WWUTT 1516 Concerning the Things You Wrote About (1 Corinthians 7:1)

A curious thing was going on in the church in Corinth. There were a lot of strange things, but this one in particular, husbands and wives were depriving each other of their marriage rights. And Paul said, that's not a good thing when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Returning to 1 Corinthians After a Week Away

Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. We're back to our study in 1 Corinthians. After taking a week off, that just kind of happened naturally. It wasn't planned, which is why I didn't give you any warning that I was taking a week off.

I was getting emails from some folks going, the podcasts aren't loading. I don't know what's going on. But we have this new arrival in our home, our new baby boy. So I thank you for letting me take a week away.

And we're back to our study in 1 Corinthians, picking up in chapter 7. This is a little longer chapter than we've had the last few 40 verses before us here. And I'm going to begin by reading the whole thing.

Then we'll go back through and look at the text more specifically. I'm reading again out of the Legacy Standard Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 7. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise also, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

But this I say as a concession, not as a command. Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one this way and another that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.

But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. But to the married, I give instructions, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.

But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest, I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

And a woman who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not divorce her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband.

For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases, but God has called us to peace.

For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? Only as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk.

And so I direct in all the churches. Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in his circumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.

Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it, but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman.

Likewise, he who was called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men. Brothers, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called. Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who, by the mercy of the Lord, is trustworthy.

I think then that this is good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

But if you marry, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you. But this I say, brothers, the time has been shortened, so that from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who cry as though they did not cry, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it, for the form of this world is passing away.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests have been divided.

The woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

Now this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote propriety and undistracted devotion to the Lord. But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she has passed her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes.

He does not sin. Let her marry. But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no compulsion, but has authority over his own will and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better. A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. But if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I also have the spirit of God. Now there's some complicated things going on here and some very controversial things going on here.

And you may have thought so as I was even reading through that. But that's why we're going to take some time going bit by bit through First Corinthians chapter seven. We come back to the very beginning here in verse one.

Paul Responds to Questions from Corinth

Now, a reminder, once again, we're in a section of First Corinthians where the subject matter is rather adult. This is not like the sexual immorality that Paul had confronted in chapters five and six.

It still comes up here in chapter seven, but obviously we're talking about marriage and sex within marriage. So I just want to make you aware these are the things that will come up in this teaching in case you need to preview this lesson first before younger kids in the room hear it.

As Paul has been writing here to the Corinthians, he spent the first six chapters confronting the Corinthians over the report that he received from Chloe's people. Remember that from chapter one? So Chloe's people told Paul about some of the things that were going on in the church Corinth, the factions that had formed among them, their pride, boasting in themselves or boasting in the teachers that they followed.

And Paul said, if there's going to be any boasting, it is to be in the Lord. We did not come into this understanding by our own will, but because the spirit of God was given to us. A natural man cannot discern spiritual things.

They are spiritually discerned. He rebuked the Corinthians for not maturing. They were still very immature in their faith and because they were babes, they were behaving as they were in the flesh rather than in the spirit of God.

Paul confronted them over a matter of sexual immorality that they were tolerating a man in their midst who had been sleeping with his father's wife, his own stepmother. And this was incest. But the church did not discipline this man and remove him from their midst.

They became tolerant of that particular sin. In chapter six, he rebuked them for taking one another to court and letting their judges be worldly people instead of having a wise person among them who was able to discern about a legal matter.

He made a more impassioned plea to flee sexual immorality, as he says in first Corinthians six, 18 and then verse 20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. All of these things that we've read here in these first six chapters have been in response to the report that that came from Chloe's people.

Now, when Chloe's people, Chloe's household, whoever that would entail, when they came to Paul, they came to him with questions. Perhaps a letter may have been a list of questions. However, this would have been presented to him.

But they came to Paul with questions that the church in Corinth had of the apostle, things they didn't have clear teachings. They weren't sure how they should come to an agreement on. Did this come from the Lord?

Did Jesus teach on these things? So help us, Paul, the apostle in understanding these questions that we have. That's where Paul is going next. As we get here to chapter seven, everything that we're going to see in the rest of the letter has to do with questions that have arrived from Chloe's people to Paul.

He's going to make some rebukes here. There will be more rebukes even as we go on. But this isn't this isn't necessarily an independent examination of things going on in the church in Corinth. Everything from here on is going to flow from the questions that they have of the apostle.

So he starts in this chapter seven verse one now concerning the things about which you wrote. We're shifting gears here. We've gone from Paul rebuking the Corinthians over the report that he's heard, and now he's responding to them based on the questions that he's received.

Marriage, Sexual Intimacy, and Mutual Duty

So concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman in the ESV and in the NIV. This is worded a different way. It says now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

I actually didn't hear that interpretation of this verse until I was much older. My parents were King James readers. They introduced me to the NIV. They decided they wanted to raise their kids with the new international version, but I still didn't hear this verse taught any other way except it is good for a man not to touch a woman because that's what it says in the King James.

So the NIV and the ESV say it's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. The word here, the Greek word for touch can also be to know carnally, to know in the flesh and to desire someone in a fleshly way.

Another way we might put this is to know biblically. You've heard that expression, right? So like in Genesis where it says Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore him a son. So to know is sexual relations to know somebody biblically.

That's kind of the usage of the word here. The most literal translation from what we have in the Greek is to say it is good for a man not to touch a woman. So I think that's the most accurate translation, the ESV and the NIV.

