Sunday Sermon: Each Has His Own Gift From God (1 Corinthians 7:1-24)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. So 1 Corinthians chapter 7, let's start in verse 1.

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For the sake of time, I'm just going to read through verse 11, although we're going to try to go through verse 24 today.

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We'll see how far we get. So 1 Corinthians 7, beginning in verse 1, this is the word of the

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Lord. Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

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But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

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The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

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Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

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Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self -control.

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Now as a concession, not a command, I say this, I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

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To the unmarried and to the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

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But if they cannot exercise self -control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

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To the married, I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband.

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And the husband should not divorce his wife. Let's stop there for now.

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We'll come to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we jump back into our study of 1

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Corinthians, as we're picking up here in this chapter, where we're going to read a lot of principles about marriage,

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I pray that we understand the main point here, that in any and all that we do, whatever gifting we have received, may we accept this and live to the glory of God.

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To those who have been given the gift of marriage, we love our spouse as we are called to do according to Scripture, and this we do to the glory of God.

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For those that are given singleness, whether that is by their own choosing or whether it's circumstances beyond their control,

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I pray even in this, that we give glory to God, that we live lives of holiness before you, that we live according to how you have instructed us in your word, and this we do to the name of Christ.

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It's in his precious name that we pray, amen. So remember what we last read before we've come back here to chapter 7.

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What was chapter 6 about? Can you give me just kind of a brief summary of chapter 6 before we jump back into our text?

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Settled disputes among believers within our church. Yeah, there you go.

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There's one aspect of chapter 6. Settled disputes among believers. Don't take it to the courts.

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But overall, when we start from chapter 5 verse 1 through chapter 6 verse 20, what thematically were we looking at there in chapter 6?

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Immorality. Yeah, immorality in the church. Things that the church were not dealing with.

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So even accompanied by what Sonia said, even those things needed to be dealt with among the believers and they were not things that they were dealing with.

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Whether it had to do with sin in the body that was not being handled as the church has been appointed to handle among its own members, or whether it was even sin within their own individual bodies.

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For as Paul gets to the point in chapter 6, your body is a temple of the

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Holy Spirit whom you have from God. You are not your own.

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He says in verse 20, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

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There's the call to sexual purity that we have there in chapters 5 and 6. There's sexual immorality in your midst.

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Some of you have sexual immorality in your own bodies that you haven't dealt with. So glorify God in your body.

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Glorify God in the body of Christ in the church. And glorify God in your own individual bodies.

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And so we go from that into chapter 7. Still with that in mind, we spent two chapters addressing matters of sexual immorality.

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And so basically the way Paul comes into chapter 7 is by addressing sexual morality.

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What is the right way that God has given this gift that it is to be exercised in God's people.

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Now as Paul shifts gears here and he gets to addressing those questions that have been asked of him by the

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Corinthians, I just love his flow of thought. You have to appreciate a good segue.

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So going from that which is sexually immoral to that which is moral. That's what we're moving into here in chapter 7.

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So this isn't just Paul grabbing random subjects. Like, okay, what did you guys ask about this subject and then that's what he, you know, he doesn't jump right into the principles of the

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Lord's table in chapter 7. We get to that in chapter 11. What a gifted and magnificent writer he was.

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And not only have I tried to learn from Paul with the spiritual principles that he gives, the gospel that he proclaims, and then the effects of the gospel that should be evidenced in our lives.

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But just as a pastor and someone who enjoys writing letters to people, I've tried to follow

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Paul's disciplines even in the way that he speaks or preaches or writes his letters.

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It's such a wonderful thing we don't probably think about so much as we look at the principles and that's definitely what we should be looking at.

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What's the substance? What's the material of what it is that he's saying? But you have to appreciate the good flow of things.

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God is a God of order, not a God of disorder. And you see order come into a lot of what

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Paul says and how he structures these things in the instructions that he gives to this particular church.

