BALANCING FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND MINISTRY
1 Corinthians 7:25-40
The
Church in Corinth may be compared to the Churches of Christ today. It struggled
with many problems foisted on it by the society in which it was operating.
Members of the Church struggled with contemporary issues and were caught in
them many times.
There
are hints in the epistle that sexual looseness or promiscuity was a culturally
accepted practice in sections of the Corinthian society, and many in the Church
actually thought that sexual freedom was fine. They even seemed to have
arguments to support what they were doing (1Cor.6:12-13).
We
can see something similar in today’s society, which calls evil good and good
evil, approving things the Bible disapproves (Amos 2:7), taking the place of
God. Biblical marriage is no longer seen as a necessity. Divorce enjoys almost
universal approval. Marriage itself has been redefined to include same sex. Sexual
freedom is constantly shoved into our faces everyday by the media, not sparing
our children. What are we to do in all these things as Christians? We must
stand and vigorously defend the principles of the Gospel of Christ.
In
our text today, the apostle is dealing with the issues of celibacy, marriage,
divorce and remarriage, and service to the Lord, all of which can affect the
physical and spiritual well-being of the believer. As Christians we maintain
the standard of the Word of God concerning these social issues.
1. THE PLACE OF MARRIAGE IN THE LIFE OF A BELIEVER
(1Cor.7:25-34)
MARRIAGE
This
is a binding institution put in place by the Almighty God from the beginning.
The Bible declares and we affirm that God made us male and female and decreed
that a man (by implication, a woman also) should leave father and mother and be
joined to his wife (or her husband) (Gen.2:24; Mat.19:4-9). Marriage is a
contract between a man and a woman. They leave their families and go and
establish a new nuclear family. God’s will is that the man and woman who are
now husband and wife will stay together till death part them. They are not to
separate. I will talk about this later.
CELIBACY
In
telling people to remain unmarried here, the apostle was not suggesting that it
was wrong to get married, otherwise his position would be in conflict with the
Biblical injunction about marriage (Gen.2:18-25).
In
saying that singleness was good for the believer (Paul himself and Barnabas,
were not married, see (1Cor.7:7-8; 9:5)), he was in line with the statement of
our Lord Jesus Christ concerning celibacy (Mat.19:10-12). Jesus mentioned three
types of celibate people whom He called eunuchs.
EUNUCHS
(i)
Those who were born so
(ii)
Those who were made so
(iii)
Those who made themselves so for the
kingdom of God.
Of
the first two, one was made so by disfigurement by man, and the other was
caused by birth defect. The last set made themselves so for the sake of the
Kingdom of God, and Paul the apostle falls into this category. In their case
the word eunuch is most probably figurative (1Cor.9:5), whereas the second case
clearly entails castration.
The
apostle was in agreement with Jesus here concerning marriage. Marriage is an
institution made for the benefit of man. If you decide not to marry, you have
not sinned. If you marry you have not sinned, but you must remain married. He
was urging people to remain as they were for the following reasons:
(1)
Because of an impending danger
(oppressive, physical, economic or mental danger) for the Corinthian Christians
at the time (1Cor.7:26-28)
(2)
Because of the imminent return of our
Lord Jesus Christ (Believers in New Testament times lived with the imminent
return of Jesus always in view (1Cor.7:29-31; 1Thes.4:16-18; 1Cor.15:51-52). How
so different everything is now!
(3)
Because of the opportunity for
undistracted service to the Lord (1Cor.7:32-35)
Whether
married or not every Christian has a standing calling – to go and preach the
gospel and serve the Lord in His Church without distraction.
MARITAL OBLIGATIONS
If
you are married you must fullfill your marital obligations to your spouse. This
will protect both of you from temptation. You do not have rights over your own
body. When you said, “I do”, you handed the rights to your body to your spouse.
You must fullfill the obligation of the sexual needs of your spouse. Do not use
your body to bargain or to settle a score as some people may do because it is
unscriptural to do so. The word to burn (1Cor.7:9) is a figure of speech
referring to unfulfilled sexual desires that can lead to temptations.
