WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:47.080 Last week we were looking at the last portion of chapter 6, and if you remember last week, we were talking about how Paul was interacting with ideas that the Corinthian church had and his contradiction of that kind of thinking. 2 00:00:47.080 --> 00:00:54.360 A kind of thinking that no doubt arose out of Greek philosophical thought. 3 00:00:54.360 --> 00:01:09.660 So we’re going to, I think there is a touch of that in the next section, so I thought maybe it would be appropriate just to review that just a little bit, the idea that the material things in this world don’t matter. 4 00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:14.400 So the Greeks, when they were thinking about this, they would fall on one of two sides. 5 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:24.800 If material doesn’t matter, if your body doesn’t matter, then you can sin with your body in any way and it doesn’t matter. 6 00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:26.780 What does your body really matter? 7 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:34.300 So they had these slogans, something like verse 13 , Foods for the stomach, and the stomach for foods. 8 00:01:34.300 --> 00:01:37.400 God will do away with both of them. 9 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:48.760 And, the idea underneath that is that any kind of behavior that we have, sexual immorality for example, is just a hunger that the body has. 10 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:55.220 It’s something that, it’s just satisfied, it’s just a need of the body and it doesn’t mean anything at all. 11 00:01:55.220 --> 00:01:56.700 It’s a physical thing. 12 00:01:56.700 --> 00:02:02.760 In the way the Greeks thought, all physical things were basically evil, so you’d move away from that. 13 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:06.980 Well, Paul corrected that in the next few verses. 14 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:09.220 He clears up that idea. 15 00:02:09.220 --> 00:02:19.420 He replaces that idea by saying that the Lord is for the body and the body is for the Lord. 16 00:02:19.420 --> 00:02:22.200 He corrects the second part of that as well. 17 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:25.060 It’s not that God destroys your body. 18 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:32.540 In fact, God raises up the believer’s body and we’re eternal. 19 00:02:32.540 --> 00:02:34.580 There’s eternal purpose. 20 00:02:34.580 --> 00:02:42.040 Not just the spiritual has value, but the physical has value as well. 21 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:50.200 God, you know, values the material world that He created, and He especially values the body. 22 00:02:50.200 --> 00:02:54.660 He demonstrates that, in this passage, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 23 00:02:54.660 --> 00:03:02.960 And the fact that His body is resurrected, and the fact that He will raise up all believers. 24 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:15.960 And just the fact that Christ’s body is what He offered for the redemption of our sins demonstrates the value of the human body, how it can’t be taken lightly. 25 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:28.140 He goes on in these closing verses to point out that the body isn’t just valuable to the Christian who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 26 00:03:28.140 --> 00:03:30.100 It is sanctified. 27 00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:31.100 It is holy. 28 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:33.120 It is holy before God. 29 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:37.400 So you need to be careful how you treat your body and what you do with it. 30 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:57.140 And sinful immorality, which was the temptation in the culture in Corinth, was something that is not tolerable when you consider the sanctity of the human of who we really are in Jesus Christ. 31 00:03:57.140 --> 00:04:03.480 So, with that in mind, let me begin reading this next section, the teaching on marriage. 32 00:04:03.480 --> 00:04:12.960 So I’ll just read a few of these verses and then we’ll explore this passage. 33 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:16.920 This is God’s holy and inerrant Word. 34 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:22.980 Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. 35 00:04:22.980 --> 00:04:30.600 Now because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. 36 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:37.340 The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 37 00:04:37.340 --> 00:04:42.880 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. 38 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:50.080 Likewise also, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 39 00:04:50.080 --> 00:05:02.180 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 40 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:07.600 But I say this by way of concession and not of command. 41 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:18.060 Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. 