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So here we go with chapter 7 starting in verse 1, now concerning. And that is a way that we will see subject changes happen periodically throughout 1

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Corinthians. I think I had addressed this earlier several chapters back. But we'll see like major shift changes in 1

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Corinthians beginning with those words now concerning. Now what we're reading about here in chapter 7 has to do with marriage.

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Then we're going to be addressing different matters when we get to 8, 9, and 10. And then there's another subject change when we get to chapter 11 as well.

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And typically you'll see those subject changes with the heading now concerning. Chapter 12, chapters 12, 13, and 14 is where we start talking about spiritual gifts.

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And you'll see now concerning there. And then when we get, of course, to the doctrine of resurrection in chapter 15, he begins with those two words there as well.

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That's how it comes out to us in the English anyway. It's two words. I believe it's just one single word in the

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Greek. But denoting a subject change. So we're changing subjects, but still in keeping with what we had just addressed previously in chapter 6.

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He starts by saying now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

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Now I'm reading from the ESV, the English standard. That statement is in quotes. Why would that be in quotes?

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It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. Anybody have any theories? What's that?

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Yeah, right. It came from, it's probably the Corinthians. That may be a quote right from their letter, right from the questions that they had asked.

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Or it could be a saying that was going on among the Corinthians, whatever it might happen to be. Now the literal translation of this, literally it's translated, it's good for a man not to touch a woman.

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But we understand in context, specifically sexual relations is what is being addressed here. Now what we're witnessing is an extreme.

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We're witnessing something like going to the other extreme. What was happening in chapter six? But there was sexual immorality among you, things that they had not been dealing with, even with the discipline of their own bodies.

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But you get to chapter seven and it's the whole other way. Well, maybe because of the pagans in our culture, because of the heathens that are out there, all the sexual immorality that's going on in those pagan temples here in Corinth, maybe the best thing for us to do would be to just not have sex at all.

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Maybe that's the direction we need to go. Like we should even be practicing abstinence in our own marriages.

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So you go from one extreme to the next. You have those that are still not dealing with the sexual immorality the way that they should, but then you have some on the other extreme end that are going, well, maybe we just need to even be abstinent in our marriages and that would be more pure for us.

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We're more holy in that sense. But Paul says in verse two, but because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

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The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband.

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So this is Paul basically saying to them, this is what God created sex for.

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This is where it's good. It's good in marriage. What y 'all been doing outside of marriage, that's where you're sinning against God.

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That's where there needs to be rebuke and there needs to be correction. But where God intended this to be enjoyed and done even unto his glory is within a marriage between a husband and a wife.

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As said later on in Hebrews chapter 13, that you are to keep the marriage bed undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous.

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And that's a responsibility that everybody in the church has. It doesn't matter whether you are single or married. Everybody has the responsibility to keep the marriage bed undefiled.

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Even those who are single can be looking out for their brothers and sisters in the Lord to be sure that they're honoring their marriage vows.

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This is where God had intended this intimacy to be enjoyed and appreciated. This is where two become one flesh, where it's intended to take place in the marriage bed.

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And so Paul says, this is not sexually immoral because of the temptation to sexual immorality.

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Each man should have his own wife, each woman, her own husband. This is where it is to be enjoyed, appreciated, practiced.

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The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, likewise the wife to her husband. If you abstain from that in your marriage, if you keep that from one another, then there is the possibility based on the train of thought that we're following here, there's the possibility you may subject your spouse to sexual temptation outside the marriage.

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So where those fleshly appetites arise, be able to satisfy them between one another, enjoying each other in marriage.

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Verse four, for the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

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Now that was not a controversial statement. Of course, most people, even in the pagan culture of Corinth, believe that wife belongs to me.

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How are women generally regarded in that culture and in that day? Property, exactly.

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So of course her body belongs to me. That statement was not controversial. The next statement is, likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does, ooh.

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The husband's body even belongs to his wife, and she even has authority over that body, goodness.

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Now that would have been counter -cultural for Paul to have said that. But we see here that marriage is supposed to be a mutual partnership.

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It is not a matter of possession in the sense that the husband possesses his wife and she's just his property.

