WWUTT 1517 Do Not Deprive One Another (1 Corinthians 7:2-5)

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A husband's body does not belong to himself, but it belongs to his wife.

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A wife's body does not belong to herself, but it belongs to her husband. And of course that's the case because the two have become one flesh when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians 7, and once again, making you aware that the subject matter

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Paul is addressing here is concerning marriage and sex within marriage. I'm going to begin with the first five verses out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Now, concerning the things about which you wrote,

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Satan 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.

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Now, we're going to try to finish up this particular section today, these first five verses. There was something that I missed yesterday in examining verse 1, and I missed it because I've been reading out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. I went back and was doing some notes and some study out of the English Standard Bible and happened to catch, because I overlooked this, that the statement, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, likely came from the

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Corinthians. I believe I mentioned this, but I didn't make a point to clarify.

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As Paul is responding specifically to things that the Corinthians are asking him about, that particular statement is not

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Paul giving an instruction that it is good for a man not to touch a woman. This is concerning something that the

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Corinthians are asking him. So if you read it in another translation, other than the

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NASB and the LSB, you will see it is good for a man not to touch a woman, or as it appears in the

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English Standard version, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

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You will see that phrase in quotation marks, because that was the statement that had come to Paul from the

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Corinthians regarding the things that they had asked him about. So again, as I said yesterday, the

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Corinthians were believing in themselves that, hey, it's better for us not to have sex at all, even sex within marriage.

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We are more pure, we're more holy if we're not having sex.

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And that is not an uncommon thinking even today. Even in our sexually charged culture, that kind of confusion can still exist even today.

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I wrote about this a little bit, in fact, in my book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the

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Bible Says. That's a strange place to be writing about this, isn't it? Well, it's concerning the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, which is common in Roman Catholic teaching, but it's also common in Protestantism.

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It's not something that's exclusive to Roman Catholicism. We think of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary as being a

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Catholic thing, but there are a lot of people that believe this way, especially in, like if it's going to be in Protestant circles, it's going to be among the laity.

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There's just people who may not really give thought to this, who just automatically think, well, yeah,

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Mary gave birth to Jesus and then she stayed a virgin for the rest of her life because she's the

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Virgin Mary, right? So that's the way people will think about that. And of course, that's wrong because we have explicit mentions of Jesus' half brothers in the

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Gospels. They can only be his half brothers if they were born of Mary, because Jesus was not conceived by the seed of the man.

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He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So therefore, being born of Mary, being born of woman, his half brothers had to also come from Mary.

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So she was not a perpetual virgin. You have a mention of his brothers in Mark 3, in Luke 8, in John 2.

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And then, of course, we know that James is the half brother of Jesus and likely Jude as well, the author of the book of Jude.

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So Mary did not continue in this perpetual virginity. But another way that doctrine is wrong, not just because it contradicts statements about Jesus' half brothers in the

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New Testament, but another reason that doctrine is wrong is because it assumes that not having sex is pure, whereas having sex makes a person impure.

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Sex in marriage is holy because God made it and called it good. And so therefore, when a husband and a wife consummate their marriage, that is a glorious thing before God.

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That can be done in honor of God. God is not looking at that couple and thinking, well, they're not holy anymore, not as holy as this group of people over here who have never had sex before.

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That is not the way that God views sex. And so we shouldn't view it that way either. So the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary is wrong in a couple of ways in that it goes against what the

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New Testament says about the half brothers of Jesus and even sisters. There's a mention of sisters there as well.

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And it also goes against the instruction that's explicitly given in scripture that a husband and a wife are to know each other, that they are to consummate their marriage and the two shall become one flesh.

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If Mary were not to have had sex with Joseph, then Mary would have been in sin.

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And then you compromise the whole immaculate conception thing of Mary being without sin, according to the

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Catholic doctrines. All right, I'm going to spin off in all kinds of rabbit trails there if I keep going. Now, I've mentioned this before, and occasionally

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I get a response that'll go something like this. Well, isn't there a law in the book of Leviticus that says that if a man and a woman have sex then they're unclean?

