what did he make you do this Lord Jesus? Absolutely nothing, right? That's our Lord. He doesn't make us do anything. All of this then begs an explanation about Christianity. And as I get older, I see that the chief problem with Christianity is, is that people don't know they're free to sin. Until you absolutely, positively, without any doubt in your mind, come to the conclusion I'm free to sin as much as I want to, you'll never be a successful Christian. Why? I'm free to do anything I want to do. Paul called it liberty. Jesus said in me, you shall be free indeed. My yoke. Hey, is light. He says, yeah, you're yoked up with me, but my burden is light. I'm not going to make you do a bunch of stuff. Well, that's nutty, isn't it? Doesn't make you do anything. What kind of a religion is this? Well, it's no religion at all. Christianity is not a religion. It's the antithesis of religion. It's a relationship with a loving Lord who doesn't make you do a blasted thing. You can sin to your heart's content. What shall we sin? That grace may abound? Of course not. But until you realize you're totally free to sin, then and only then can you fully operate in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're free to sin, you're also free not to sin. Do you understand? Wow, what a concept. And very few people get it. They want to lace Christianity with burdensome jots and tittles, debates, legalisms, stumbling blocks, rules, regulations. Jesus make you come to church today, did he? I don't think so. Why are you here. This is the context of First Corinthians, chapter 7. People write to Paul and say how in the world, given that some of us were Jews, some of us were Roman citizens, some of us were Greeks, and we all come with different cultural backgrounds and different rules about how we have relations with each other, how men relate to women, there were as many rules as there were people in the Roman Empire. How do we set up and run, efficiently run marital relationships in this society? And Paul says, well, it's easy. You just remember that the love of the Lord is the ruling guideline in marriage. Wife doesn't have power over her own body, but the husband. Husband doesn't have power over his body, but the wife. Wow. Mutual submission. Now, before I leave, Ephesians 5:22, I just want to say one more thing. 5:22,25. The 25th verse says, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. This puts the burden of marriage on the husband, flat out. And it means that a husband has to be able to love his wife in the same way Jesus loved the church. By the way, is the church lovable? Not at all. It's a bunch of stinky sheep that need a sheep dip from time to time. And yet Jesus loves us even though we sometimes don't deserve his love. Right? And what does Paul say? Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, gave himself for it. You're to unconditionally love your wife. Is a man equipped to unconditionally love a wife even though she doesn't deserve it? Of course he's not. A man is not equipped to do that unless he is fully indwelt by the Holy Spirit, in which case then he becomes equipped to love his wife. And that's the operant principle in marriage. Men are singularly incapable of love. I speak of males. They're not built to love. They're just not. They're built to ride motorcycles, fly fish, go out and tell dirty stories with the boys, sit around a campfire, hang out, wear dirty clothes, And leave the women at home where they belong. Right? And a log comes along, comes Paul and says, husbands love your wives. And the guy I can just. The guy's sitting around the campfire going, oh, did you hear that, Billy Bob? Do you love your wife? Well, I try, but she won't let me. Won't let me. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Husbands love your wives. That's the operant principle in marriage, unknown in the Roman Empire. The wife of a Roman nobleman. She ducked when she saw him coming. She walked down the side of the hall and averted her eyes. He didn't love her. She was there to do his dirty work. Clean house, et cetera. Believe me. Well, this is the context of First Corinthians 7. Again, Paul is lifting the woman from her traditional place of slavery, which Legalistic Judaism, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco Roman Paganism had placed her in abject slavery. And now she's to be the companion of man. They are to walk together as absolute equals. This is Christianity. It is the only feminine liberation movement in the history of the world that ever worked. Where do I get the nerve to say that? Well, right out of the Bible. Defraud ye not one another, verse 5, except it be with consent for a time. Defraud comes from a Greek word, apostero, which means to rob someone of something that they are due, to withhold something that they should receive. I speak this as a guideline. Verse 7. I would that all men were, even as I myself, but every man hath his proper gift of God. One after this manner, another after that. Marriage is a calling. In Paul's case, singleness was a calling. He was widowed, I'm sure, and he was called to do what he did. He was totally devoted to the Lord, and for him, a wife. Well, for a wife to have followed Paul would have been an incredible burden, both on him and her, because the Lord called him to amazingly complex duties, and not only that, but to suffering. The eighth verse. I say, therefore, to the unmarried widows. It's good for them if they abide, even as I. If you're unmarried, stay unmarried. If you're a widow, stay a widow. Why is he saying this? Is this advice for our age? No. Look at the context. The context, and Paul understood this only too well, is that the most horrific sort of persecution was about to be unleashed upon early Christianity. It had already begun to a slight degree. Nero was on the throne. In the later years of his reign, he came down hard on Christians, and his was the first of 10 major persecutions over the next couple of centuries that would absolutely decimate Christianity and would wreak havoc on Christian families who had