Marriage, Sex and Sexuality 8 - I Cor.7:25-40
Christian discipleship (including ethics and morals) only makes sense when we have a consistently Christian way of understanding everything. One of the most important things to remember is that ‘this world in its present form is passing away (I Cor.7:31, also e.g. I Jn.2:17 etc.). This immediately and radically relativizes our relationship with this world, and ‘the things of the world’.
Over the years the Church has tended to sway from one extreme to the other on this question. For a generation the attitude may be one that all but disengages with this passing age. We withdraw and abdicate many of the Church’s legitimate responsibilities to the world. The next generation over-corrects, and the hope of the New Creation grows strangely dim, and loses its power to shape us. We become overly engaged in a passing world, living as if we had no home but this one. Both are mistaken, but it is notoriously difficult to maintain a genuinely Christian balance.
It is perhaps significant that in many of our conversations about marriage and sexuality the question of the temporary (indeed, fleeting, Ps.39:4; 89:47) nature of our life in this world is rarely considered, let alone given an emphasis that would shape our whole thinking on these issues. We tend to be strongly attached to ‘this world in its present form’, and so find it difficult to hear Paul’s teaching, which rests on the conviction that our centre of gravity should be weighted towards the age to come.
This is the perspective through which Paul (and the Church?) aims to interpret and respond to the circumstances of life. It colours his attitude to suffering (II Cor.4:17); to death (Phil.1:21-26); to grief (I Thess.4:13); and in our present passage to everything from mourning to joy, possessions, and to questions of singleness, marriage and consequently, of sexuality. It shapes a vision of life in which sacrifice makes sense. In all our culture’s talk of self-fulfilment, this note of self-denial sounds discordant. And yet Paul’s teaching on how our relationship even with ‘good’ aspects of life in this age are fundamentally re-interpreted by our hope of New Creation remains a key to authentic Christian discipleship.
How far does your hope in the New Creation shape your emotional life, and your day to day decisions you make (vv.29-31)? How do you think we could cultivate that hope so that it becomes more defining of how we live?
How can Paul be so sure that he is ‘trustworthy (v.25)? Do you think Paul is trustworthy in matters of sexuality and marriage?
Is Paul undermining the institution of marriage in saying that it is a cause of ‘many troubles in this life’, and in teaching that those who are married should live as if they weren’t (v.28-29)? What would marriage lived in the light of this teaching look like?
Does Paul think it is better to remain single, either by not getting married at all, or by remaining unmarried if we are divorced or widowed? How does he justify his thinking? Do you agree with him?
Is Paul demonstrating a lack of pastoral sensitivity, and a naiveté about the reality of life, in the way he talks about being ‘unmarried’ (vv.32-35)?
Is it possible to live ‘in undivided devotion to the Lord’ if we are married (v.35)?
Why does Paul finish this section by underlining his thinking that he too has the Spirit of God (v.40)? What is the relationship between Paul and the Spirit? How does that validate or invalidate other people’s claims to ‘have’ the Spirit?
Why does Paul stipulate that if Christians are to marry, it must be to someone who belongs to the Lord (v.39)? What is at stake here? What would you advise a Christian who was thinking about marrying someone who didn’t share their faith?
