1 Corinthiërs 7:35

35 En dit zeg ik tot uw eigen voordeel; niet opdat ik een strik over u zou werpen, maar om u te leiden tot hetgeen wel voegt, en bekwaam is, om den Heere wel aan te hangen, zonder herwaarts en derwaarts getrokken te worden.

1 Corinthiërs 7:35 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 7:35

And this I speak for your own profit
The apostle suggests, that in giving the advice he did to unmarried persons to abide single, he had nothing else in view than their temporal and spiritual advantage; that they might be better able to meet and grapple with persecution for the sake of the Gospel; that they might be more free from the cares and encumbrances of life, and more at liberty to serve the Lord; whereby not only his glory, but their spiritual good, might be promoted; not that he thought that marriage was unlawful, or that the single life was a more honest, and a more chaste way of living, or that it was absolutely necessary, and an incumbent duty upon them to remain single, nor would he be so understood: all that he had said was by way of advice; he had very faithfully laid before them the advantages and disadvantages of both states, and now leaves them to their full liberty to do as they pleased to take his advice, or not:

not that I may cast a snare on you;
as fowlers on birds: had he enjoined virginity as necessary, and insisted upon it, that it was absolutely their duty to live a single life; this would have been laying an obligation upon them, and an ensnaring and entangling of them: hereby some might have engaged in a single life, who had not the gift of continence, and so might have been drawn into the sin of fornication, or into unnatural lust, and such impurities as would be very scandalous unto, and highly reflect upon, the Gospel of Christ. But the apostle delivered himself on the subject with no such view, and in such a manner as is plain he meant not to ensnare any:

but for that which is comely, and that you may attend upon the Lord
without distraction:
all he aimed at, by advising them to a single life, was that they might more orderly and constantly, and without distraction of mind, through the cares of the world, wait upon the Lord, and serve him; which, in his opinion, was choosing the good part with Mary; whilst others, like Martha, were troubled, divided, and distracted with many things.

1 Corinthiërs 7:35 In-Context

33 Maar die getrouwd is, bekommert zich met de dingen der wereld, hoe hij de vrouw zal behagen.

34 Een vrouw en een maagd zijn onderscheiden. De ongetrouwde bekommert zich met de dingen des Heeren, opdat zij heilig zij, beide aan lichaam en aan geest; maar die getrouwd is, bekommert zich met de dingen der wereld, hoe zij den man zal behagen.

35 En dit zeg ik tot uw eigen voordeel; niet opdat ik een strik over u zou werpen, maar om u te leiden tot hetgeen wel voegt, en bekwaam is, om den Heere wel aan te hangen, zonder herwaarts en derwaarts getrokken te worden.

36 Maar zo iemand acht, dat hij ongevoegelijk handelt met zijn maagd, indien zij over den jeugdigen tijd gaat, en het alzo moet geschieden; die doe wat hij wil, hij zondigt niet; dat zij trouwen.

37 Doch die vast staat in zijn hart, geen noodzaak hebbende, maar macht heeft over zijn eigen wil, en dit in zijn hart besloten heeft, dat hij zijn maagd zal bewaren, die doet wel.