They just want to go the next step further by saying it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. There was something that was going on here in the church in Corinth where there were men who believed that having sex of any kind was impure.

So men were abstaining from sex altogether with their wives. That's not plainly stated in the text. We don't have anything in the Bible here that was saying that was a problem that was going on in Corinth.

I think that's just assumed because of some of the things that Paul is talking about here. So some in the church were thinking, I shouldn't even be having sex with my wife. I shouldn't have sex at all because sex makes me impure.

So I'm going to abstain altogether. Hence why Paul finds it so necessary to have to say that a husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

And likewise, also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. And now look at the statement in verse five, stop depriving one another. Remember that Corinth was a city that was full of all kinds of sexual immorality.

And many of the people who were in this church had come out of that. They had lived in sexually immoral lifestyles, and then they hear the gospel. They're convicted to their hearts. They repent of their sin, and they become a part of the church.

So to get as far away from the sin as possible, they're not having sex at all, not even with their own spouse. So the spouse was feeling deprived. A wife is feeling neglected by her husband or a husband is feeling like he's not being desired by his wife.

And then he has these sexual desires. He doesn't know what to do with. So Paul is saying to these married couples, stop depriving one another. It is good for a man to give himself to his wife. It is good for a wife to give herself to her husband.

This is mutually beneficial to both of you that you not be overwhelmed by your sexual passions that may cause you to lust and go after passions of your flesh outside of your marriage. So the two of you together, verse two, because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband.

So we have a statement of exclusivity there in a marriage. It's not a husband with multiple wives. It's not a wife with multiple husbands or with multiple partners. It is a man and a woman who are committed to one another because, as was stated back in chapter six, the two shall become one flesh.

So as a one flesh union, it should be between one man and one woman. Here we have a statement, excuse me, from the apostle Paul in chapter seven, that a marriage is to be between a man and a woman. And the consummation of that marriage is with sex, not just once, not just you get married, you consummate the marriage and then that's it.

But that there's a continued consummation. There is a continued exercise of this one flesh union. And that is even a safety for each other. The husband and the wife protect one another from the temptations of their own flesh when they are giving of themselves of their own bodies to each other.

So Paul says it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Since since there's this idea among the Corinthians, I should not be having sex at all. It was unclean of me to have sex before because they were engaging in sexual immorality.

And now that I'm a Christian, I just shouldn't be doing it at all. So Paul begins this instruction by saying it's good. It's good to not have sex because, again, the confrontation right before this was with regards to sexual immorality, flea sexual immorality.

So if you've decided not to have sex, that can be a good commitment, but not if you're married. But because of sexual immoralities, because there are those who who have those carnal desires in their flesh, each man is to have his own wife.

You have a desire to go out and have sex. Well, get married. And then you do that in a way that is honoring and pleasing to the Lord. That's exactly what God created sex for, that it would be in a marriage between a husband and a wife.

So get married, enjoy each other, be intimate with one another. That if you have that longing, that longing is good. It is a God given longing, but it is for marriage between a husband and wife. So each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband.

That's a statement of mutuality there, by the way. So it's not just, hey, dude, go get a wife. It's speaking to both the husband and the wife here. A husband is to have a wife. A wife is to have a husband.

He desires his wife. She desires her husband. That's a good desire there to have that within a marriage. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband. So the husband is not being more holy.

The husband's not being more holy by saying, I shouldn't be having sex at all. Even within my own marriage, he would be depriving his wife and therefore also sinning against God. Because when God brought Eve to Adam, he said, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

Adam saying this of Eve, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. And as Jesus talked about this with the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 19 saying, so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What God therefore has joined together, let man not separate. And when a husband and a wife in their marriage decide not to have sex with one another anymore and they do that in such a way that it's not mutually agreed upon, they're actually being unholy because God had said to the man and the wife, be fruitful and multiply.

And even if the husband and the wife are not capable of producing children, the union that they share, the intimacy, the consummation, the romance, the passion, that's fruitful. It is a husband and a wife desiring one another.

So it's producing something even if it doesn't produce offspring, even if it doesn't result in children. This is a healthy marriage that a husband and wife enjoy each other in this way. And we're going to talk about this a little bit further as we go on.

But remember, even as we talked about this in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, the marriage that God has given to man and woman as a gift and everything that a husband and wife enjoys with one another in a marriage, this is but a taste of something greater.

There's something greater than marriage. It's one of the most blessed unions. It is the most intimate union that human beings can enjoy this side of heaven, marriage. But there's something even greater than this that is coming.

And it is the union that we have with Christ forever in glory. We, the church, will be consummated with Christ. The bride of Christ consummated with Jesus forever in heaven. And that union that we share with him forever in glory is even greater than all the wonderful blessed things that God has certainly given to us and called good this side of heaven.

So let these things that we enjoy, even the intimacy that can be enjoyed in a marriage, let that be but a small taste of something greater and more glorious that is promised in heaven above. That's good news also to those who are single, who have not had the opportunity to partake in this joy that is called marriage.

Not everybody gets to partake in every single joy that God has promised this side of heaven. But even for those who are single, they look forward to a union, the same promise, more glorious than any other kind of relationship, any human relationship that we've been given this side of heaven.

They also are promised that unity with Christ. And that is the thing that overwhelms our hearts with joy more than any other, to be with Christ forever in glory. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this good word.

May we take these things to heart and see how it points us to the gloriousness of Christ and live for you today in our bodies, in holiness unto the Lord. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Bride of Christ and the Hope of Glory

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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.