42 00:05:18.060 --> 00:05:23.500 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I. 43 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:26.980 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry. 44 00:05:26.980 --> 00:05:30.160 For it’s better to marry than to burn. 45 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:36.740 But to the marrying I give instructions, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband. 46 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:45.440 But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife. 47 00:05:45.440 --> 00:05:58.360 But to the rest, I say not I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. 48 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:05.000 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 49 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:12.320 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. 50 00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:16.440 For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 51 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:20.060 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. 52 00:06:20.060 --> 00:06:25.170 The brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 53 00:06:25.170 --> 00:06:28.960 For how do you know, oh wife, whether you will save your husband? 54 00:06:28.960 --> 00:06:38.540 Or how do you know, oh husband, whether you will save your wife? 55 00:06:38.540 --> 00:06:43.680 I’m not going to cover all of that this morning in all probability. 56 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.720 We’re going to begin with this first section. 57 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:57.880 The passage begins with that phrase “but concerning” or “now concerning” and then he explains that as the things about which you wrote. 58 00:06:57.880 --> 00:07:05.860 It’s kind of interesting, because First Corinthians is an epistle, it’s a letter, and it’s a true letter. 59 00:07:05.860 --> 00:07:11.940 So in this case, Paul is interacting with a letter that he’s received. 60 00:07:11.940 --> 00:07:17.100 So he’s talking about the things that they had written to him, and he brings up these items. 61 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:31.480 And you find that throughout that little phrase “but concerning” introduces the element that they’re asking about, or a question about, or an idea that’s come up in a letter. 62 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:35.440 So he mentions that as he writes the letter back to them. 63 00:07:35.440 --> 00:07:38.120 You have it, it’s very clear in 7:1 . 64 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:43.120 You also have the phrase, you know, down in verse 25 , in chapter 8, verse 1 . 65 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:46.040 Not not the whole statement, just the phrase “but concerning.” 66 00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:55.180 And so, each time you find that “but concerning,” you know, in 12:1 , in 16:1 , in 12 , and all through Second Corinthians you see that. 67 00:07:55.180 --> 00:08:01.880 He’s introducing an idea that’s been brought up to him, so he’s interacting with it. 68 00:08:01.880 --> 00:08:19.880 So, one of the things that makes this a bit difficult is you don’t know the complete statement, so there’s, you know, you we struggle, as you read the passage and come to an understanding of it. 69 00:08:19.880 --> 00:08:24.140 Yet we trust God that He’s given us exactly what He intended for us to have. 70 00:08:24.140 --> 00:08:31.860 So we have this precious letter from the Apostle Paul that’s been inspired by the Holy Spirit. 71 00:08:31.860 --> 00:08:38.760 He says, Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. 72 00:08:38.760 --> 00:08:41.480 Some versions say “not to marry.” 73 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:50.640 But that’s probably, that’s probably too highly interpreted, in fact, I think it’s basically a wrong idea. 74 00:08:50.640 --> 00:08:55.100 It can lead you down the wrong path, it’s related, just a little bit wrong. 75 00:08:55.100 --> 00:09:06.420 Because, because the phrase, you know, “to touch a woman” really has to do with the act of marriage, not marriage itself. 76 00:09:06.420 --> 00:09:13.080 Has to do with a sexual relationship, whether that’s within a marriage or not, that’s all it’s really saying. 77 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:27.020 That phrase was used, you only have it here in scripture, but you have the phrase used about nine times in antiquity, and in each time, each account, that’s the meaning. 78 00:09:27.020 --> 00:09:31.640 So it’s pretty clear that that’s what’s involved here, that’s the idea. 79 00:09:31.640 --> 00:09:44.980 It’s interesting because this could be, and there is probably some element of it, the opposite way of taking that idea that material things don’t matter. 80 00:09:44.980 --> 00:09:48.120 Or that material things are evil. 81 00:09:48.120 --> 00:10:00.540 If you believe that, you know, as the as the Greeks worked out their philosophy in life, one way to go is that since material things don’t matter, we can do whatever we like. 82 00:10:00.540 --> 00:10:05.160 Anything is permissible, it doesn’t matter, we can do whatever we want with our body because it really doesn’t matter. 83 00:10:05.160 --> 00:10:15.560 But the other way is to say that these evil things, anything material, such as your body, is evil in itself. 84 00:10:15.560 --> 00:10:22.480 And so to practice it or pursue it in any kind of a way would be evil. 85 00:10:22.480 --> 00:11:14.660 And so it led to ascetic practices. 86 00:11:14.660 --> 00:11:16.240 Paul rejects that. 87 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:18.320 It comes up in a few places in the New Testament. 