In
any case marriage is not to be placed above the preaching of the Gospel. Paul
decided to remain single in other to devote himself wholly to the Gospel. He
was urging those who were not married to remain single like him in order to
give full attention to the service of the Lord. He urged those who were married
not to allow marriage and family to distract them from serving the Lord.
Remember
that Jesus does not accept divided loyalty (Luke 9:57-62). In Israel at the
time of Christ, there was a practice called “Re-interment”. A year after a man
dies his sons will collect his bones and put them in an ossuary (Gen.50:25).
This may be the case of this man in Luke 9:57. Lord I will preach the Gospel,
but please let me work and make some money…! Lord I will follow you but please
let me finish my education. Lord please delay your coming, I want to get
married and have some children!
Children
of God, let us obey the Master now. Now is the time, not when you are satisfied
with life! Tomorrow may be too la
2. THE IMPLICATIONS OF DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE (Deut.24:1-4;
1Cor.7:10-12; Mark 10:5-12; Mat.19:1-9)
DIVORCE
Paul
upholds the command of the Lord that a husband or a wife should not divorce
their spouse.
There
were two major rabbinic schools in Israel at the time of Jesus – the School of
Shamai and the School of Hillel. The school of Shamai said a man may not
divorce his wife unless he found unchastity in her. The school of Hillel said he
may divorce her even if for spoiling a dish for him. Rabbi Akiba said he may
divorce her even if he finds someone fairer than her! This debate was brought
to Jesus in order to trap him (Mat.19:1-3; Deut.24:1-4). But the Lord showed
them that He was greater than Abraham, Moses or Solomon. He took them back to
the beginning (Gen.2:18-25).
ONE FLESH
God
made us male and female and commanded a man to leave his father and mother and
cleave to his “WIFE” and they “TWO” shall be one flesh. Jesus reminds people
that it was God who joined the man and the woman and no one but God can
separate them.
Moses
permitted divorce because of the hardness of men’s heart. So wherever there is
divorce, there is hardness of heart.
If
both husband and wife are truly born again, their hearts truly changed with the
love of God shed abroad in their hearts, they would not divorce.
But
we know there are very difficult, event dangerous and life-threatening cases.
In such cases if divorce occurs, Scripture requires that the believer remain
celibate. Divorce is not a nice thing. It affects everyone in that family
circle both psychologically and socially. Children are especially affected.
The
will of God is that two people who truly love each other with the love of
Christ, not the superficial and selfish love of this present age, should get
married.
So
those of you who are not married and who are praying to get married, you will
need to talk to the pastor if you feel that God has shown you who to marry. The
purpose of that is to help you along the way and ensure that you do not fall
into the hands of predators. The pastor will ensure that the process is
facilitated and made easy for you. Once God has led you no one will hinder that
process.
CALL FOR “SINGLENESS” (1Cor.7:25-38)
The
apostle was calling for restraint and caution because of some impending danger
for Christians in Corinth at that time. He did not say what is was (did not
have to say because the Corinthians knew). But we know that during the time of
this writing, the Church was undergoing persecution.
Again
he wasn’t giving them a commandment from the Lord. He was speaking to them as
one with the Spirit of God. He urged them to focus on serving the Lord.
This
is also a timely message for us as a Church. We are prone to inverting our
scale of preference; we are prone to fixing our priorities on personal issues.
The apostle is urging us to reverse that, set our priorities to the service of
the Lord. The Lord is coming soon.
In
our own Church here what we see is that is occupying most of us now is work and
education. Brethren given the fact that Jesus is coming very soon, the trumpet
shall soon sound, should education and work be our main priority? The answer is
no! Is it right to give God the leftover of our resources? The leftover of your
time? The leftover of your money? The leftover of your strength? You know the
answer to these things. We will need to turn things around today and begin to put God
first in everything. We need singleness of purpose. Put God's Church first. Put evangelism first. Put ministry first. That is what
our Lord wants from us. That is the only place our true blessing will come from
the Lord.
On
the day of separation you need to put yourself in the position to hear the Lord
tell you, “Well done thou good and faithful servant. You were faithful in that
which was little. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”!
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