Transcription
Foreign. Good morning, brothers and sisters. Chapter 7 of First Corinthians, which is where we're at today, is a really interesting chapter. Um, in this chapter, Paul answered some questions that the Corinthians had asked him in a letter they had sent to him. And he also makes it clear that some of his answers are not commands from God, but simply his opinion as the Apostle Paul.
Look at chapter 7, verse 1. He says, "Now concerning the things about which you wrote." So they wrote a letter to Paul asking questions. If you go back at the end of chapter 5 and verse 9, "I wrote you in my letter." So there's been this exchange of letters. We don't have all those letters. Some scholars think that maybe Paul's first letter is included, uh, in First Corinthians somewhere, that an editor letter, but, but that's speculation. We don't know. Uh, there were probably lots of letters between Paul and these churches, and we just don't have them today.
And so they're asking Paul these questions. And, uh, what we gather from his answers in chapter seven and other places in the New Testament is that Paul apparently was a single man, fully devoted both in his mind and body to God, to the ministry, and he was happy this way. And he actually thinks it's the best way to live if you can, because it means your attention will not be divided between the ministry and the kingdom of God and, and family. You know, if you're a husband, you, you, you have to pay attention to your wife and kids. If you're a wife, you have to pay attention to your husband and kids, and so on. And, and he says, "I'd rather everybody be just like me," but I know not everybody is going to be that way. And, uh, and he talks about that a lot in this chapter. And you can, you can read that.
Uh, he also in this chapter describes marriage as, as a good thing. And, and, and much of his focus on how it protects us from sexual temptation, protects us against sexual immorality. And I want to say something about that in a minute. But look at what he, what he writes here in chapter 7, verse 2. But because of, well, in verse 1, at the end of it, he said, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." Verse 2, "But because of immorality, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband." Because, you know, most people just can't go their whole, whole life and not be intimate with someone of the opposite sex. So he says, get married.
Verses 3 and following, "The husband must fulfill his duty to the wife, like, and, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, in the same way also, the husband does not have authority over his body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." So again, it's this idea that, that our fleshly passions and our sexual desires are so strong, uh, outside of marriage, you're, you're more likely to, to sin sexually, etc.
And by the way, he does also teach there that in marriage, neither of you should use sex as a weapon against the other. Um, in verse 9, he says, "If they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Now, I want to say some things. All of that is true. We are sexual creatures. Sexual desire and passion is a powerful thing in, in our lives, uh, especially when you're younger, but it's always there. Um, and, and marriage is God's gift. And Paul here teaches that it protects against immorality, and that is true.
But there are many other places in the Bible, in the New Testament, and even in Paul's writings, where he talks about marriage in a different light and talks about love and respect, talks about seeing your wife as a precious treasure that you treat like a valuable treasure. The problem is, if, if people focus just on chapter seven, this one truth, and they don't focus on the rest of the biblical teaching about marriage and about women and about relationship, this can cause men to view women primarily as sexual objects and to blame them every time they're tempted. And there, there's something subtle in some preaching and teaching in churches where the focus is so out of that, the teaching is so out of focus and out of balance with such a focus on chapter seven, that that doesn't bring up all the other teaching of the Bible on sex and marriage and women and men, that it can lead to abuse and lead to thinking that everything is a woman's fault, um, and put all the responsibility on women. And that's just wrong.
If you tend to primarily think of women as sexual objects, you are the problem, not the woman. And you need to get help and you need to change because they are so much more than sexual objects. Back in Genesis chapter 1, they are created in the image of God, as much as every man is. And therefore, they are to be viewed as such. So that's the little sermonette for today.
One more thing, I do want to point out in this chapter that's interesting. People sometimes read Paul's comments about slavery and other epistles of the New Testament and, uh, think Paul was pro-slavery. He really was not. Um, don't have time to go, go into all of that. But I want you to look, if you would, at chapter seven, um, let's see, chapter seven, where is it? I lost my spot. Uh, verse 21. Yeah, verse 21. "Were you called while a slave?" Talks about the situation people were in when they were called to be a believer. So if you were a slave, and there were, uh, some estimates that half the people in the Roman Empire, especially in the city of Rome, were slaves of one type or another. There are various forms of slavery throughout human history across the world. So he says, "Were you a slave when you were called? When you got saved? Do not worry about it. But if you are able also to become free, well, rather do that."
Paul there makes it really clear. If you're a slave and you have the opportunity, the chance to become free, become free. Because there are some people who have so misinterpreted the Bible, and that includes some pastors and teachers and stuff, who've read some other things Paul said and actually said that it was a, that it was wrong in America 200 years ago for a slave to run away. Nonsense. Paul here says, if you have the opportunity to be free, take it. Just wanted to correct some bad thinking and teaching that's out there on the part of some. Um, I'll just leave it at that. Hey, God bless you. I'll see you tomorrow.