88 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:22.740 And that idea is always rejected. 89 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:30.760 It came about, you know, because of the Platonic philosophies and the incipient Gnosticism that was there in the First Century. 90 00:11:30.760 --> 00:11:41.190 But because of this wrong way of thinking, people would practice all kinds of ascetic things. 91 00:11:41.190 --> 00:11:48.500 Tor- torturing, starving themselves, denying themselves in all kinds of ways. 92 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:50.180 But Paul rejects it. 93 00:11:50.180 --> 00:11:56.860 You know, in Colossians , do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. 94 00:11:56.860 --> 00:12:00.820 That idea. 95 00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:13.050 And in Colossians , forbidding people to marry. 96 00:12:13.050 --> 00:12:15.610 In order them to abstain from certain foods. 97 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:18.540 You know, all those who say these things. 98 00:12:18.540 --> 00:12:24.700 Rules like these don’t work to produce holiness or godliness. 99 00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:41.440 He says, Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, but with their harsh treatment of the body, you know, in in regard to that, they lack any value in restraining sexual sensual indulgence. 100 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.720 And he warns this a heresy to prohibit marriage. 101 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:53.820 He says, For everything that God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it’s received with thanksgiving. 102 00:12:53.820 --> 00:13:05.670 So this whole idea, the basic idea that matter is evil, and that you abstain from matter, material things, that that whole concept, that whole worldview has got to be rejected. 103 00:13:05.670 --> 00:13:11.900 C.S. Lewis said, “There’s no good trying to be more spiritual than God.” 104 00:13:11.900 --> 00:13:16.340 He said, “God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature.” 105 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:17.920 He said, “He likes matter.” 106 00:13:17.920 --> 00:13:21.500 He said, “He invented it.” 107 00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:24.140 And I think that’s really true. 108 00:13:24.140 --> 00:13:42.040 In light of last week’s, his pointing out to them the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the future resurrection of our bodies, the fact that God values the material as material, holy, as we are, both body and soul. 109 00:13:42.040 --> 00:13:45.140 You know, it’s definitely not the topic. 110 00:13:45.140 --> 00:13:48.100 I’m just going to mention this as a as a quick aside. 111 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:54.340 But one of the things that’s denied today is the soul. 112 00:13:54.340 --> 00:14:01.780 It’s kind of an interesting thing, what’s happened in our modern culture, because they have a kind of divide that takes place. 113 00:14:01.780 --> 00:14:10.100 You know, the divide that takes place is with the personality. 114 00:14:10.100 --> 00:14:14.000 The person takes the place of the soul. 115 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.820 They don’t believe in a material, they believe that we’re just material matter, and that’s all that we are. 116 00:14:18.820 --> 00:14:29.280 But when a person becomes aware of himself as a child, they become, by definition, in the modern concepts, a person. 117 00:14:29.280 --> 00:14:47.660 We believe that a person becomes a person when the baby not emerges from the womb, but at the place of conception itself. 118 00:14:47.660 --> 00:14:49.860 Personhood is there. 119 00:14:49.860 --> 00:14:54.840 It’s not something that develops, it’s all of it, that whole person is there. 120 00:14:54.840 --> 00:15:09.460 And so because of that, you know, let me just mention, not only is material things good, but it’s important, it’s a very important thing for us to keep in mind that we do actually have a spirit that comes from God. 121 00:15:09.460 --> 00:15:14.000 We have a a spirit as well as a physical body. 122 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:17.760 And when we die, our body dies. 123 00:15:17.760 --> 00:15:22.920 It’s laid to rest in the ground, one day to be resurrected. 124 00:15:22.920 --> 00:15:25.840 And our spirit ascends to God. 125 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:31.200 So that absent from the body is present with the Lord. 126 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:42.910 And yet, in that intermediate state, however that is, the time will come when God will raise our mortal bodies and it will be immortal. 127 00:15:42.910 --> 00:15:48.020 It will be united with with the Lord forever. 128 00:15:48.020 --> 00:15:52.100 Body and soul. 129 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:58.800 So he says, you know, it’s a complicated question if you’re just dealing with the phrase. 130 00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:01.260 Is it good for a man not to touch a woman? 131 00:16:01.260 --> 00:16:05.820 Well, yes, sometimes. 132 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:10.400 You know, you can’t say no to that, can you? 133 00:16:10.400 --> 00:16:12.360 Is celibacy wrong? 