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So therefore, doesn't it say there in the law that sex is unholy in this way?

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Well, let's look at it exactly. This is Leviticus chapter 15, and it's a pretty explicit law. So Leviticus 15, beginning in verse 16, if a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening.

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And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.

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If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening.

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So how about it? Does that instruction there mean that somebody who has had sex is unholy compared to somebody who is a virgin?

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No, that's not what that implies. Leviticus 15 is about bodily discharges. So it's any kind of fluid or discharge that might come from the body.

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When the act of sex takes place, there has been a discharge and there is an exchange.

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And we know that. It's why we warn young people about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.

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The only true safe sex there is, is sex within marriage between a husband and a wife, exactly as God created it to be.

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Since he created it, he has the right to define it and the right to regulate it.

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And so, therefore, you have that in this particular law in Leviticus 15. It doesn't say anything about the husband and the wife having sinned before God because they knew each other in this way.

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They knew each other in the right way, exactly as God intended for them to know one another. But in terms of cleanliness, of keeping each other and others clean, because notice it's talking also about the discharge on other garments.

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And that's simply what's being stated there in Leviticus 15. Now, let's come back to our study in 1

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Corinthians 7. God has given us desires and he has put this sexual desire in us.

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It's a natural desire to have this for a man to look at a woman and have a sexual desire for her.

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Now, it's healthy for a single man to think that about another woman. There can be a way in which that desire is healthy.

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There's another way in which that desire becomes lust. But let's say a single man wants to be with a woman and he wants to consummate with her and start a family with her.

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That is a desire that God has put into the heart of that man. But once it goes into the realm of undressing her and there's no commitment with her, any of those kinds of things, well, that's when you start delving into territory that becomes lust.

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A man, a husband, can think of his wife sexually and there's nothing sinful about that.

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That's not lust. A man's desire for his own wife is not lust. That's good.

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But if a man starts desiring to be with other women and undressing them, spending time on porn sites, fantasizing, any of that other kind of thing, all of that is sexual immorality.

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And even that passion and that sinful desire, as stated in Colossians 3, 6, the wrath of God is coming against.

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So we must be pure in our thoughts. We must take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

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True purity and cleanliness comes not from what we do or don't do.

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True purity and cleanliness comes from Christ. It is Christ who cleanses us, who washes us and makes us new and presents us before the

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Father, holy and with great joy. This is our Lord and Savior who does this for us.

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And so since Christ has done this for us, since he has died for us, since his blood cleanses us of all unrighteousness, since he has clothed us with his purity, with righteousness, therefore we must live in a pure way, even within our marriages, that a husband and a wife regard one another within the regulations that God has given for these things that he has created, marriage, sex, intimacy, and so on.

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So here in 1 Corinthians 7, 2, Paul says this, but because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband.

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So again, this is in response to that statement, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Paul is basically saying there, right, that's good if you're not married, or you should not desire somebody you're not married to.

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Going back to 1 Corinthians 6, 18, flee sexual immorality. But there's also a way that this statement is not good.

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So the statement, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, that's good within certain context, there's also a way that that statement's not good.

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Because remember, in Genesis 2, God said of Adam, whom he had created first, before he created woman,

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God looked at Adam and said, it is not good for the man to be alone. So it is right and good for a man to desire a wife.

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It says in the book of Proverbs, it is a blessed thing for a man to find a good wife.

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So Paul says this here in chapter 7, verse 2, but because of sexual immorality, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

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God has created these desires in man and woman. Now, it's because of sin, because of corruption that has come into the world, that those things have become corrupt and fallen.

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And we don't do them in a way that honors God or one another. Rather, we chase after the desires and passions of our own flesh.

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God created these things to be good. We are the ones who corrupt this thing that God has called good.

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And so Paul says those desires are there, but you put a desire, a desire that should be good in the heart of a sinful man, and then it becomes a wicked desire.

