A Settled Mind

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

A SETTLED MIND

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

This is a very difficult concept because of the various translations of the Greek and then the Greek itself and how it can read. This translation has taken a completely different twist than how the Greek implies if used as it has been thought by many scholars. It all stems from the word translated as a virgin. Some translations add the word daughter to imply that a father has complete control over his daughters’ affections toward a man, or some man’s affections toward his daughter. However, if we use the Greek word here in the context with the rest, it can mean a virgin in the sense of a man remaining celibate. There is no Greek word in this verse that specifically implies the word she. So then we could see this in the respect that if anyone has control of his or her one body and can abstain from marriage and remain celibate that is good, so they can devote themselves holy to God, without the distractions of marriage. This fits with what Paul has already said. However, Paul goes on to say that it is a virgin's own will in the matter, if a person is getting older, beyond the normal years of marriage in that culture, which with the Jews would have been somewhere between sixteen, seventeen to twenty years of age and in the gentile culture anywhere between twenty and thirty years of age, and they think they should marry, then it is fine, that is not a sin. The fact is either being single and celibate or being married is alright, it is up to each person to decide which the best course of life is for themselves. Certainly today, in our society, we have lost all sense of this scripture. There seems to be no concern at all for celibacy in any sense, and that includes in some religious communities, or rather within the church. This does not mean that all who have taken the vow to remain celibate have failed to do so, but it would seem many are not able to abstain from keeping themselves virgins or pure. Because marriage is not an issue, in fact, rather preferred in most church communities it would seem we are not under any compulsion to adhere to these instructions. Nevertheless, we can take this to mean that it is alright to remain single as long as that singleness includes remaining a virgin. We can also take this to mean in the sense of all believers is that we need to remain in control of our own being, or own impulses. That is be settled in our own mind regarding our way of life as we serve the Lord, either being single or married. In other words, we should have no conflict within as to how we have chosen our path. We have the choice and once made to remain celibate we should, or we can change our path and become married, but it is ours and we should not be conflicted but live with a settled mind.