Note: this chapter is all about marriage, and it is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted chapters in the Bible. Scripture twisting and wrong teaching has resulted because mankind does not want to abide by the truth of the Scripture as presented by the Apostle Paul, but wants to live according to their own lusts of the flesh and according to societal norms regardless of whether God is pleased or not.
Verses 1-2 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
Apparently the Apostle Paul had received a letter from the Corinthian church asking some specific questions, and so in this chapter he provides answers for those questions. In today’s world, his first sentence is not pleasing to most people. But it says what it says and no other interpretation can be given. But the Apostle Paul is writing to Christians and to Christian couples so keep that in mind when reading this chapter. He continues by stating that to avoid sexual sin, get married. But every man is to have his wife, not someone else’s wife. And every woman is to have her own husband and not another woman’s husband. Men and woman are to marry once and keep their spouses for life.
Verses 3-4 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 4 The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
The Greek word translated as “benevolence” is “eunoia” and it means good will or kindness and can also refer to affection. When a man and a woman are married, they become one and are to be close knit and function as one unit. The Greek word translated as “power” is “exousiazo” and it means to have power or authority, to be master of anyone, or to have full and entire authority over the body. Before marriage, a man or woman has complete control of his or her own physical body. But once married, their bodies become community property and are to be shared.
Application: The wife or the husband are not to use sexuality as leverage or an emotional weapon in their marriage in order to have personal gain of some kind. They are one flesh having equal rights and privileges, and as Christians, their desire should be to please each other and to have harmony and peace in their relationship.
Verse 5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
Therefore, repeating what has been stated above, a husband or a wife is not to use his/her body as leverage for personal gain. Threatening to refuse affection unless the spouse complies with something is not permissible for Christian couples. The only time they are exempt from intimacy is if they are seeking the LORD in prayer and fasting and then only for a time. Why? Because should a couple not have their intimacy needs met, one or the other or both may look elsewhere outside of the marriage to have that need met by someone else, and Satan knows how to manipulate the situation so that adultery occurs, a situation that can and will drive a wedge between a married couple for years to come.
Application: So much of how people think and behave has come from watching Hollywood via TV, movies, and internet. If a husband and wife are portrayed as having friction in their marriage, the script has one or the other moving out of the bedroom onto the living-room sofa, pillow and blankets in hand. Or the wife lets the husband know that if he wants sexual intimacy, he had better agree with her on a specific issue. The use of one’s body to attain personal satisfaction is sin, plain and simple.
Verses 6-7 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. 7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
The Apostle Paul is always careful to let the readers of his epistles or letters know when he is interjecting his own opinion and not giving advice as a commandment from the LORD. So here he is saying that what follows is written by permission from the LORD, but is not a commandment from the LORD. The Apostle Paul wishes that all men were like him. What did he mean by this? Scripture does not give a clear answer, but understanding the Apostle’s history can. Before conversion, Paul was Saul of Tarsus and a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was in the upper echelon of the Jewish governmental leadership. To be a Pharisee, he had to be married. What happened to his wife? Nowhere in Scripture does it say that his wife died, but she is absent from the incident on the road to Damascus throughout all the missionary journeys to the last recorded history of the Apostle in prison in Rome in the book of Acts. It can be assumed that, after Saul experienced Jesus Christ and converted to become His servant, he could no longer be a Pharisee and could no longer hold a position of importance and power. What is an unbelieving wife to do? Leave the marriage of course and seek a husband elsewhere. Saul of Tarsus has become a new creature in Christ and is now the Apostle Paul, unmarried and without children or family ties. In this condition he is stating that he wished all men could be unmarried as he was. However, he recognized that people were all different and that some needed to have a lifelong companion and others didn’t and were perfectly happy never marrying and raising families.
Verse 8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. 9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
To those people who were single or who had become widows, the Apostle Paul’s recommendation was that they stay single and that singleness is a good thing. However, if their need for intimacy and companionship was great, then they should marry rather than have sexual lust consume them and possible lead them to sin in acts of fornication.
Verses 10-11 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
Now the Apostle Paul lets his readers know that what he is writing next is directly from the LORD and not his opinion or personal advice. A wife is commanded to not leave her husband and a husband is commanded not to kick his wife out of their marriage. However, if a wife does leave, she cannot remarry.