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It is a matter of possession in the sense that they possess each other, that a husband belongs to his wife, a wife belongs to her husband, and a husband needs to understand that so that he doesn't think of his body needing to belong to anybody else, right?

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A wife understands that so that she knows my body is my husband's, it doesn't belong to anybody else.

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And incidentally, there's elements of the Song of Songs, or otherwise known as Song of Solomon, that comes into even that statement as well.

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For we read in the Song of Songs, the bride saying, I am my beloved's and he is mine.

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Paul using that exact same phrasing here when he says that a husband's body belongs to his wife, a wife's body belongs to her husband.

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Verse 5, Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come back together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self -control.

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So there may be any number of reasons why you may have to be apart from one another in the marriage bed.

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There could be medical reasons, there could be, you know, anything, traveling even, they could be literally separated from one another.

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But whatever reason it might happen to be, devote yourself in that time to prayer.

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So that your mind, your body are completely devoted to the Lord. And then come back together again.

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Don't let that be a permanent separation of one another. Again, for whatever reason it might happen to be that you cannot give to one another your conjugal rights, even in marriage during that period of time.

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Be separated for the time, devote yourself to prayer, but then come back together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self -control.

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Now, I'm deliberately not being terribly descriptive here about some of these things, although we certainly could be.

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But I think the instructions are rather plain and very straightforward. We understand what

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Paul is saying here. And I think we all understand these principles. I don't know that there are things that we necessarily have to rehash about this.

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But you as Christians, you as believers know that this is what God has intended sex to be for.

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We read that from the very beginning of the story, from Genesis chapters one and two, when

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God creates man and woman, male and female, he created them, Genesis 1 .27. And then in chapter two, he takes

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Adam and he takes a rib from Adam and he forms it into a woman. And when he brings the woman before the man, we have the first song of scripture.

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The first song that is ever sung by a person in the Bible is the song that Adam sings when

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God brings his wife to him. And you know how that song begins, right?

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This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

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A man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

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And as Jesus repeats this in Matthew 19, he says, so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

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What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate. So we understand the principle.

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We understand the creation mandate. We know why these things were made the way that they were made.

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This is all according to God's intention. Paul is not giving his own opinion here about sex at the beginning of chapter seven.

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He's stating matter of factly, this is what God has created it for. This is the intention.

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This is where it is to be enjoyed and done rightly. So we have the rebuke regarding sexual immorality.

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That was in chapters five and six, but that's not to just kind of leave that by itself. Paul nonetheless comes back to recognizing and pointing out, here's where it is to be practiced in a right way.

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And so even to keep yourselves from the temptations of your own flesh, you as a husband and a wife are mutually beneficial to one another.

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And so just as we have an instruction in scripture in Philippians chapter two, to consider one another's needs ahead of our own.

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So that should definitely be exercised and practiced even within a marriage. Now take special note too of that instruction to a husband and a wife, to pray, devote yourselves to prayer, but then come back together again.

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Now that might be prayer individually. Might be, you know, husband spend your time in prayer, wife spend your time in prayer.

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But I think most specifically it's regards to a husband and a wife praying together. If you cannot be physically intimate together, be spiritually intimate together.

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Be in prayer with one another to the Lord that we may devote even our marriage unto

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Christ. Have a marriage that is foundational upon Christ. It is built upon Christ Jesus.

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In first Peter chapter three verses one through seven, Peter gives instructions there to wives of unbelieving husbands, how they are to conduct themselves to perhaps win their unbelieving husbands to the

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Lord. But then in verse seven, he says to the husbands, be gentle with your wives as the weaker vessel, knowing that they are co -heirs with you of the kingdom of God.

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And he also mentions there that if there is strife within your marriage, then it hinders your prayers.

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So a good marriage means there's also a good prayer life between that husband and wife in marriage.

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If you have a rocky marriage, if there are bad things going on, if there's unresolved issues within your marriage, your prayers are actually hindered.

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It even affects your worship with God. So how important is it for us in a one flesh union to have a good marriage built upon Christ, where the same grace of God that he has shown to us is the grace that we show to one another in our own households.

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Amen. First Peter three, seven, let's go ahead and look at it together.

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So turn over to first Peter three, seven, first Peter three.

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So again, we have those instructions in one through six, where Paul tells a wife, be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

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So the instruction there in those first six verses is same instruction that we've seen in other places.

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Ephesians chapter five, when we were there a couple of months ago in our sermon series, Colossians chapter three, it stated there as well, wives be subject to your own husbands.

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But again, note the instruction there in verse seven, likewise, husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

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So once again, the implication there being, if there is strife in the marriage, if there's disagreement between the husband and the wife, then our worship before God is affected.

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The relationships that we have in our lives does affect our worship. And especially that relationship that is closest to us for those of us who are married.

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So have a good marriage built upon Christ, and you will have good worship.

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But where your marriage is struggling and is rough, then your worship is also hindered by that as well.

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Any other questions about that, about first Corinthians seven, one to five, before we continue on?

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Yes, sir. When it's stated not to touch a woman, there's,

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I think, 12 steps to intimacy. And touch is one of them.

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And just to understand that where you are spiritually, to reach out and I say the holy hug and that,

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I don't like that. Yeah, right. I mean, the principle, or if you expound that out, good for a man not to touch a woman.

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Yeah, I'm not touching any other women. I'm just touching my wife. So, guys, there's a certain practical sense in which that could apply very well.

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Not to go around touching other men's wives. Hands off mine. All right. So continuing on into verse eight, or sorry, verse six.

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Verses six and seven really are kind of the main thesis of what's being talked about here in chapter seven.

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So Paul lays out, as a concession, not as a command, I say this. So what he's saying here with regards to whether to be married or whether to be single, this is not a command.

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He says, I wish that all were as I myself am. And how was Paul, by the way?

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What was his marital status? He was single. At least at this point, he's single. I'll expound on that shortly.

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But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

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What's the one of one kind and what's the one of another? What are the two gifts that Paul would be talking about here?

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Marriage and singleness. Yep, very simply that. So one gift is marriage. Another gift is singleness.

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And that's the theme of everything that's going on here in chapter seven. So he says, as a concession, not as a command,

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I say, I wish that all were as I myself am. But some have a gift of marriage and some have a gift of singleness.

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And whatever gift you have, it's given to you by God. It is appointed by God that you would be married or it is appointed by God that you would be single.

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And we see variation. There's only one kind of marriage. There's marriage between a husband and a wife.

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That's it. That's what a marriage is. As much as our government wants to try to redefine marriage, they can't.

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God had already defined it from the very beginning, one man and one woman. And so that's marriage.

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There's no other definition of marriage, but you have variations of singleness that's gonna be talked about here in chapter seven.

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So what are some variations of singleness? You're single because you've never been married. Or you're single because your spouses died.

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Or you're single because you are divorced. So various reasons why a person might be single, which

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Paul is going to address. But once again, there's only one kind of marriage, and that's marriage between a husband and a wife.

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Now, why would Paul say, I wish that all were as I myself am? Why would he say that?

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I wish that you were all single. For what reason, on what basis would he say that, brother? Fully dedicated to the

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Lord? That is one of the things that he mentions, the reason why. What might another reason be? He was a missionary.

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He could go where he needed to go without having to worry about anything else. Yeah, that's right. He's ready to go.

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He doesn't have to confer with his wife. Sweetheart, what do you think about going to Rome this year?

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How about in chains? That would be great. Let's hop on a prison ship and go to Rome. He doesn't have to confer with his spouse on decisions that he needs to make.

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He's ready to respond to the Lord's calling immediately. What's another reason, if you know something about chapter seven, what's another reason

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Paul gives for why he might wish you would stay single instead of get married? More time to give to the word?

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Yeah. Is being married easy? No, I had some jump on that right away.

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No, no, it's not easy. I'm in a very, very good marriage, but I can still tell you marriage is not easy.

