Bible Commentaries

1 Corinthians 7:10; 1 Corinthians 7:12

"He can be nowise considered the disciple of Paul," says Bacon in the De Augmentis Scientiarum, "who does not sometimes insert in his doctrines, "I, not the Lord," or again, "according to my counsel," which style is generally suited to inferences. Wherefore it appears to me that it would be of especial use and benefit if a temperate and careful treatise were instituted, which, as a kind of Divine logic, should lay down proper precepts touching the use of human reason in theology. For it would act as an opiate, not only to lull to sleep the vanity of curious speculations, wherewith sometimes the schools labour, but also in some degree to assuage the fury of controversies, wherewith the Church is troubled." Again, in the Advancement of Learning (bk. II. xxv7), he observes that men, instead of saying, ego, non dominus, "are now over-ready to usurp the style, non ego, dominus; and not only 1 Corinthians 7:20

I am for permanence in all things, at the earliest possible moment, and to the latest possible. Blessed is he that continueth where he is! Here let us rest and lay out seed-fields; here let us learn to dwell. Here, even here, the orchards that we plant will yield us fruit; the acorns will be wood and pleasant umbrage, if we wait. How much grass everywhere, if we do but wait!... Not a difficulty but can transfigure itself into a triumph; not even a deformity, but, if our own soul have imprinted worth on it, will grow dear to us.

—Carlyle, Past and Present (II. ch. v.).

"If there's anything our people want convincing of," says Felix Holt, in chapter forty-five of George Eliot's novel, "it 1 Corinthians 7:21

"True it 1 Corinthians 7:24

The worst feature of the rustic mind in our day, is not its ignorance or grossness, but its rebellious discontent.... The bucolic wants to "better" himself. He is sick of feeding cows and horses; he imagines that, on the pavement of London, he would walk with a manlier tread.

—George Gissing, Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, p201.

"Do not despise your situation," says Amiel. "In it you must 1 Corinthians 7:24

It is not easy to every one to display the virtue of contentment. To be conscious of possessing powers which one never has an opportunity of exercising naturally arouses restlessness or despondency. The position of a slave, for example, in apostolic times must have been galling in the extreme. He might be, and often was, far superior to his owner in capacity and in culture, and yet had nothing he could call his own. But even he was exhorted, as a Christian, to serve the Lord Christ in the position he occupied, and to do so with cheerfulness and goodwill. Instead of struggling for his freedom, and so embittering his own lot, and that of other slaves, by a hopeless servile war, Paul urged that he should remain in the position he occupied when he was called to spiritual freedom. In his letter to the Church at Corinth, addressing slaves as well as citizens, the circumcised and the uncircumcised, Christians married and single, he said, "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called". In other words, whether Christians are engaged in the doing of things great or small, they are to do them contentedly and devoutly, as part of their ministry unto the Lord. All is of His appointment, and all may be for His glory. He is glorified in us whenever and however our characters are developed and ennobled.

I. It may be well to confront the temptations which come to those who are only called to the ministry of little things, and to strip off the disguises of those spirits of evil who too often approach us as if they were angels of light.

Think of the temptation to indolence which assails a man whose work seems to him hardly worth the doing. Our Lord hinted at this in His well-known parable of the Talents, for it is the servant with only one talent who is represented as hiding it in the earth, instead of employing it for his master. The sin of neglecting one talent lay in the fact that the servant had one talent which he might either neglect or use.

Again, there are many who, in a commercial or professional career, are called to a post where drudgery is more obvious than recognition and reward. Unless they are able to accept their work as of God's appointment, and to believe that development of character may be as great a reward as an increase of income, they are likely to regard duty as hardly worth while, and do it carelessly, without heartiness or thoroughness. Thus the ideal becomes insensibly lowered from what it was at first, and the service of earth is no longer such a preparation for the service of heaven as it was meant to be.

II. How then can we resist these and other temptations? What encouragements can we think of which may help us to continue steadily and cheerfully in our ministry of little things?

(1) We may bethink ourselves of the value of unseen work in spheres outside our own.

(2) Think, too, of the effect of obscure and even menial work in preparing men for what is higher. We are all familiar with this in the spheres of human industry, and we have good reason to believe that the principle holds good in every sphere of Divine service; and he that is faithful in a few things will, on account of his fidelity, become a ruler over many things, in a realm unseen and eternal.

(3) This reminds us that God Himself notices the ministry which man often shrinks from or despises.

(4) We may be helped still further if we reflect that the well-beloved 1 Corinthians 7:26

Among the countless problems presented to the mind, there is none more difficult than to distinguish clearly between the will of Providence and the accidents, to be surmounted, of daily life—to know when we should submit to circumstances, and when we should rise in rebellion against them.

—John Oliver Hobbes, in The School for Saints (ch. XXL).

More than half a century of existence has taught me that most of the wrong and folly which darken earth is due to those who cannot possess their souls in quiet; that most of the good which saves men from destruction comes of life that is led in thoughtful stillness.

—George Gissing, in The Private Papers of Harry Ryecroft, pp13 , 14.

