Friday, July 8: 1Corinthians 7- Mutuality and Marriage

Chapter 7 is written from a world perspective where men dominated. In the first century Roman world men ruled. Men had rights and freedoms; women had comparatively few and in some cases women were treated under the law as property. Given that general background, I find it incredibly fascinating how mutual Paul’s instructions are to both women and men regarding these various marriage situations. Hmmm, worth pondering…

As I step back from the various particulars of this chapter, I am struck by Paul’s singular devotion to the Lord and how that impacts all aspects of his life and is to impact all aspects of the believer’s life. Devotion to the Lord is crucial in determining whether to marry or stay single. If you can control yourself (i.e. your sexual desires) then don’t marry because you can serve the Lord better if single. But if you cannot control yourselves, it is better to marry than burn with passion. In other words, it is better to marry and have an appropriate sexual outlet than to be single and fight sexual urges all your life.

Paul also says, those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. … a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world--how he can please his wife (28, 33). Paul’s point seems to be that married people have divided loyalties; they have loyalties to the Lord and to their spouse. Wow, we do not think about marriage like that.  How it will impact our service to the Lord?!?

We don’t think about life like that either… my mind spins with questions I rarely, if ever, ask myself:

·         If I make this purchase (fill in the blank) will it allow me to serve the Lord better or will it pull me from the Lord’s service?

·         Follow up question: could the money necessary for the purchase be better used to serve You and Your kingdom if it were given away or used in some other way?

I can ask similar questions about money use; vacations, moves, mission trips, entertainment, hobbies, education, career and so on.

Lord, my meditations have moved far afield from marriage to questions of devotion, dedication and service to You. I can, and often do, live so self-centeredly instead of centering my life on serving You and Your kingdom. As I continue to wrestle with all of this, please guide me by Your Holy Spirit because sometimes erroneous guilt rises up in me and that is not of You.

I pledge my allegiance to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit… Amen.