Wednesday in the Word

Paul opens his long discussion about food sacrificed to idols not by talking about idols or meat, but by talking about knowledge—and the danger of using it badly. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 8:1–3, Krisan Marotta shows how Paul confronts a group of believers who are “right” about idols being nothing, yet are using that truth to justify ignoring their brothers and sisters. He insists that knowledge by itself can puff us up, but love—and being known by God—changes how we treat one another. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• The new section of the letter that begins with “now concerning,” and how the question about meat sacrificed to idols will shape chapters 8–10
• What temple feasts, marketplace meat, and social meals in pagan dining rooms looked like in first-century Corinth
• The two groups in the church: those who confidently eat idol-meat because “we know idols are nothing,” and those who see any participation as idolatry
• Why Paul begins his answer with “we all have knowledge,” and how he agrees with the facts while challenging the attitude behind them
• What “knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies” means in context—and why Paul is not opposing theology and love, but exposing self-serving knowledge
• How the “free thinkers” are using correct doctrine to justify doing whatever they want, without considering how their choices affect others
• The difference between knowing about God and loving God—and what Paul means when he says that the one who loves God “is known by Him”
• The crucial distinction between being right and being righteous: why accurate doctrine does not, by itself, make us holy, humble, or loving

After listening, you’ll see 1 Corinthians 8:1–3 as much more than a stray slogan about knowledge and love. You’ll gain a clearer sense of how easily we can turn correct theology into a tool for pride, and how Paul calls us instead to let truth lead to humility, faith, and genuine concern for others. The episode will help you examine where you might be saying “I know I’m right, so I can do what I want,” and invite you to ask a deeper question: How can I use what I know to love God and build up my brothers and sisters?

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

Paul’s final words in 1 Corinthians 7 are not an argument against marriage—they’re an invitation to see both marriage and singleness in light of eternity. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 7:25–40, Krisan Marotta unpacks Paul’s counsel to the betrothed, clarifies what he means by “the present distress,” and shows how our decisions about marriage fit inside a much larger question: where is our ultimate hope and loyalty? 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this closing section of chapter 7 fits with the earlier questions about celibacy, marriage, mixed-faith marriages, and the Corinthian slogan that it is “good for a man not to touch a woman.”
• Why Paul can say, “I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment,” and still speak with real apostolic authority rather than offering a casual personal opinion.
• What’s at stake in the phrase “in view of the present distress/necessity,” and it as pressure or obligation in a particular situation, not simply persecution or general hardship.
• Paul’s basic counsel to engaged couples: honor your existing commitments; if you are bound by a promise, don’t break it, and if you choose to marry, “you have not sinned.”
• How Paul’s comments about “worldly troubles” in marriage are best understood, not as despising marriage, but as recognizing that sharing life multiplies responsibilities in a world already full of sorrow and difficulty.
• The striking call to live “as though” married, mourning, rejoicing, buying, and using the world were not ultimate because “the present form of this world is passing away” and we are already in the last era of God’s plan.
• Why the most important issue is not whether we marry or stay single, but whether we have set our hope on Christ and the age to come rather than on the temporary goods of this life.
• Paul’s one real “advantage” of singleness: fewer obligations to consider when choosing how to serve the Lord, not a higher level of holiness or a more spiritual state.
• How marriage adds a second, good obligation—to love and please one’s spouse—which is part of obedience to God, not a distraction from it.
• Paul’s closing word to widows and previously betrothed women: freedom to remarry “only in the Lord,” along with his honest assessment that some may be “happier” remaining as they are.

After listening, you’ll see 1 Corinthians 7:25–40 not as a warning that marriage is second-best, but as a call to hold every life situation—single, engaged, married, widowed—loosely in light of eternity. You’ll be encouraged to receive your current circumstances as a real gift from God, to make wise and thoughtful decisions about marriage without fear of missing his will, and to pursue a life where the central question is not “Am I married or single?” but “Am I trusting Christ and living for the age that will never pass away?”

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

Following Christ does not require escaping your life. It calls you to be faithful in it. 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 7:12–24, Krisan Marotta looks at Paul’s counsel to believers married to unbelievers and his broader principle that we are to serve God in the circumstances where he found us, whether in a mixed marriage, as Jew or Gentile, slave or free. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this section fits into the flow of 1 Corinthians 7 as Paul keeps responding to the Corinthian slogan that “it is good for a man not to touch a woman”
• What Paul means by “I say, not the Lord”—why this is not “just his opinion,” but apostolic instruction where Jesus gave no specific prior teaching
• Why a believer married to an unbeliever is not defiled by that relationship, and why Paul insists they must not initiate divorce if the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay
• How to understand the “sanctified” spouse and “holy” children—not as automatically saved, but as part of a relationship and family life that God regards as good and legitimate
• Paul’s realistic compassion when the unbelieving spouse wants to leave: “Let him leave… God has called us to peace,” and why the believer is “not under bondage” in such cases
• The danger of thinking it is our responsibility to “save” our spouse, and how verse 16 frees believers from carrying the weight of another person’s conversion
• Paul’s wider principle: remain in the condition in which you were called—illustrated through circumcision and slavery—to show that outward circumstances matter less than obedience to God
• The distinction between religious devotion (trying to prove holiness through external rules and rituals) and moral devotion (a heart set on keeping God’s commands in whatever situation we’re in)