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So because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

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So now when we have those desires in our flesh, a husband and a wife who complement one another also become a protection to each other, and we serve one another sexually.

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We don't think about sex as being a service between a husband and a wife. But indeed, it is that a wife does a good thing for her husband when she knows him, and a husband does a good thing for his wife when he knows her.

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These things are passionate and good and healthy for a marriage, healthy for the relationship that it grows and blossoms.

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You know each other in this intimate way and also a protection for one another that we not be led astray by the wiles of Satan after the passions of our own flesh and the temptations that come in this world.

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Okay, so because of those sexual immoralities, because our own flesh is corrupt and fallen, because of temptations that exist in the world, let each man have his own wife and each woman have her own husband.

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You might come into 1 Corinthians 7 thinking that Paul is discouraging marriage because of some things that he's going to say later, and that's not the case at all.

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Notice that I've only stopped up to verse 5. What does Paul say in verse 6? But this

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I say as a concession, not as a command. And then the things that come after that are regarding his own personal opinions.

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He will say here in chapter 7, here's where I'm giving you my opinion, but it comes as wisdom.

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Okay, when Paul says, I'm giving you my opinion, we'll come to this again later when we get to those passages. But when he gives his opinion here, he's not saying this isn't a godly message.

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Like, we can cut those parts out of our Bible because it's not a word from Christ that's been given to the apostle.

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It's just Paul sharing his own opinion. You should take that instead as general wisdom. Just like we've been going through the book of Proverbs, and there's a lot of these

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Proverbs that aren't explicit commands. It's just general wisdom. So the same as with these words that Paul gives, it's general wisdom.

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May not be an explicit command about something, but it is wise. It would be wise of you to consider it this way.

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Just the same as we would consider that wisdom in the wisdom books of Scripture, in Proverbs, and we still call that the word of God.

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So it would also be from an apostle of Jesus Christ giving that kind of wisdom.

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This is still the word of God. That's how we consider. Even those pieces of advice that Paul gives here as he is talking about marriage going through chapter seven.

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We've got some great things we're going to be pulling out of this as we continue through this text. I really do love this chapter.

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So again, back to verse two, because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband.

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Verse three, the husband must fulfill his duty to his wife. That's instructional.

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We have not gotten to the wisdom portion yet of chapter seven. This is an instructive command.

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A husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband.

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Wives, I want to say this to you because this is most commonly something that I hear that comes from wives more than I hear it come from the men.

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A man can do this too, but I hear it more often come from wives. Do not use sex as a bargaining chip.

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It is not something that a man has to do certain things in order to earn, and then he gets rewarded with you.

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He should already have you because you belong to him.

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And that goes both ways. As Paul is pointing this out here in chapter seven, he also belongs to you.

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So he can't withhold himself from you and say, hey, until you do these certain things, you don't get this, that or the other.

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We as married couples need to stop using our spouses to get what we want.

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That's not a healthy marriage. If that's the way you're going through your marriage, what is the instruction that we have for husbands and wives in Ephesians chapter five?

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Wife, submit to your husband, husband, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

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There is a giving up of yourself for another, and that comes even to the marriage bed.

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The wife does not have authority over her own body, verse four, but the husband does.

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And likewise, also, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

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Now, as you hear these instructions, don't receive this begrudgingly. Don't hear me saying this and going, oh, well,

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OK, I guess I'm going to have to do it with my spouse tonight. OK, but that's he doesn't want that.

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The husband does not want his wife to come into the marriage bed begrudgingly, and a wife doesn't want that of her husband either.

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A good, healthy marriage is going to be a husband and a wife desiring each other and sharing themselves with each other and considering another's needs ahead of their own.

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Believe it or not, we should be doing that even in intimacy. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

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That has to be the logical understanding, even of this spiritual instruction, because the two have become one flesh, right?

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We just heard that in chapter six. We've heard that from the beginning of creation in Genesis chapter one. The two shall become one flesh.