134 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:16.080 Well, he’s not arguing with that. 135 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:21.000 So you look at the care that he takes, as he goes through this passage. 136 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:23.240 As he develops this idea. 137 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:30.070 He says, Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it’s good for a man not to touch a woman. 138 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:35.900 But he says, Because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife. 139 00:16:35.900 --> 00:16:38.860 That’s a present tense commandment. 140 00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:44.840 And each woman is to have her own husband. 141 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:50.380 Now, he’s making an argument, I suppose for marriage from this. 142 00:16:50.380 --> 00:16:55.600 And yet, this is not his primary view of marriage. 143 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:02.080 You know, he’s not, he’s not presenting his concept of marriage in this passage. 144 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:06.380 Nor is he even giving the basic reason for marriage. 145 00:17:06.380 --> 00:17:08.480 That’s found, you remember in Genesis . 146 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:26.060 It’s found in passage, you know, the the exalted state of marriage is found in passages of scripture like Ephesians 5:25 , when Paul explains his his understanding of marriage and he says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. 147 00:17:26.060 --> 00:17:29.680 He gave himself up for her. 148 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:32.560 So it’s a it’s a picture. 149 00:17:32.560 --> 00:17:36.700 Physical marriage is a picture of the spiritual relationship. 150 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:40.700 The relationship that we have with God. 151 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:47.160 A passage in Hosea says, I will betroth you to me in righteousness. 152 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:51.520 Talking about Israel. 153 00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:56.720 I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice and in steadfast love and mercy. 154 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:58.820 And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. 155 00:17:58.820 --> 00:18:01.980 And you shall know the Lord. 156 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:12.890 It’s a relationship, and marriage pictures that really truly exalted relationship, and Paul explains this very clearly in other places. 157 00:18:12.890 --> 00:18:20.310 But here, he’s dealing with the Corinthian problem and the Corinthian circumstances and situation. 158 00:18:20.310 --> 00:18:27.280 And we’ve just gone through a couple of chapters of immoralities and dealing with immoralities. 159 00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:39.860 And so in the context of the Corinthians, one really good reason for them to pursue marriage is because of the immoralities, he says in verse 2 . 160 00:18:39.860 --> 00:18:41.640 Each man is to have his own wife. 161 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:49.740 To avoid the temptations, to to avoid the struggles with sin that’s prevalent in the culture. 162 00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:58.640 They’re surrounded in the city of Corinth with all kinds of temptations, all kinds of ways to sin against God, all sorts of things. 163 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:10.300 You can go to any temple, you know, and there was all sorts of alluring things to bring them into the temple prostitutes. 164 00:19:10.300 --> 00:19:12.650 And so he’s giving this commandment. 165 00:19:12.650 --> 00:19:20.660 He says, Because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. 166 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:31.140 Now that’s, again, not the the thing that establishes marriage or even the greatest reason for marriage, but it’s something to consider. 167 00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:40.560 It’s something to consider in our day, especially as we move into a culture that is very much Corinthian. 168 00:19:40.560 --> 00:19:58.620 You know, it’s a it’s really amazing how we have in this state of decline, spiritually and morally as a nation, over the past few decades, now more and more. 169 00:19:58.620 --> 00:20:06.140 You know, it’s a today a growing number of men aren’t bothering to get married at all. 170 00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:09.900 And that leaves women unmarried, of course. 171 00:20:09.900 --> 00:20:12.070 In fact, they’re not even dating. 172 00:20:12.070 --> 00:20:15.300 They don’t they don’t even pursue it. 173 00:20:15.300 --> 00:20:22.720 And the reason for that, overall, one of the reasons for that is because of internet pornography and their addictions to it. 174 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:27.100 It changes the very way they think and what they do. 175 00:20:27.100 --> 00:20:44.700 And on that, about two thirds of Christian men who identify as Christians, about two thirds of them admit in surveys of of watching pornography at least every month. 176 00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:51.320 And that’s just about exactly the same rate as people who do not claim to be Christians. 177 00:20:51.320 --> 00:21:00.860 One survey, 54% of pastors said that they viewed pornography within the last year. 178 00:21:00.860 --> 00:21:07.700 And then you have other issues like cohabitation and all these things, who are even in the church. 179 00:21:07.700 --> 00:21:29.440 You interview a Gallup poll interviewing teenagers who identified as coming from conservative Christian backgrounds, almost half of them said that cohabiting before marriage was a good idea, was it was okay. 180 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:35.220 So yeah, we’re in a culture, it’s not too far off from the Corinthian culture. 181 00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:50.600 And just in light of the sinfulness of the world, in light of not giving yourselves over to the passions and sinful passions, marriage is one of God’s provisions against that. 182 00:21:50.600 --> 00:22:08.700 It’s blessed and it’s holy, and that’s not may not be one of the greatest reasons to get married, but it is definitely a a legitimate reason to seek a wife and pursue it. 183 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:16.840 So he says, Because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. 184 00:22:16.840 --> 00:22:22.570 And the husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 185 00:22:22.570 --> 00:22:35.000 This is this is really an interesting thing, because he’s talking specifically to the married couple and what is called here, this is called conjugal rights. 186 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:45.000 But it’s interesting, as I was thinking about this and looking at it, the motivation here isn’t any different than any other part of Christian living. 187 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:46.240 Christian living together. 188 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:55.760 I mean, there there’s unique things here compared to other passages of scripture describing married life in the New Testament. 189 00:22:55.760 --> 00:23:03.080 For example, in verse 4 it says, The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. 190 00:23:03.080 --> 00:23:09.140 Likewise also, the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife. 191 00:23:09.140 --> 00:23:11.200 It’s really pretty interesting, isn’t it? 192 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:12.940 Because the question there is authority. 193 00:23:12.940 --> 00:23:15.580 Who has authority? 194 00:23:15.580 --> 00:23:23.920 You know, there’s a there’s a remarkable equality that comes up in verse 4 , and it comes to this relationship in marriage life. 195 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:42.940 Paul isn’t saying that the the husband, in this, because this is in a world that is absolutely man-centered, writing in the First Century, where women had no power, no authority over anything. 196 00:23:42.940 --> 00:23:49.500 And he’s saying, the wife has authority over her husband’s body. 197 00:23:49.500 --> 00:23:52.380 The husband has authority over the wife’s body. 198 00:23:52.380 --> 00:24:00.270 But when it works its way out, the thing is, your care, your focus is for the other. 199 00:24:00.270 --> 00:24:09.020 You you’re your responsibility here is to meet the needs of the other, to to to show them love. 200 00:24:09.020 --> 00:24:18.760 Just like you do in every other aspect of Christian life, where you prefer the other more than yourself, and you seek that. 201 00:24:18.760 --> 00:24:25.640 This worked out should lead to great joy in any marriage. 202 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:29.500 So he says in verse 5 , Stop depriving one another. 203 00:24:29.500 --> 00:24:42.680 And I presume that that is directed especially in the Corinthian church, who was practicing some form of celibacy in marriage in order to pursue some type of holiness. 204 00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:44.020 That idea. 205 00:24:44.020 --> 00:24:45.550 He said, Don’t don’t be doing that. 206 00:24:45.550 --> 00:24:46.630 He’s saying. 207 00:24:46.630 --> 00:24:51.820 Except by agreement for a time so that you can devote yourselves to prayer. 208 00:24:51.820 --> 00:25:05.400 Just like when you might set aside food for a time of fasting, perhaps, with the purpose of devoting that time particularly, and the period of time particularly to prayer. 209 00:25:05.400 --> 00:25:20.450 I think that’s the the greatest purpose of fasting is that you are devoting this whole time, all of it, even the time that you would normally eat, you’re devoting that time to prayer, because devoting yourselves to prayer it it takes some time. 210 00:25:20.450 --> 00:25:27.180 It takes, you have to set things aside in order to do that. 211 00:25:27.180 --> 00:25:31.400 And so you can do that, he says. 212 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:34.840 But, you know, be careful with that. 213 00:25:34.840 --> 00:25:36.860 Just do that for a time. 214 00:25:36.860 --> 00:25:38.240 They agreed upon time. 215 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:45.340 And then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 216 00:25:45.340 --> 00:25:55.160 And so you need to be tempered in the things that you do in your marriage, by passions that people have, naturally. 217 00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:57.780 And your care is to be for the other. 218 00:25:57.780 --> 00:26:05.400 And you’re to be cultivating the rich, blessed, holy, marital life together. 219 00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:11.040 As you give yourselves to each other and for each other. 