Marriage

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

MARRIAGE

1 Cor 7:1-7

7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.   2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

NIV

This portion of the letter is in response to a question that was asked via some type of messenger sent from Corinth to Paul. The question seems to be regarding marriage within the church concerning the present times that existed in Corinth. The fact there were so many cults or cult-like practices in Corinth and so much sexual immorality, which in fact, Paul includes warnings against such behavior in the church, they needed to know how marriage played a role in the Christian life. Because of the context of the rest of this portion, it is considered right to translate the Greek word haptoo as marry, although it actually means, to touch, or to fasten to, make adhere, specifically to fasten fire to a thing, to kindle. So we have to consider that marriage is at the core of this discussion. It would seem that according to many of the philosophers of that age, marriage was more of an inconvenience or an evil, although a necessary evil. To carry the responsibilities of caring for a woman would have been considered a burden. The saying that it is difficult to live with them, but impossible to live without them may well have come from this general thinking of that time. However, Paul does go to give instructions as to how marriage should be considered in the church. We need to take this with respect to the plan that God established when he created man and woman, breathing life into man and then making woman from man as his helpmate. God intends that there be one man with one woman, living as partners in life, having all the benefits of intimacy, both for the procreation of mankind, and its pleasures. The pleasures were an incentive created by God so that man would indeed procreate. If intimacy contained no pleasure at all, it would seem there would be no reason to engage in it. However, the world has gone mad with the pleasures and has forsaken marriage and many have abandoned procreation. Paul is going to spend a great deal of time regarding how this marriage should look like, although everything is said as a concession, that is, it seems he would rather everyone remain single and celibate. However, if that were the case then mankind would have become exist long ago and that is not the plan of God, so we might have to conclude that Paul was speaking as a man, and not as a messenger from God, or at least, we need to see God’s plan within these words. We will see that Paul indicates that marriage is a burden, in the sense that men are concerned about the things of the world in order to care for their wives and the same goes for the wife in her concerns for her husband. That a single person is not burdened with this division of trying to satisfy a spouse and God. A single person, a celibate person only has the concerns of pleasing God. However, over the course of history, we have found, and even to this day, that many who profess the life of celibacy have failed to maintain that life engaging in various immoralities. We need to spend more time in this portion, delving deeper into each segment. But for now, let us consider marriage within the plan of God and see this all in that context.