to run fleeing and often didn't have enough to eat, didn't have places to live. And under these conditions, Paul is saying very carefully, consider if you're going to be married under conditions of great hardship, when you're totally off, opposed by the Roman state, hunted down like a dog, you better be careful. You better be mindful of that which is to come. But he says, if they cannot stand, if they cannot contain to remain single, let them marry. It's better to marry than to burn in passion. Some people feel called to marriage. They need to be married. People fall in love even in the toughest of times. Marriage takes place unto the married. I command, yet not I but the Lord let not the wife depart from her husband. And that is a command that goes all the way back to early Judaism. Nevertheless, Judaism was absolutely riddled with divorce in the time of Christ, because Pharisaic Judaism and religious Judaism as it had developed until this time gave weight to the bail in the household. He could pretty much call the shots. And if he didn't like what was going on, you're out of here. I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you. But he says to the married, he says, let not the wife depart from her husband. But if she departs, let her husband remain unmarried or be reconciled to be her husband. Let not the husband put away his wife. In other words, maintain the bond of marriage in the best way you can, because this is what the Lord will bless. Don't split up for no reason at all. Stick together if you're married, Then he says, verse 12. But to the rest, speak I not the Lord. This is my view right here, says Paul. Verse 12. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. This is the condition that we talked about a minute ago, particularly in the early days of Christianity, where you would preach to the pagans. A wife might receive Christ, a husband might receive Christ immediately generating conflict in the marriage. Paul says that marriage should remain together if the unbeliever will stand it. Verse 13. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, the unbelieving wife sanctified by the husband. Else, were your children unclean, but now are they holy? He's talking about the complexities of married life in a pagan world in which one spouse may be a believer. The believing Spouse sanctifies the family, that is, by sanctify. This means that the unction of the Holy Spirit can cover an entire family, even if only one spouse is saved and indwelt by the Spirit, even to the point of covering the children. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. Brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God hath called us to peace. If an unbeliever departs out of a marriage, let him go. This is Paul's opinion, and he says, you're no longer under bondage once that person has gone. What does that mean? It means you're free. What are you free to do? God has called us to peace. Not to nail biting, not to anxiety, not to fretting about questions that can't be answered. And there are a thousand permutations, and you've heard them all, ranging from no divorce is ever possible, and if someone departs, you're still under bondage. Two, all things are possible through the Lord. There are all kinds of probabilities and permutations and variations here that you can argue until the cows come home. But God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? The whole idea here is to make the marriage work, if at all possible, in this pagan world. Now, we were all raised in a Christian world. The Christian ethos has covered America for the last couple centuries and before. But the Christian ethos is slipping away now, and we're finding ourselves living much as they did in pagan Rome, although we're not quite as pagan yet. We're there, I think, within a decade, probably the way things are going. And all of these difficulties will begin to plague marriages once again, even as they are right now. The divorce rates rising, difficulties in marriage are legion. Talk about that without mentioning another verse of Scripture for the next hour. But I don't want to do that. My purpose here is to set the context, because so much has been made of chapter seven. The idea is remain married if possible. Realize that the operant factor in marriage is the Holy Spirit, not some law, not some legalism, and recognize that sanctification of the family is the goal of marriage. If one spouse is stronger than the other, as a believer, it's incumbent upon that spouse to sanctify the entire marriage. It may require some sacrifice. The whole idea is that the family should be sanctified. God's calling under difficult circumstances is very clear. Verses 12 through 16 have dealt with the question or the case of a wife or a husband who's not received. Christ and Paul is saying, in effect, stay right where you are if you can, but if the unbelieving partner leaves, you're free. There's no categorical rule here about remarriage after separation. I think it has to be taken on a case by case basis. If you try to establish a law and say, there shall not be remarriage, or there shall be remarriage for the following reasons. If you try to set up a system of legalisms, you're bound to fail. Grace can abound, no matter what the difficulties. Verse 17. But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk, and so ordain I in all churches here, Paul is advising couples to stay in the situation in which they find themselves. They're not to walk out of their marriage after they've heard and accepted the gospel. They are to stay married if the unbelieving partner will allow it. Now, here's another question. Is any man called being circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised. Any called in uncircumcision, let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the commandments of the Lord. Let every man abide in the same calling where he was called. Now, this is a very important issue. You talk about a diverse society. Everybody's talking about social diversity today. And we have to have a diverse society, and