220 00:26:11.040 --> 00:26:26.010 Then he says, This I say by way of concession and not of command. 221 00:26:26.010 --> 00:26:43.520 Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. 222 00:26:43.520 --> 00:27:00.820 You know, Paul is here Paul is talking about the relationship, um, that unmarried. 223 00:27:00.820 --> 00:27:03.760 He’s talking specifically to unmarried people. 224 00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:11.940 To somebody who might be a widow, or somebody who might be unmarried, and he’s saying it’s a concession, it’s not a command. 225 00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:24.320 He says, you know, the the idea of unmarried is applies, I think there’s some people that try to make that just to widows or widowers, and then widows. 226 00:27:24.320 --> 00:27:26.980 But I think that really he’s talking about any unmarried. 227 00:27:26.980 --> 00:27:29.600 I I don’t think that really holds up when you look at it. 228 00:27:29.600 --> 00:27:38.780 So unmarried is a broad term that includes all not bound by in in a state of marriage. 229 00:27:38.780 --> 00:27:43.970 And widows are singled out because they have special needs. 230 00:27:43.970 --> 00:27:50.430 You know, so they’re particularly vulnerable. 231 00:27:50.430 --> 00:27:58.100 And he says that he thinks it’s a good thing if they stay in a state of singleness. 232 00:27:58.100 --> 00:28:04.340 It would be better for them to do that, he says, if they’re able to. 233 00:28:04.340 --> 00:28:12.240 And yet, that depends on whether they can do that without without sinning. 234 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:15.240 If they have the right kind of self-control. 235 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:19.900 If they have the gift that he has. 236 00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:26.180 So he’s saying my preference is that all men were like me. 237 00:28:26.180 --> 00:28:37.060 You know, it’s very clear here that Paul wasn’t married, and as he wrote this, it’s not at all clear that Paul was never married. 238 00:28:37.060 --> 00:28:47.600 Even though whether he was married or not doesn’t really direct direct the the our understanding of the of the passage, it’s still an interesting thing. 239 00:28:47.600 --> 00:28:53.280 Because it it seems highly probable that at some point in Paul’s life he was married. 240 00:28:53.280 --> 00:29:00.140 And that’s because of his of his Jewish upbringing. 241 00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:08.580 And the fact that he was devoting himself in the way that he was, Saul of Tarsus, to service for the Lord. 242 00:29:08.580 --> 00:29:14.440 Jewish men were required to be married, and and have children. 243 00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:21.180 Rabbi Eliezer said, “Any man who has no wife is no proper man.” 244 00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:23.920 And that was the way they thought about it. 245 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:29.000 Everybody who was part of the 70 rulers of Israel, the Sanhedrin. 246 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:35.900 In order to occupy that place, then you had to be married to occupy that place. 247 00:29:35.900 --> 00:29:55.840 Some people believe that Paul was one of those men because, in Acts 26:10, when he’s talking about his life as Saul of Tarsus, he was talking about his persecution of the church, and bringing people into, having people arrested. 248 00:29:55.840 --> 00:30:03.720 And then he says, he cast his vote to for for their death. 249 00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:12.000 In passages similar to that, make makes cause some people to believe that he may have been a member of the Sanhedrin. 250 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.660 But if he wasn’t, he was certainly striving to make that place. 251 00:30:17.660 --> 00:30:30.300 So, it’s likely that he would have followed all these things and pursued marriage, because that’s part of part of all of it. 252 00:30:30.300 --> 00:30:34.860 But, whether whatever happened to his wife is not given. 253 00:30:34.860 --> 00:30:37.260 There’s no mention of his wife at all in scripture. 254 00:30:37.260 --> 00:30:41.540 It’s probable that if he had a wife, that she she died. 255 00:30:41.540 --> 00:30:45.540 But there’s no mention of that, and we don’t know. 256 00:30:45.540 --> 00:30:50.880 And we don’t even know if he had a wife ultimately, but it just seems highly probable. 257 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:56.420 He says, it depends. 258 00:30:56.420 --> 00:31:10.340 If you’re like me, he says, if you have a gift so that you can can have this type of self-control, then it’s better for you if you remain single. 259 00:31:10.340 --> 00:31:26.400 You know, one of the things that’s taking place in First Century Corinth, and throughout the Roman world, and something that Paul had experienced over and over, was persecution. 260 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:33.120 For him to serve the way that he was serving was incredibly costly. 261 00:31:33.120 --> 00:31:36.960 And you’re going to bring a wife and a family into that situation. 262 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:40.460 How are you going to be faithful to the Lord ultimately? 263 00:31:40.460 --> 00:31:43.480 How are you going to devote yourself fully to the Lord? 264 00:31:43.480 --> 00:31:55.040 Anyone who enters into ministry, maybe not anyone, but at least in my experience, if you enter into ministry, it’s going to cost you something. 265 00:31:55.040 --> 00:31:58.080 It’s going to cost you maybe quite a lot. 266 00:31:58.080 --> 00:32:01.060 And it’s going to cost your family something. 267 00:32:01.060 --> 00:32:04.460 They have to give up for it, and sacrifice. 268 00:32:04.460 --> 00:32:07.480 Things that you would like to have for them. 269 00:32:07.480 --> 00:32:12.380 That’s what Paul is will be saying in this passage. 270 00:32:12.380 --> 00:32:14.940 You know, you you want to please your wife and your family. 271 00:32:14.940 --> 00:32:19.740 If you enter into ministry, there’s going to be costs to it. 272 00:32:19.740 --> 00:32:38.340 And so Paul says, in many cases, devoting yourself to the service of the Lord, at a time when there’s persecution and great costs, you don’t want to see your family suffering. 273 00:32:38.340 --> 00:32:40.260 Better not to marry at all. 274 00:32:40.260 --> 00:32:41.160 Avoid that. 275 00:32:41.160 --> 00:32:44.060 You have the freedom. 276 00:32:44.060 --> 00:32:55.350 One of the things that passages like this did in the early church, is that it really brought about great holiness. 277 00:32:55.350 --> 00:33:12.680 You know, the Lord did this, of course, the Spirit of God, in the lives of believers, had remarkable testimonies in the early church for their faithfulness and for their purity, sexually. 278 00:33:12.680 --> 00:33:15.960 And it was a powerful testimony. 279 00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:18.940 I mean, people were martyred. 280 00:33:18.940 --> 00:33:33.140 Some of the early martyrs were women, slaves, who refused to to engage in fornication. 281 00:33:33.140 --> 00:33:34.980 And so, as a result, they were brutalized. 282 00:33:34.980 --> 00:33:43.120 And, uh, they were denounced and eventually martyred. 283 00:33:43.120 --> 00:33:51.200 You an example of this, just to to give you one example, is Agathae of Syria refused several offers of marriage. 284 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:58.070 That’s not the example I’m looking for. 285 00:33:58.070 --> 00:34:03.520 Um. 286 00:34:03.520 --> 00:34:06.350 Anyway, I’m not going to remember her name either. 287 00:34:06.350 --> 00:34:09.840 So so so sorry, I don’t have that. 288 00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:13.120 I’ve got this here somewhere in these notes, but I apologize. 289 00:34:13.120 --> 00:34:22.980 Basically, one lady, uh, slave, it was during the Diocletian persecution. 290 00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:26.420 She refused her master. 291 00:34:26.420 --> 00:34:32.160 And so, as a result, he denounced her as a Christian. 292 00:34:32.160 --> 00:34:36.420 And so she was brought up to be martyred. 293 00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:45.820 And and when that happened, one of the prospects was to to turn her over to the gladiators for their amusement. 294 00:34:45.820 --> 00:34:53.760 And she said, “Why don’t you just, you know, drop me slowly into some up fat of oil.” 295 00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:55.690 And that’s what they did. 296 00:34:55.690 --> 00:34:59.500 They decided to do that. 297 00:34:59.500 --> 00:35:11.720 And her testimony was so incredible that many people came to faith, including one of her guards, who was martyred as well. 298 00:35:11.720 --> 00:35:17.400 I’m sorry, I don’t have her name in front of me and I should have memorized that, but I didn’t. 299 00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:18.760 I’m sorry. 300 00:35:18.760 --> 00:35:29.900 Another example, though, is women who decided to live a life according to what Paul has just recommended here. 301 00:35:29.900 --> 00:35:38.180 They had the capacity to live a moral life before God in singleness, and they chose that. 302 00:35:38.180 --> 00:35:44.000 And that was not something that was acceptable in culture either. 303 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:49.760 So, that’s where we get Agatha of Syria. 304 00:35:49.760 --> 00:35:57.260 She refused several offers of marriage, especially from a Roman magistrate named Quintilian. 305 00:35:57.260 --> 00:36:05.200 And he tried to coerce her by announcing her as a Christian, and this was also during the Diocletian persecution. 306 00:36:05.200 --> 00:36:07.240 And she didn’t change her mind. 307 00:36:07.240 --> 00:36:09.040 She was tortured. 308 00:36:09.040 --> 00:36:18.080 She eventually died in prison. 309 00:36:18.080 --> 00:36:32.440 A woman named Lucy rejected an arranged marriage in order to devote her life to the Lord, to distribute her fortune to the poor. 310 00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:36.740 Her betrothed denounced her as a Christian, and she too was executed. 311 00:36:36.740 --> 00:36:49.520 And the reason that they did that, the reason that they chose this lifestyle, is because they believed that they would be complete in Christ, as they were. 312 00:36:49.520 --> 00:36:53.800 They didn’t have to be married for completion. 313 00:36:53.800 --> 00:37:10.700 They were, uh, saying that just like Jesus Himself, who lived a a fully human life without marriage, without sex or romance, it’s possible to do that. 314 00:37:10.700 --> 00:37:15.700 And they felt the calling to do that, and to honor the Lord in such a way. 315 00:37:15.700 --> 00:37:20.620 So the lesson, you know, is that marriage is honorable. 