Now for the matters you wrote about: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman." – 1 Corinthians 7:1

Today's Scripture Reading (February 15, 2021): 1 Corinthians 7

In "Pride and Prejudice," Jane Austen writes, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." It is still the opinion of some people. If you are single, you must be looking for someone who can take your singleness away. The problem is that not all marriages are created equal. A marriage between two friends can be a source of strength. But a marriage that is entered into just as an attempt to fill the emptiness seldom works. And usually, the union joined in warding off loneliness became just another source of pain in the life of the participants.  

The Corinthian Church had written Paul a letter. They were looking for confirmation of a belief that at least some in the church desired to adopt, ultimately arguing that sex was immoral and needed to be avoided if a person was going to be considered to be spiritual. Maybe this was another part of the division that had developed in Corinth. And so, someone in Corinth penned a letter to Paul looking for support for the concept. We don't know if this person or group within the Corinthian Church had also written to Apollos and Cephas (Peter) to ask the same question, but if they hadn't, the reason they chose Paul was not likely that the majority in Corinth trusted the Apostle to the Gentiles. We know that that is not true. They selected Paul over Peter as the recipient of the question because Paul was single and celibate while Cephus (Peter) was married.

The Corinthian error was that if sexual immorality is dangerous, then maybe sex is dangerous as well. Therefore, real Christians should abstain from sex. Part of Paul's response to Corinth might be summed up in the concept that he has already suggested to the Corinthian Church. "'Do not go beyond what is written.' Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other" (1 Corinthians 4:6b). By condemning sex, the Corinthians were overturning something that had been written, encoded in Genesis at the beginning of all things; "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it'" (Genesis 1:28a).

Nineteenth-Century Presbyterian Theologian Charles Hodge argued that if this idea flourished within the Christian Community, the result would be a normalization of divorce. "The idea that marriage was a less holy state than celibacy naturally led to the conclusion that married persons ought to separate, and it soon came to be regarded as an evidence of eminent spirituality when such a separation was final." But Paul realized that that missed the point, and he would gently remind the Corinthians that marriage and sex had a place within the Christian Community. Paul believed that neither marriage nor singleness should be forced on the people who joined the Jesus movement.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 8 & 9