After listening, you’ll come away with a calmer, clearer perspective on how faith intersects with marriage, mixed-faith homes, cultural identity, and social status. You’ll be encouraged to stop chasing a “super-spiritual” life built on dramatic changes of circumstance, and instead to embrace the profound calling Paul lays out: to stay, as far as it depends on you, and live faithfully before God right where he has placed you—trusting that you belong to Christ, that he has bought you with a price, and that your primary calling is to keep his commandments in whatever story you’re living.

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

Paul’s counsel in 1 Corinthians 7:7–11 is not a put-down of marriage or a glorification of a “higher” spiritual class of celibates. It is a call to see both singleness and marriage as good gifts from God and to stop treating sexuality as something inherently unspiritual. 

In this episode, Krisan Marotta unpacks how Paul answers the Corinthians’ extreme views about celibacy, clarifies what he means by “gift,” “self-control,” and “burning,” and explains why divorce is not a shortcut to a supposedly more holy life. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How 1 Corinthians 7 fits into Paul’s response to a Corinthian claim that “it is good for a man not to touch a woman,” and why that slogan distorts God’s design for marriage and sexuality
• What Paul means when he says each person has “his own gift from God,” and why Krisan argues that the state of being married or single is the gift—not a special, supernatural “ability” some have and others lack
• How Paul can genuinely “wish that all were as I myself am” (single and content) while still insisting that God has given two good paths: faithful singleness and faithful marriage
• Why his words to “the unmarried and the widows” commend remaining single as a good option, especially for those who have already been married, without treating remarriage as second-class
• A clearer reading of “it is better to marry than to burn,” showing that Paul is not recommending marriage as a fix for lust or a concession for the weak-willed, but urging people not to posture as celibate while secretly longing for marriage
• Paul’s two real options: committed celibate singleness or committed marriage—and why trying to be “unmarried but non-celibate” is spiritually and practically destructive
• What “to the married… not I, but the Lord” means in verses 10–11, and how Jesus’ teaching on divorce shapes Paul’s answer to those who want to leave their spouses in order to appear more spiritual
• How this passage doesn’t aim to address every possible divorce scenario, and why we must be careful not to use it to condemn those fleeing genuinely destructive situations

After listening, you’ll have a more balanced, hopeful view of both singleness and marriage as places where God is at work, rather than as higher and lower spiritual tiers. You’ll be invited to rethink common assumptions about the “gift of singleness,” to see your present situation as a real gift from God, and to pursue either celibacy or marriage with honesty, integrity, and trust that God has not mismanaged your life, but is using it wisely for your good and his purposes.

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church

What did Paul really mean when he wrote, “It is good for a man not to touch a woman”? 

In this episode on 1 Corinthians 7:1–7, Krisan Marotta looks at the first of the Corinthians’ written questions to Paul and argues that he is responding not to people desperate to marry, but to believers flirting with an extreme, “super-spiritual” celibacy—even within marriage. Paul’s answer offers a balanced, positive vision of both singleness and marriage, and a richer understanding of sexuality as part of the promises spouses make to one another. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How the phrase “now concerning” signals a shift to Paul answering specific questions from the Corinthians, and why that matters for reading chapter 7
• The likely background of the slogan, “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman,” in a Greek culture that viewed the body as inferior to the spirit
• Why Krisan understands 1 Corinthians 7:2–4 as addressing married couples tempted to abstain from sex altogether in the name of holiness, not singles deciding whether to marry
• The significance of the phrase “have his own wife / have her own husband” as a common way of referring to sexual relations, and how that shapes our reading of the passage
• Paul’s emphasis on mutual obligation in marriage: each spouse giving themselves to the other, rather than claiming the right to demand what they want, when they want it
• A careful look at “the wife does not have authority over her own body… and likewise the husband,” and how these verses have been misunderstood and misused as weapons rather than calls to self-giving love
• Why Paul allows for temporary abstinence “by agreement for a time” for prayer, while insisting it be mutual, limited, and not treated as inherently more spiritual
• How the realities of Corinthian culture—temple prostitution, low expectations of marital fidelity, and sexual temptation—help explain Paul’s concern about deprivation in marriage leading to greater immorality
• The contrast between asceticism (seeing all physical pleasure as suspect) and Paul’s positive view of marriage and sexuality as good gifts from God within a covenant commitment

After listening, you’ll come away with a more nuanced understanding of 1 Corinthians 7:1–7 and a clearer sense of how Paul holds together the goodness of celibacy and the goodness of marriage. You’ll be encouraged to see marital sexuality not as a bargaining chip or a spiritual liability, but as one way spouses live out the promises they have made—to share their lives, their bodies, and their futures with one another in a spirit of mutual honor, love, and faithfulness before God.

Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the Church