Mutual Love and Respect

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

MUTUAL LOVE AND RESPECT

1 Cor 7:36-38

36 If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. 37 But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin — this man also does the right thing. 38 So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better.  

NIV

Once again we delve into the past seeing a cultural situation which for the most part has no bearing on our modern society in this country. This verse has been translated but as a man’s acting improperly toward a virgin as well as a father toward his unmarried daughter. In the cultural the power of his daughter’s celibacy was totally within the father’s right. He could choose that she remain a virgin dedicated to the service of the Lord or whether she could marry. If he had determined she should remain a virgin and after she has been so for years and is getting older and he changed his mind allowing her to now marry, it was alright, he had that right, but here the idea was that it would be better if he had not changed his mind. All sort of old fashioned in our cultural today. So how do we learn anything from this for our lives? It could be related, if we see it as men and woman making up their own minds whether they should remain a virgin or enter into marriage giving themselves to one another, as already stated that our bodies our not our own but are our spouses. That is it is neither a sin to remain a virgin or to marry, both are acceptable in the sight of God. In the context of what Paul has written including some, or what we might think are some, of his personal views, we could see this as once again giving preference to remaining a virgin, which is far more than remaining single. Yet once again it would seem God’s intent is for the two to become one flesh. How do we reconcile these seemingly conflicting ideas? Is this then directed singularly toward a certain culture at a certain time in history? But we could also view this as the proper relational behavior between a man and a woman, mutual love and respect. We should always have this kind of attitude toward one the opposite sex, whether married or single. We should also respect an individual’s decision of marriage or singleness. We need to always be aware that God may have a particular plan and purpose for one individual and that each person needs to follow God’s plan for them. In reality we all are God’s people and we need to see his plan for us as a church and as individual members of that church. Mutual love and respect.