we have to honor everyone, regardless of their beliefs. And you know where that comes from. That's a pagan idea. And the whole idea of paganism is to honor paganism and to refer to Christianity as some strange and outlandish cultic kind of behavior. But the rest of us, we're diverse. We welcome all into our ranks. But what Paul is doing here is speaking to a very diverse society, the society of Corinth. And he says in verse 20, let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. In plain language, what he's saying here is, if you're a Jew, don't try to become a gentile. You can be saved and still be a Jew. Oh, really? Yes, you can. Yeah, you really can. You can continue to practice your Judaism and. And be a Christian. Sure you can. If you're a Gentile, don't try to become a Jew. Remain in the same calling in which you were called. And, you know, a lot of Gentiles often feel compelled to accept the trappings of Judaism in order to feel, quote, unquote, closer to God or whatever it is. But Paul says, no, circumcision is nothing. Uncircumcision is nothing. The keeping the command commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. If you were called as a Jew, hey, you're a Jew. You're called as a Roman. You're a Roman called as an American middle class guy from Oklahoma. That's what you are. Don't try to be what you're not. Because in Christ there's a bond that transcends all cultures. This is the problem with Christianity. It tries to elevate one culture over another. You've got a church over here side of town that caters to a particular culture. You've got a church over here on this side of town that caters to a particular culture. You got some churches down here that cater to another culture and some churches up here that cater to another culture. And they're all saying, wow, we're the best. You ought to be in our church. You ought to be. Oh, we do this. And this other church says, well we do this. We have a particular singing style. And boy, if you have never experienced that singing style, you better try that because you're really missing something. And this other church over here will say, well we do this kind of deal where you have to do these things before you sit down in your chair. And if you don't do those, why, you're really missing something. In fact, there's some doubts whether you're even saved or not. You know what I'm talking about. Culture, culture, culture, culture. And Paul says, let every man abide the same calling wherein he was called. We can join at the spirit level, not at the cultural level. That's where we find our communion. Are you called being a servant? Well, care not for it, don't worry about it. But if you may be made free, use it rather. Now that's obfuscatory language of the Jacobean sort. In plain English what he is saying here is, are you a slave? And by the way, there were more slaves than freedmen in the Roman Empire and a lot of them became Christians. Are you a slave? Paul says, don't worry about it. Are you a freedman? Work as a freedman. You can work either way. Remember the little book that Paul wrote about the profitable slave? This is a very interesting book and I'm going to turn over there right now. First and second Timothy, Titus Philemon. Philemon was a runaway slave and he met Paul in Rome. What did Paul do, by the way? You know, Philemon could have been arrested and killed as a runaway slave. What did Paul do? Hide him and give him some money and say, well head for Spain. You know they're not going to arrest you. There's no. Paul says, you go back home to your master and I'm going to write you a letter to take with you to your master, because I know him and he's a Christian. And now you're a Christian too. And though he's a master and you're a slave, you now have communion. This is the principle of Christ. This is the principle in marriage, in cultural matters, in business, in society. We have communion at the spiritual level. And so many things conspire to complicate that, to drive us apart. Nevertheless, we have communion. And I don't care who comes into these walls. I don't care how that person is dressed, how much money they have, whether they don't have any 2/4 to rub together. If they're a Christian, they're a Christian. And we commune at the spiritual level. I'm not superior to that person. He's not superior to me. This was so revolutionary in Paul's day when he wrote the seventh chapter of first Corinthians. Wow. He was introducing something that had never ever been seen before, not ever. And people Forget that verse 22 First Corinthians 7:22. For he that is called in the Lord, being a slave is. Is the Lord's freeman. Hey, even if you're a slave, you're free. Likewise, also, he that is called being free is Christ's slave. Ah, well, there's a concept. If you're a slave, Jesus makes you free. If you're a freedman, Jesus makes you a slave. Do you think of yourself as a slave to Christ? You know, I don't. He doesn't crack the whip on me, doesn't make me do anything. And yet, in one sense, I am. I would do anything he would ask unhesitatingly. In that sense, I am. But he doesn't make me do anything. He's not a cruel master. That's what I'm driving at. The thing about Christianity is that it makes everybody free. It removes the traditional bondage of culture and replaces it with the gentle, loving bondage of the Lord. You're bought with a price. That's redemption. You are bought with a price. And by the way, that is that famous Greek word, agorizo, which means to have been purchased out of the slave market. You are bought with a price. You were enslaved to the devil before you were saved, and you have been purchased and set free. That is so amazing, so revolutionary. It needs to be reviewed from time to time so that you can celebrate your freedom all over again. I'm free. He set me free. You know, so he says, you're bought with a price. Be not Servants of man. Ooh, you serve Christ. If you serve Christ, you may become a servant of man. But even if you serve man, your master is still Christ, because Christ supersedes everything. Your duty