1 Corinthians 7
Chapter 7
7:1 Now 1 concerning the things a whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] b good for a man not to touch a woman.
(1) He teaches concerning marriage that although a single life has its advantages, which he will declare afterwards, yet that marriage is necessary for the avoiding of fornication. But so that neither one man may have many wives, nor any wife many husbands.7:3 2 Let the husband render unto the wife c due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
(a) Concerning those matters about which you wrote to me.
(b) Commodious, and (as we say) expedient. For marriage brings many griefs with it, and that by reason of the corruption of our first estate.
(2) Secondly, he shows that the parties married must with singular affection entirely love one another.7:4 3 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.
(c) The word "due" contains all types of benevolence, though he speaks more of one sort than of the other, in that which follows.
(3) Thirdly, he warns them, that they are in each others power, with regard to the body, so that they may not defraud one another.7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, 4 except [it be] with consent for a time, that ye may d give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
(4) He adds an exception: unless the one abstain from the other by mutual consent, that they may the better give themselves to prayer, in which nonetheless he warns them to consider what is expedient, lest by this long breaking off as it were from marriage, they are stirred up to incontinency.7:6 5 But I speak this by permission, [and] not of commandment.
(d) Do nothing else.
(5) Fifthly he teaches that marriage is not necessary for all men, but for those who do not have the gift of continency, and this gift is by a special grace of God.7:7 For I e 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.
(e) I wish.7:8 6 I say therefore to the f unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
(6) Sixthly, he gives the very same admonition touching the second marriage, that is, that a single life is to be allowed, but for those who have the gift of continency. Otherwise they ought to marry again, so that their conscience may be at peace.7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to g burn.
(f) This whole passage is completely against those who condemn second marriages.
(g) So to burn with lust, that either the will yields to the temptation, or else we cannot call upon God with a peaceful conscience.7:10 7 And unto the married I command, [yet] not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from [her] husband:
(7) Seventhly, he forbids contentions and the granting of divorces (for he speaks not here of the fault of whoredom, which was then death even by the law of the Romans also) by which he affirms that the band of marriage is not dissolved, and that from Christs mouth.7:12 8 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.
(8) Eighthly, he affirms that those marriages which are already contracted between a faithful and an unfaithful or infidel, are firm: so that the faithful may not forsake the unfaithful.7:14 9 For the unbelieving husband is h sanctified by the i wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the k husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they l holy.
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