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It's a lot of work. A lot of work to keep a marriage up, to keep it fine tuned, just as we're talking about here in these first few verses.

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You got to have a good marriage. It even leads to good worship with unhindered prayers when you're solid in your marriage.

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A marriage that's built on Christ takes a lot of work. We read about that even in our sermon series when

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Pastor Tom was taking us through Ephesians chapter five. So later on in chapter seven, Paul says,

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I would want you to be single because I want to save you from some of the stuff that you're going to have to deal with in a marriage, things that a person who's single would not have to deal with.

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There are a lot of struggles. It's a lot of work. There are a lot of things that you have to go through, and I want to be able to spare you of that, especially considering, we'll see this later on, we won't get to this until next week, but there appears to be some kind of a looming struggle that is about to come upon the people of God.

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Paul looking at the reality of the persecution of the church, most likely, and he sees that persecution coming upon the church, and he says to the

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Corinthians, I want to spare you of some of those struggles you're going to have to go through. It would be better for you to remain single in this particular time.

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Now, I think that that instruction, and we'll see that when we get to it, I think that instruction is temporary. I don't think he's saying, we better at all times for you to be single.

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Everybody from now on throughout the rest of church history shouldn't get married because scripture actually tells us that marriage is very good.

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And so does the apostle Paul in some of his other letters. So there seems to be some sort of a calamity or persecution or something like that that's coming up.

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And Paul wants to be able to protect them from that because if you can imagine a time of persecution coming upon the church, there's of course one kind of persecution where you would say to somebody, if you don't renounce your faith, we're going to hurt you.

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And then there's another kind of persecution where it would be said, if you don't renounce your faith, we're going to hurt your family. And that there's a different kind of response there.

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Yes, sir. That's right.

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It's understood from church history that Peter's wife was put to death before he was.

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Yeah. So he had to witness his wife die. So Paul's saying as a concession, again, this is a matter of wisdom.

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This is not a commandment. And we'll even see later on where, you know, if somebody gets married, he says, that's fine if they've gotten married, they haven't sinned.

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But he says, I wish that you would remain as I am, but each one has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

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And so now we get to various aspects of singleness here. In verse eight, to the unmarried and the widows,

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I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. So yeah, once again, at least

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Paul's present condition is that he is single. But if they cannot exercise self -control, they should marry for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

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Now, let me mention a couple of things here about the statement to the unmarried and the widows. We know what a widow is, right?

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What is a widow? Her husband died, right? I think somebody said spouse.

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More specifically, we're talking about a woman whose husband died. A man whose wife has died is called a what?

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Widower, right? Now, there wasn't a word for that in the Greek language.

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We use the word widower, but in Greek, there wasn't a term for a man whose wife had died.

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Always kind of wondered like if a woman's husband dies, we say she's widowed.

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But if a husband's wife died, we don't say he's widowered. Kind of funny things with the

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English language. Anyway, that's beside the point. That was a free one.

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Yeah, there you go, thank you. So when he makes this statement to the unmarried and the widows, unmarried could mean a couple of things.

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Unmarried could mean widower. That could be the context since he's talking about widow, to the widowers and to the widowed.

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That could be the meaning. But it could also be that unmarried is just very simply a catch -all word for anybody who isn't married, whether they've become widowed or whether they've always been single or whether they've been divorced.

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That could be the word that just kind of encompasses anybody that is presently not in the context of a marriage.

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Since that word unmarried, the same Greek word is used a little bit later on in description of those who have been divorced.

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So it could be a catch -all term or it could be in the context, a reference to widowers. That's up for debate.

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But in recognition of this, he says, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

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There are some that do hold the view that Paul was previously married.

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And I'm gonna mention this to you. You can look it up on your own if you wanna write this down, but I'm not gonna take too much time on this.

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There is an article that was written by Denny Burke, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College.

