Marriage, Sex and Sexuality 7 - I Cor.7:1-16
A wise man once said, ‘there is nothing new under the sun…’ (Eccl.1:9). Let’s remember that as we work our way through the issues raised by LLF. It can feel like we are in unprecedented times, having to answer questions that have never been asked before. But that isn’t the case. The Corinthians were confused about the questions of marriage and sexuality long before we were (and the ancient Church of the Old Testament had taken more than their fair share of wrong turns before the Corinthians had ever heard of Jesus!). It’s worth taking some encouragement that these are perennially challenging questions that in every age highlight the tensions with culture, and the pastoral problems associated with helping people move out of their culture’s way of thinking and living into a way that is marked more fully by the vision of God for His people.
And so Paul, two thousand years before us, is having to work through that vision for sexuality, singleness and marriage. The Corinthians have been converted out of an unbelievably sexually corrupt culture, and they bring that corruption with them. Add a liberal dose of confusion about our physicality, and the place of sexuality within that, and you end up with all kinds of dubious conclusions about what it means to live as a Christian.
Paul’s response is to teach them (again) God’s way, and then to show them how a different way of thinking and believing, leads to different decisions about how to live (so Titus 1:2, it is a knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness). Paul tackles the issue of lifestyle first at the level of underlying beliefs. This is the Apostles’ pastoral method, and remains ours today.
If you’ve been tracking with us, you won’t find it difficult to discern the teaching of Jesus lying behind what Paul reminds the Corinthians of. But it is equally important to realise that Paul is applying that teaching into a specific context, answering specific questions. This gives our engaging with I Cor.7 an additional layer that we need to be aware of as we seek to understand it.
Why do you think that the Corinthian Church has got so confused about marriage and sexuality?
MIE’s policy currently is that we won’t officiate at a marriage ceremony for someone if they are divorced and the spouse from that marriage is still living. Given what we’ve been studying, do you think that should be changed? If so, to what?
Based on what we’ve been studying from Jesus and Paul, do you think that Christians who have divorced, or who have remarried after they have divorced, need to repent? What would that look like?
In v.6, what is the concession Paul is making? How does your answer to this affect how you understand the passage?
Is Paul degrading marriage, seeing it merely as a means of stopping sexual immorality (vv.2f. & 9)
Is Paul’s teaching creating a situation in which a spouse could be susceptible to abuse, or even marital rape?
Why does Paul distinguish between his own teaching, and that of the Lord Jesus (v.10, 12 & 25)? Is he putting his own teaching as an Apostle, and Jesus’ teaching on different levels? Do you feel less bound by Paul’s teaching, than by Jesus’?
What does Paul mean when he says that an unbelieving spouse has been sanctified through a believing spouse? …and that the children of such a marriage would be holy (vv.12-14)?
Why is a Christian not ‘bound’ if they are left by an unbelieving spouse (vv.15-16)? Is Paul saying that the marriage is over?