here on earth may involve serving men and maybe even doing some things you don't want to do for other people to make money. Like, you know, I hate this job, and yet I go to this job 40 hours a week, and I have to do it to make money. But above and beyond that, I'm serving the Lord. He's my master. Brethren, let every man wherein he's called therein abide with God. Now, 7:25. Concerning marriageable daughters. People had written to him saying, and Paul's over in Ephesus at this time, A.D. 56. He's getting this letter from the Corinthians, and they're asking him a bunch of questions about marriage and family. And so he writes to them. One of their questions obviously, was, we have eligible daughters. How should we marry them off? Well, how had it happened prior to that time? Well, if they were Jews, there's a traditional Jewish method of betrothal. If they were Gentiles, often marriage was done for political purposes or monetary purposes, dowry or to marry up in society. For example, to marry your daughter off to a nobleman, which would elevate your status in society. So there were all these rules about how to marry your daughters off, and they were all pagan rules or Hellenistic Judaistic rules, if you will. And so the question came, well, how should we view our behavior concerning our marriageable daughters? And Paul refers to them here as virgins. And he says, now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord. Okay, he's saying right up front, this is not a law. This is my opinion. Yet he says, I give my judgment, my opinion, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose, therefore, that this is good for the present distress. I say that it is good for man so to be. Art thou bound unto a wife, Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But if thou marry, thou hast not sinned. If a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh. But I spare you this. I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none. And they that weep, as though they wept not. And they that rejoice, as though they rejoice not. They that buy as though they possessed not this present distress. Verse 26. I suppose, therefore, that this is good. For this present distress, the great Roman fire was just about to happen. Christians would be hunted down and killed throughout the empire. You're a family with some marriageable daughters reaching marriageable age. How in the. What should you do with them? You're on the run. You can't even have a public wedding. They'll arrest you at the wedding. What are you going to do? He says, the time is short. Well, the time was short. Persecutions. The next year after this letter was written, in AD 67, Nero came down against Christians. After the great Roman fire under Domitian AD 81, there was another wave of Christian persecution. That was the greatest wave of persecution ever to hit Christianity. Under Trajan ad 108. The third persecution under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in AD 162. Septimus Severus ad 192, under Maximus ad 235, under Decius ad 249, under Valerian 257, under Aurelian 274. Diocletian ad 303. Wave after wave after wave of persecutions against Christians. And I can't even tell you in mixed company what they used to do to Christians. Horrible. Paul says, this present distress. You ought to really take very careful stock of what you're doing because you got to be in a position to be mobile. You got to be in a position to run. You got to be in a position to hide, to live under extraordinary circumstances. And Paul here is speaking. Well, he speaks of five things. Marriage, sorrow, joy, commerce, and one's relation to the world. He says, but this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none. They that weep, that is sorrow, as though they wept not. They that rejoice, that's joy, as though they rejoice not. They that buy as though they possess not speaking of commerce. And they that use this world as not abusing it for the first passeth away. He says, you're going to have to be living independent of what's going on in the world. You're going to have to become. You're going to have to trust the Lord, as the old saying goes, and keep your powder dry. You're going to have to be ready. He says in verse 31. They that use the world is not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passeth away. He says, what you see right now, folks, I'm writing to you AD56. What you think is normal right now is about to pass away. He says the word fashion in the Greek language is schema. We would say scheme, or we would say manner of life or actions. Lifestyle is a good word. He says the lifestyle of the world that you're now familiar with is about to pass away radically. You got to get ready for persecution, he says in 7:32. But I would have you without carefulness, anxiety. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord. How he may please the Lord. Paul's looking at the things to come in about the next two centuries, and he's saying, you know, you could spare yourself a horrendous burden of care if you remain single under these circumstances. That's what he's saying. And he was right. Peter. Peter's wife and daughter were killed, Martyred. Her name was Petronea. And the martyrdom of Petronea is a very sad story. Peter's wife was killed outright. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome, just outside of Rome. This is the context in which this letter is written. To try to use this as a marriage guide for the 20th century, it's okay, but you have to know what it says. And what it says is that the love of God, as expressed through the Holy Spirit, indwelling a marriage is the key principle of marriage and not any law concocted by any human being. You know, we're out of time, and so I'm going to stop there and continue next week. This is a very key passage. And chapter eight, which comes next, transitions from marriage to liberty and the principle of the weaker brother. And those two subjects really tie together nicely. So we'll continue there next week, starting in the 32nd verse of First Corinthians 17.