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So because they're one flesh, not two, but one. And Jesus makes that distinction in Matthew chapter 19.

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So they are no longer two, but one flesh. And what God has joined together, let man not separate.

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So since they're no longer two, but one, then the wife's body is not her own.

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It's her husband's. But as I mentioned yesterday, this is a mutual thing. This goes both ways.

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So also the husband's body is not his own, but it belongs to his wife.

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How often have you heard it said from a husband who will speak disparagingly about his wife among his friends?

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Oh, my old lady, you know, she's doing this, that, or the other, you know, whatever. Oh, she's so silly. I don't understand why she does this.

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She's stupid. Why does this woman do this to me? When a man speaks that way about his wife, he is disparaging of himself because the two have become one flesh.

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If he calls his wife an idiot, he's calling himself an idiot. We need to be speaking about one another in a marriage that is honoring and uplifting of one another.

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Let no one else ever hear you say something disparagingly about your spouse.

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It's good to ask for advice. Certainly you want help with your marriage. You want to know how to love your spouse in a better way.

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But ask for that help in a way that's not disparaging of your significant other, but rather a desire to want to serve them more or figure them out, you know, whatever it might be.

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Men and women are different in case you haven't figured that out. Despite what the culture says about the sexes, men and women are created different.

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And that is a good thing. God designed these bodies that we have. Satan didn't sneak into the garden when

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God was creating the man and the woman and start sticking parts on them that, you know, they're going to sin now with these parts that I've attached to them.

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God created our bodies the way that they are. We need to know how to honor

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God with our bodies. That was said in chapter six, verse 20.

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That's like the bridging verse that goes from the confrontation of sexual immorality in chapter six into this healthy sex relationship that we have in chapter seven.

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You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. And when a husband gives his body to his wife and a wife gives her body to her husband, you are glorifying

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God in your body. We are to live as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the

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Lord. And this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12 one. We do this in our bodies.

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We present our bodies unto God as instruments of righteousness. Stop depriving one another,

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Paul says in verse five, except by agreement for a time. Now, what might the time be that a husband and a wife would have to deprive one another of sex with each other?

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What would that agreement or what would that time and that agreement be? A woman's period, her time of the month.

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She can't have sex during that time. So be communicating with your spouse that he knows when that is.

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And what he's doing during that time is devoting himself to prayer. That's what Paul says, so that you may devote yourself to prayer, submitting his mind unto the

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Lord. So during that time, he cannot be with his wife that he is submitting himself unto

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God. So in a time where you have to be separated, where you have to, well, is the way

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Paul puts it here, depriving one another. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time.

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When you have to be separated, you submit yourself in your thoughts, in your mind, in your heart, in your body to God.

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That's what you need to be doing all the time anyway, but especially in this season, so that you not be tempted in your flesh and then come together again.

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This is all part of the command. It's part of the instruction. Come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self -control and self -control is something we should be exercising all the time as well.

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That's one of the fruit of the spirit, or it's mentioned among the fruit of the spirit. We don't talk about that one as much.

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It's usually love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness. How often do we really mention self -control that we keep ourselves unstained by the world?

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As James says in James 127, we devote ourselves unto the Lord. We do not go after the temptations of our flesh.

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That applies whether you are married or single, devote yourself to God in your mind, in your thoughts, be pure in your thinking, be pure in your actions for you have the righteousness of Christ.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that we have read today. And I pray that whether a person listening is married or single, that they understand the instruction that has been given to consider others' needs ahead of our own.

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It doesn't just exist within a marriage, but it certainly should be there for those who are married. We all need to practice this, thinking of others more highly than we think of ourselves.

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How can we help our brother and sister in the Lord walk in purity? For a husband, he needs to think about that with his wife.

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For a wife, she needs to think about that with her husband. But all of us as the church thinking about this together. For we have been purified by Christ.

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And may we walk in purity and holiness before you and before this world until the day of Christ.

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And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening!