1st Corinthians Chapter 7

1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. 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 all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one this gift and another has that.

8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am. 9 But if they can not control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not seperate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And the husband must not divorce his wife.

12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy.

15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let them do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.

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Corinth and the Corinthians

In the time of Paul, the city of Corinth might be compared to an ancient version of Hollywood or maybe some other city in California. Very trendy, very modern and very mixed up. It was a place where being seen and who you were seen with was at least as important as what you did. People had a way of taking things to extremes, whether they were pagans or new Christians.

Paul stopped by Corinth several times during his missionary career, but when wasn't there, he kept hearing things about the church in this town. He was hearing bad things. The first 7 chapters of this first letter are devoted to problems Paul heard about from other people. The Corinthians had written to Paul with some questions and concerns, and in chapter 7 he finally begins to address concerns that they brought up to him.

The first verse (7:1) is most often terribly misunderstood and misinterpreted by many who want to turn Paul into some sort of misogynist who disapproves of sex. But in fact, he is repeating what it is the Corinthians had written to him. Many Corinthians had adopted a philosophy that where anything of the flesh was bad, and the flesh had to be whipped into submission in order to become more spiritual. It's a belief that is distinctly Greek and is deeply embedded into Christian theology today where the spiritual and physical have little or nothing to do with each other.

In the days of Paul, many Corinthians took the few that sex was the antithesis of being spiritual. Sound familiar? Several members of that church declared to their married partners, "You know, in order to be more spiritual, I'm going to abstain from having sex. Sorry." In other words, they were invoking spirituality and involuntarily thrusting celibacy on their partners. Sound familiar?

So in the first verse, Paul is merely saying, "Yeah, what you said about not having sex is good, BUT...." And notice he puts that 'but' right there, just like that. The position of no sex was not Paul's, it was those Corinthians who wrote to him. If you read chapter 6, you'll get a better feel for Corinthian excess and belief.

Paul says something revolutionary and remarkable for a religious leader of his day in verses 3-4; he insists on equal sexual rights for both men and women. People get so blinded by the whole submission rhetoric of other letters that he wrote and the first verse of this chapter, they fail to appreciate what he is saying here.

In fact, it would not be too hard to imagine a group of Corinthian men sitting around having a proverbial spiritual pissing match over who is more spiritual. Who is the greater Christian? Who is closer to Christ? One guy brags how he has abstained completely for the past 6 months from sex of any sort. God will surely reward him! Then another guy tells how he has gone without sex for over a year! Surely the Lord will rain down blessings on this man!

So Paul would be, in essence, sticking up for the women in this case, as well as the other guys who do decide they'd like to get laid by their wives on a regular basis. Paul says that if you're married, you need to have sex. Sex is good for the soul. The concession Paul makes in verse 6 is for prayer.

The rest of Chapter 7 is written from the point of view that Jesus is coming again in the next year or so. If Paul had known that things would go on for the next 2000 years, he would probably have amended much of what he said about people who were single staying single. In verse 7 he describes celibacy as one of God's many gifts. Some people have it, some people don't. This is a theme Paul will revisit later in this letter.

Paul was not infallible. His timetable for Christ's return was way, way off. But his words remain as true today as they ever have, concerning sex within marriage. Each partner should submit to the other as co-owners of the other's body. But just as sin separates us from God, it also separates us from each other. We're awful at submitting to God and worse at submitting to each other. The more difficult of a time we have submitting to God, the more difficult we will have with our married partner.

This is a sensitive topic for many and I'm actually a little surprised a Methodist study included it as it is a bold a controversial topic. At the same time, it is a very important one-of-a-kind teaching that needs to be covered. Too bad a lot of folks that might benefit from it will be out of town and will never know.

The next stop on this little tour is an R & R post over here.

D.