1 Corinthians 7

SUMMARY.--Marriage the Resource Against Social Sins. Not to be Lightly Dissolved. The Mutual Obligations. The Unmarried State Freest from Trouble in Times of Persecution. But Neither Husband nor Wife to Leave Each Other. If They Should, to Remain Unmarried. Not to Abandon an Unbelieving Husband or Wife Because of their Unbelief. To Rest Content with the Secular State in which One is Converted. The Treatment of Virgin Daughters. Let Them Marry Under Certain Conditions. Under Others, Best Not to Marry in those Critical Times. The Remarriage of Widows.

      1-7. Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote. In the preceding six chapters Paul has mainly treated of irregularities in the Corinthian church, of which he had learned through the "household of Chloe," and other private sources. Now he begins to answer various questions asked in a letter from the church. If we had that letter, it would aid much in understanding what follows by revealing more clearly the state of the church and the discussions going on within. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. An Old Testament phrase which means not to marry. He does not mean that marriage is wrong, but that on account of "the present distress" it was a good thing not to be bound by family ties. See verse 26 . "Forbidding to marry" is one of the signs of apostasy ( 1 Tim. 4:3 ). See Heb. 13:4 . 2. To avoid fornication. To prevent this sin, and the temptations to it in an unmarried state, especially in a vicious community, it was best for each sex that they be married; the normal condition of the sexes. 3. Let the husband render unto the wife her due. The Revision is correct. Marriage is a state of mutual obligations. Each must yield to the other what those obligations require. 4. The wife hath not power over her own body, etc. Each sex here is put on exactly the same footing. The body of each belongs to the other, and cannot be yielded to other parties. The spirit of the passage not only forbids adultery, but polygamy. 5. Defraud ye not one the other. The married pair are not live apart, except by mutual agreement, and that only for a season, while devoting themselves to a period of prayer. In the East, the women have separate apartments, and during this season the husband would not enter the wife's apartments. 6. But this I say by permission, etc. What is just stated ( verse 5 ) is permissible in the married state, not commanded. 7. I would that all men were as I myself. Had absolute self-control, as I have. His directions all recognize the weakness of human nature, and the need of making no requirements too great for it. But every man hath his proper gift. He had the gift of self-control; others might have other gifts which he did not have.

      8-11. To the unmarried and widows. If they have his self-control, it is well for them to remain unmarried, even as he. Not that the unmarried state is better, but on account of "the present distress" ( verse 26 ), the critical times. There are times when it is best to remain unmarried; for instance, in a time of war and invasion. The ground of his advice is not moral, but prudential. 9. If they cannot contain. If they cannot control their desires, it is best to marry. 10. To the married I command. Some might say, "If the unmarried state is best now, it will be better to leave our married partner." He replies, "The Lord commands otherwise" ( Mark 10:12 Matthew 5:32 Matthew 19:9 ). 11. But and if she depart. Provided, despite the prohibition, there is such disagreement that she leaves her husband, she must remain unmarried, or be reconciled. Let not the husband put away his wife. The wife "departs," because she leaves the home; the husband "puts away his wife," by sending her off. Both are equally prohibited. The same rules apply to each sex. Among the Jews, only the husband exercised the right of divorce; among the Greeks and Romans, the wife exercised it equally with the husband.