1 Corinthians 7:29

In the fifth chapter of Alton Locke, Kingsley makes Crossthwaite, the sturdy Radical, thank God he has no children, whereupon young Locke asks him in surprise if he is a believer in Malthusian doctrines. "I believe them," Crossthwaite answered, "to be an infernal lie. I believe there is room on English soil for twice the number there is now; and when we get the Charter we"ll prove it; we"ll show that God meant living human heads and hands to be blessings and not curses, tools and not burdens. But in such times as these, let those who have wives be as though they had none—as St. Paul said, when he told his people under the Roman Emperor to be above begetting slaves and martyrs. A man of the people should keep himself as free from encumbrances as he can just now. He will find it all the more easy to dare and suffer for the people when their turn comes."

References.—VII:29.—O. Bronson, Sermons, p136. J. Edwards, Preacher's Magazine, vol. iv. p555. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlix. No2861. VII:29-31.—R. W. Church, Village Sermons, p305. J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p232. J. Cumming, Penny Pulpit, No1504 , p169. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No481.

The Brevity of Time

1 Corinthians 7:29-32

The text supplies us with three thoughts for consideration:—

I. The fact of the constant passing away of time and all created things.

II. How the Christian should act in this transitory condition.

III. How such action brings blessed calmness in view of the fleeting time.

—A. Maclaren.

Reference.—VII:29 , 31 , 32.—J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life (2Series), p89.

Algebraic Religion

1 Corinthians 7:30

We are often challenged in Holy Writ to do a little spiritual algebra The great teachers have called in an x.

Let us see how this works out in various ways. The subject is Algebraic Religion. "As if," "As though"; it is not 1 Corinthians 7:31

If St. Paul can give us guidance as to our relation to the world, it will indeed be opportune, for it is indeed a problem that is continually before us. And here is such guidance—"Use the world, as not abusing it". Short and pregnant, but somewhat perplexing! It comes at the end of a passage which leads up to this. "It remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away."

It comes, as you see, at the climax, after St. Paul has been discussing various departments of the world; and it 1 Corinthians 7:31

We all speak of the tyranny of fashion; and yet we most of us obey it. There are some people who seem to think that in regard to manners as well as habits and usages, all are sufficiently condemned if you call them old-fashioned; all are sufficiently recommended if you can only describe them as being in the very latest fashion, and the point that I want to emphasise is this, that if the Bible counts for anything, and if the Lord Jesus Christ, His character and His teaching, goes for anything, then all standards, all styles, all methods, all usages, be they fashionable or not, have got to be brought to the test of a certain fashion that He set—a fashion of thinking, a fashion of living and of attitude towards life, and that by that they shall be justified, or by that they shall be condemned.

I. Undue deference to fashion must result in a peril to your sincerity. What I want to urge upon you is this: that for the sake of something which after all is an artificial advantage you are sacrificing the substantial advantages of life. And what does it come to after all? To a matter of pretence, to a matter of hypocrisy, to an attempt to appear to be something that we are not: in point of fact it comes to the sin against which Jesus Christ waged His most ceaseless war, insincerity, hypocrisy, the ugly venomous poisonous fruit of the tree of the idolatry of fashion. If you believe for a single moment that by the use of any form or phrase you are either deceiving yourself, or deceiving another person, it is your bounden duty as a Christian to make yourself more explicit.

II. The peril to individuality and personality from the undue deference or idolatry of fashion is a very real peril in our time, and in all times the slave of fashion ceases to be himself or herself, becomes a mere mirror into which you look in order to see the reflection of their times. You look into their lives not to discover their own personal wealth and riches, but in order to see reflected there something which they have mirrored of the world outside. Dare to be yourself. Resolve from the very first that you will not be slaves of any mere shibboleth, any mere formula, any mere usage of society. Think of the one and only Leader who is worthy of our homage, I mean the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it was written in golden words that He was made in fashion as a 1 Corinthians 7:33

"I"ll never marry," says Felix Holt in George Eliot's novel of that name, "though I should have to live on raw turnips to subdue my flesh. I"ll never look back and say, "I had a fine purpose once—I meant to keep my hands clean, and my soul upright, and to look truth in the face; but pray excuse me, I have a wife and children—I must lie and simper a little, else they"ll starve"; or, "My wife is nice, she must have her bread well buttered, and her feelings will be hurt if she is not thought genteel". That is the lot Miss Esther is preparing for some man or other."

1 Corinthians 7:34

In the third chapter of Adam Bede, George Eliot makes Seth plead thus with Dinah Morris: "I know you think a husband "ud be taking up too much o" your thoughts, because St. Paul says, "She that's married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband"; and may happen you"ll think me overbold to speak to you about it again, after what you told me o" your mind last Saturday. But I"ve been thinking it over again by night and day, and I"ve prayed not to be blinded by my own desires, to think what's only good for me must be good for you too, and it seems to me there's more texts for your marrying than ever you can find against it."

References.—VII:34 , 35.—Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p150. VII:38.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. i. p285.