Application: In today’s society, anything goes as far as relationships between men and women. If a couple even bothers to get married instead of just living together, it is often with the idea that either of them can leave at any time. Marriage by the great majority of people is not viewed as a permanent situation. And what is the number one reason for dissolving a marriage in the divorce courts? Another man or another woman who is desired as a replacement. Another reason is an unfaithful spouse who is committing adultery and yet staying in the marriage. God hates divorce, adultery, and the chaos that is created in the family as a result. If married couples were not permitted by man-made laws to take another partner should they leave their marriage, but required to remain single for the rest of their lives, perhaps there would be less sexual sin and marital dissolution in society today.
Verses 12-14 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. 13 And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
Say a couple gets married and they are not Christian believers. One of them becomes born again and begins to follow Jesus, but the other does not want anything to do with Jesus, with the Bible, or with the Church. According to the advice of the Apostle Paul they should stay together in their marriage. Converting to Christianity is not an excuse to dissolve a marriage simply because the couple is then unequally yoked in their faith and in their beliefs. Because one of the spouses is a Christian, the presence of the LORD is in that marriage and in that home and so the entire family is sanctified or set apart in the LORD. The power of the Holy Ghost/Spirit is more powerful than the power of devils. And the believing spouse now has the mission of leading the unbelieving spouse to Jesus Christ.
Verses 15-16 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. 16 For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?
The Apostle Paul allows for the situation in which once one spouse becomes a believer and the other remains an unbeliever friction may result and the unbeliever may leave the marriage. In that case, the believer is to let their unbelieving husband or wife leave and not try to hold him/her in the marriage. God will not hold the believer accountable for the actions of the unbelieving spouse who leaves. God wants peace and should the marriage be filled with anger, resentment and even physical violence, that is not God’s will for either of the people involved in this type of marriage situation. But the believing spouse needs to continually pray for the departed spouse to be converted and return to the marriage. This is why God does not condone divorce and remarriage as the door for the unbelieving husband or wife to return to their marriage should he/she convert and follow Jesus Christ is closed if the believing spouse divorces and remarries.
Verses 17-20 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches. 18 Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
When a man or woman is called out of sin and into a relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ, they come just as they are, but they become new as all of their old life is washed away by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So if a woman who has been married three times before the man she is currently married to becomes converted, she comes into the Kingdom of God as the wife of her current husband. All the marriages in the past are no longer relevant. She can start over and live a Godly life with her husband. Her job is to keep the commandments of God. If a man comes to the LORD and he is unmarried but has had multiple sexual partners prior to his conversion, he becomes a new creature and all that fornication is washed away in the blood of Jesus. So his job then becomes obeying the commandments of God involving sexual purity, marriage, and the avoidance of fornication. Both the married woman and the single man can start over as if their past had never happened. They have a new beginning. The memory of the past and the consequences of the past do not go away and have to be dealt with. The woman married four times may have multiple children from her past husbands, and may have to see these husbands due to child custody situations, but now she can show the love of Jesus to these family members as she lives a righteous life with her fourth husband. The single man who was sexually active outside of marriage is now a single man refraining from sexual unions and can seek God for a wife and live his life free of the bondage of sin.
Application: There are churches which teach that once a spouse becomes a believer, he/she if married in the past has to go back to that spouse. And that spouse, if remarried, has to divorce his/her current spouse and remarry the believing spouse so that the original marriage is restored. This is not Biblical.
Verses 21-24 Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. 22 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. 23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. 24 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
The Apostle Paul even covers the situation of those in slavery or servant-hood. If a man or woman is a servant at the time of conversion, they are to remain a servant and let God work in their lives just where they are and just as they are. He will advance them according to His will, and they need to understand that all men and women who are converted are servants of God regardless of whether they are physically living a free life or one of a servant. The only slave or bond-servant situation that is not acceptable is being in bondage to sin, sinful men, and to the Devil. So whatever state a man or woman is in in regards to marriage when converted, he/she is to stay in that state and serve the LORD Jesus Christ.
Application: Christian believers tend to forget what their freedom from sin, death, and Hell cost. It was/is expensive. God, very God who created everything and who has His abode in the Heavens, had to come to Earth as the Son of God and inhabit a body of flesh in order for anyone to have eternal life in Heaven. He had to put up with the difficulties of life in the flesh, put up with difficult people, put up with lies and insults from wicked men, put up with being hunted for the purpose of being killed by the Jews who He came to save, put up with disciples that could not see and understand what He was teaching them, put up with political intrigue and assassination attempts, put up with traitors, put up with false arrest, put up with religious hypocrisy and corrupt courts, put up with Roman torture, put up with the indignity of being paraded through the streets of Jerusalem mostly naked with blood covering His body, put up with a devil infested crowd of people screaming insults at Him and demanding His blood, put up with the pain of execution via crucifixion, put up with tormenting from Satan and his devils, and then put up with the weight of all sin that ever was and ever will be being placed upon Him before physical death. Yep, salvation was/is expensive. As such, each Christian believer has been purchased by the LORD Jesus Christ and therefore belong to Him. The Church is His property. All the Church while living on Earth are therefore His slaves or servants. But the Church has the promise of being heirs with Jesus Christ when no longer in the flesh on Earth but in the spirit in the Kingdom of God. So serve Him with your whole heart while here so that your true position as a son of God and heir can be realized.