316 00:37:20.620 --> 00:37:22.120 It’s blessed. 317 00:37:22.120 --> 00:37:22.960 It’s wonderful. 318 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:24.160 And it’s the norm. 319 00:37:24.160 --> 00:37:26.080 That’s why you have these commandments. 320 00:37:26.080 --> 00:37:28.320 It’s the absolutely the norm. 321 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:31.240 And singleness is the exception. 322 00:37:31.240 --> 00:37:34.740 And yet, God calls some to singleness. 323 00:37:34.740 --> 00:37:47.040 And one of the things that that does is that it helps us realize that, you know, we can’t set up even marriage, as wonderful as it is, as something that could become even an idol in our life. 324 00:37:47.040 --> 00:37:52.220 So it puts it in its place, just a little. 325 00:37:52.220 --> 00:37:54.200 Wonderful thing. 326 00:37:54.200 --> 00:37:57.120 Marriage is, uh, wonderful. 327 00:37:57.120 --> 00:38:01.340 And the marriage bed is honorable. 328 00:38:01.340 --> 00:38:04.820 So all of these things, you know, come to play. 329 00:38:04.820 --> 00:38:06.720 We need to think about these things. 330 00:38:06.720 --> 00:38:13.900 We live in a culture that is twisted as philosophically as any any Greek thought. 331 00:38:13.900 --> 00:38:18.780 Some of it deriving from those that very kind of thinking. 332 00:38:18.780 --> 00:38:27.180 So we’re in a we’re a culture that is where there is a great spiritual struggle. 333 00:38:27.180 --> 00:38:31.880 And so we need to weigh these things out and the choices that we make. 334 00:38:31.880 --> 00:38:34.110 We need to see what our gift is. 335 00:38:34.110 --> 00:38:39.580 And we need to make sure that we pursue godliness in life. 336 00:38:39.580 --> 00:38:44.400 In marriage, even or in singleness. 337 00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:51.420 Need to remember that sin is not something that originates in our physical body. 338 00:38:51.420 --> 00:38:54.200 It originates in the heart. 339 00:38:54.200 --> 00:38:59.520 So we have so many passages like, Do not lust in your heart. 340 00:38:59.520 --> 00:39:02.960 Or, The heart is greedy for unjust gain. 341 00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:10.020 Or, God says, I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. 342 00:39:10.020 --> 00:39:17.560 And that, and Jesus said, All things come out of a person’s mouth, comes from the heart, and these defile him. 343 00:39:17.560 --> 00:39:22.680 The heart is the thing that we have to deal with. 344 00:39:22.680 --> 00:39:26.220 The heart of man is what is sinful. 345 00:39:26.220 --> 00:39:37.000 And when we find ourselves caught up in sin, we need to come to the Lord who offers forgiveness, and more than forgiveness. 346 00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:47.870 He offers strength and provision in Jesus Christ for genuine repentance and for sanctification, to remove those patterns of behavior from our lives. 347 00:39:47.870 --> 00:39:53.140 So God has given us great counsel in this passage. 348 00:39:53.140 --> 00:39:59.240 Let’s lift up this to Him and ask Father, our Father, for His grace. 349 00:39:59.240 --> 00:40:04.600 Lord, we thank you for your mercy and grace in Christ. 350 00:40:04.600 --> 00:40:10.740 I thank you, Lord, for for the provision you’ve given us. 351 00:40:10.740 --> 00:40:21.500 I’m grateful to you, Lord, for for the creation that you’ve created, declaring this material world good. 352 00:40:21.500 --> 00:40:31.140 And bringing man, bringing man and and woman, and bringing them together in holy matrimony. 353 00:40:31.140 --> 00:40:38.520 marriage is both sanctified and is the order for all life in this world. 354 00:40:38.520 --> 00:40:46.120 And yet, Father, we recognize that we are in a spiritual conflict, in a sinful world today. 355 00:40:46.120 --> 00:40:50.560 And because of that, you give special gifts to certain people. 356 00:40:50.560 --> 00:40:53.040 And you bless all marriages. 357 00:40:53.040 --> 00:40:56.880 All marriages that are centered on you. 358 00:40:56.880 --> 00:41:04.800 So we pray, Father, for each married couple that you would especially bless them in their marriage. 359 00:41:04.800 --> 00:41:10.830 That you would encourage the love that they have for one another that’s centered in you. 360 00:41:10.830 --> 00:41:15.580 And Father, we pray also for any singles among us. 361 00:41:15.580 --> 00:41:20.320 We recognize, Lord, that there is nothing wrong with singleness. 362 00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:24.800 But Father, you can equip us there as well. 363 00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:28.960 And so we ask, Father, for your special grace on all of us. 364 00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:44.140 That you would use each unique situation, the married couple to especially be able to proclaim in such an exalted, wonderful way, the nature of your love for us. 365 00:41:44.140 --> 00:41:48.710 The relationship that you want believers to have with you. 366 00:41:48.710 --> 00:42:00.890 And Father, that you would bless each single person as they devote their life to you, maybe for a time, just singleness, and then marriage. 367 00:42:00.890 --> 00:42:13.320 But Father, for us, whatever state we are, we pray, Lord, that you would bless us so that we will truly be your servants, that your name would be magnified and glorified. 368 00:42:13.320 --> 00:42:19.640 So we ask this, Father, your great blessing in the name of our Savior, Lord Jesus. 369 00:42:19.640 --> 00:42:21.640 Amen.