1 Corinthians 7:6-11

April 29, 2018

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 15:25 in the audio file.

Or, Reluctance Is Not a Gift from God

G. K. Chesterton once wrote about how only a fool would look at the sun and the moon in order to argue about which one was better. He applied the point to value comparisons between men and women. Why would you do it?

One reason we compare and contrast is because we are God’s image-bearers and He is a distinguishing God. We learn to see differences and state the differences because He gave us that responsibility. There are times to make judgements about what is good, better, and best. There are other times, and perhaps this happens most of the time, when we don’t see what we’re supposed to see, and our assessments are ungodly.

Take for example one’s married state. What is the ideal state? In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul addresses a number of different marital conditions. There are the single, married, unmarried, widowed, married but celibate, unmarried and not celibate, celibate for good, and celibate with serious wishes to be done with it, married but separated, and the divorced. (Not quite as many as Facebook’s 71 options for gender, but still a lot.) Again, which is the ideal?

There is a way to read Paul’s comments, concession, and commands and think that we see the one ideal state. And I agree that there is just one, but it is not the “easy” one.

It would be easy to say, especially if all we had was 1 Corinthians 7, to say that it is ideal to be single. Paul says in verse 8 that he is single and loving it. Well, he says that it’s “good.” He says in verse 28 that to be married is to have worldly troubles, and in verses 33-35 that a married man has divided interests compared to the unmarried woman who can express undivided devotion to the Lord. There are some ways Paul talks that appear to make marriage less “spiritual,” suggesting half-hearted service for Christ or even a failure of self-control (verse 9).

Is singleness really what Paul believes is the ideal state? Does he believe that God is wrong in Genesis 2 when He said it is not good for a man to be alone? Are Paul’s celebrations over husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 a compromise from what he really believes? And if it really is not just better but the best, then why didn’t he start the chapter that way, and why does he give a place for marriage at all? Is it really because he thinks some Christians can’t control their sexual desires so that he reluctantly allows them to get married?

I don’t buy it. The ideal state is not being single, or married. The ideal state is being content in your state as a gift from God. There are some qualifications. Not each and every state is good, including every kind of sexual immorality. But immorality is possible regardless of what boxes you check on your tax forms, or Facebook, and so is grumbling ungratefulness. Yes, there are different opportunities and different temptations that come along with one’s marital state, but the ideal must include one’s happiness with their gift from God. Reluctance has never been a gift from God.

We’re going to consider the first three paragraphs of a four paragraph section in chapter 7. Paul says “I say this” in verse 6, then he has something to say to the unmarried in verse 8, then to the married in verse 10, and then “the rest,” which is another group of married couples, in verse 12. He’s driving to the middle of the chapter, verses 17-24, which is all about contentment; “let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (verse 17). There are some specifics related to the letter they sent him before that, and we’ll see three sections today.

Different Gifts (verses 6-7)

A number of translation[...]