Verses 25-28 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. 26 I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. 27 Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. 28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
What was the present distress? Possibly the persecution by Nero and/or the persecution by the Jews. The Apostle Paul was giving his opinion that due to the uncertainty of life at that particular time it would be better for a man to remain a virgin and single and not have the worry of a wife or children if persecution arose in the Corinthian church. But if married, trust God and stay that way. If loosed from a wife, don’t look for another. But even with the uncertain and difficult times in which they were living, it was not sin to marry, but they needed to be aware that difficulties would arise and therefore be prepared as they were being forewarned by the Apostle Paul.
Application: God provides a marriage covenant between a man and a woman to which they are bound as long as they are living. How does one become “loosed” or set free from a wife or a husband? Romans 7:1-3 clears up any confusion. “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from the law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” So either the husband or the wife has to be dead before the living spouse is loosed from the marriage covenant. Divorced men and women are not loosed from their original marriage covenant, plain and simple.
Verses 29-31 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; 30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; 31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
Application: The early Church believed that time was short as they were living in the last days, and that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent and could be at any time. And according to the words of God recorded in Acts 2:17, they were living in the last days, as is the Church today. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and you old men shall dream dreams.” This prophesy came to pass on the day of Pentecost so the apostles were correct in believing that time was short. Likewise, Christian believers today need to emulate the early Church and live as if each day is the last day. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 states, “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” And Matthew 25:13 states, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” In the verses above, the Apostle Paul is stating that the things of this world are passing away and therefore not all that significant, so Christians should not live for the world but live for Jesus Christ.
Verses 32-33 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: 33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
The Greek word translated as “without carefulness” is “amerimnos” and it means free from anxiety or from care. The Apostle Paul is stating the obvious that an unmarried man can devote all his energy and time to serving the LORD whereas a married man has to spend energy and time caring for his wife. This is just a fact of life and the married man in the Church at Corinth should not worry. He is married and God accepted him at conversion married and married he should remain.
Verse 34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
Likewise, a married woman cannot devote all her time and energy to the LORD when she has a husband.
Application: Note that in God’s eyes there are only two types of women: those who are virgins and those who are married. There are no women who are unmarried and yet not virgins. This is how it should be in the Church. This is not true today as In most societies it is difficult to find a woman that is a virgin. Sexual sin is rampant throughout the world. God is not pleased. Now if an unmarried woman who is no longer a virgin comes to the LORD and receives salvation and is born again of the water and of the Spirit, she is now a new creature and can assume the status of a virgin once again. Old things are passed away and all becomes new. Once in the Church, however, she must remain free of intimate relations until the LORD provides a husband for her.
Verse 35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
So in answering the list of questions the Corinthian church sent to the Apostle Paul, he is clearly showing the unmarried or virgins in the Church the differences that will be in their service to the LORD depending on if they remain single or decide to marrying.
Verses 36-38 But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry. 37 Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. 38 So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.
These verses are referring to a father and his unmarried daughter. Daughters in biblical times stayed under the protection of their father’s house until married. So it was not uncommon for a woman to be older and living at home with her parents and yet a virgin. In today’s vernacular, she would be referred to as an “old maid” as she is either getting too old for childbearing or is already too old. But should a suitable husband come along wishing to marry this older virgin, the Apostle Paul is telling the fathers that it is not sin to allow the marriage and it is not sin to not allow the marriage depending on the circumstances and on the leading of the LORD. Either way is acceptable.
Verses 39-40 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. 40 But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 7)
Once a widow, the wife is no longer bound in the marriage covenant and therefore can seek and marry another as long as the man she marries is in the Church and is a man who is not bound by a marriage covenant. Widows can marry virgins or other widows. But the Apostle Paul states his opinion that the widow will be happier if remaining as a widow as second marriages can be difficult. So in conclusion, this seventh chapter covers every imaginable situation that can occur in the Church regarding marriage. There is no room for Christian believers to disobey this chapter as far as their decisions regarding marriage because God has presented clearly how men and women in the Church are to behave and live their lives.