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It was published August 30th of 2011. And the title of the article was,

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Was the Apostle Paul Married? If you go to Google and you just type that into a search bar,

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Was the Apostle Paul Married? Denny Burke. It's the first article that'll come up. So if you're interested in reading some of the arguments on that,

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Denny not being the only one, but he's just kind of summarizing the arguments there. If you're interested in that, then look up the article.

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There is a possibility that Paul was previously married. And one of the arguments for that is you could not be a part of the

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Sanhedrin if you were single. And remember that Paul was, he describes himself in Philippians 3 as a

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Pharisee of Pharisees, right? Now, just because he was a Pharisee doesn't mean he was part of the

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Sanhedrin. A Pharisee could be a Pharisee, but the Sanhedrin was made up of 70 persons that were a combination of the

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Sadducees and the Pharisees. So Paul had not yet become part of the Sanhedrin.

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But if the desire for him was to be part of the Sanhedrin, he would have had to have gotten married in order to be there.

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So there's a possibility Paul was previously married, but now he's a widower and his wife had died.

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It's also that possibility his wife could have also left him because he became a Christian and she remained a

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Jew. But that's up to speculation. We don't know for sure since the scripture doesn't tell us. But there are some compelling arguments out there for the possibility that Paul at least was previously married before the time in which he writes this letter.

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We know that he's single because he says, it would be good for them to remain single as I am.

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And in verse nine, but if they cannot exercise self -control, they should marry for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

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So if a person has sexual temptation that they just can't seem to control, it would be better for them to get married so that they in their flesh can have that with their spouse and not be tempted to exercise sexual immorality outside of the covenant of marriage.

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This is one way, by the way, that we recognize that God has given a gift of marriage to somebody because they desire it, they want it.

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I don't wanna be single, I wanna be married. And so if that is the desire that God has given to your heart, by all means, get married, do it responsibly.

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Don't just grab the first person that comes along. Hey, you and me, let's go get married. I do think pre -marriage counseling is a very, very important thing.

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And in fact, I just finished up some pre -marriage counseling with a couple just about a month ago. So it's important to do these things in a godly way, in a way that honors the

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Lord. But Paul calls attention to the singles here in saying, even being single is to be done to the glory of God.

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He goes on to say in verse 10, to the married I give this charge, not I, but the

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Lord, meaning what? This part's a command, right?

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This part comes from God. This part is not up to interpretation. This is not just a matter of wisdom, but this is an instruction that comes from God.

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Now you'll see again where Paul will say, I, not the Lord.

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If you kind of glance down at verse 12, he says, to the rest I say, and in parentheses, if you're reading the

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ESV, I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.

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So he says it as a matter is coming from himself, not from Christ.

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Compare that with the statement in verse 10, to the married I give this charge, not

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I, but the Lord. What would be the difference between the two? Why would he say it in that way?

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Just talking about verses 10 and 12, but what's the difference between those two? That's exactly it, yeah.

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So in his earthly ministry, Jesus never mentioned it. Now is Paul still speaking authoritatively there though, where he says in verse 12, don't divorce your spouse.

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Is he speaking authoritatively there? Yeah, he's an apostle. So he's speaking the word of Christ.

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It just was not the word of Christ during Christ's earthly ministry, makes sense. So there are other things that the apostles instructed the churches in that Jesus never said in his own ministry, but the word that they gave to the churches was still under the authority of Christ since they are those who are sent out by Christ with the word of Christ.

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And remember, if you'll think back to places like in 2 Thessalonians, which we were in over a year ago or so.

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In 2 Thessalonians, he says, if anybody doesn't regard what we say in this letter, take note of that person, I have nothing to do with him.

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So the letters that Paul wrote were to be every bit as authoritative as the word of Christ itself. What we read in 1

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Corinthians has just as much authority as what we read in the red letters in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right?

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Now that's comparing verses 10 and 12, the statement, not I, but the

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Lord versus I, not the Lord. Compare that back up with verse six though.

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So verse 10 to the married, I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. Verse 12 to the rest,

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I say, I, not the Lord. But what about in verse six where he said, not as a concession, not now as a concession, not as a command,

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I say this. So this is obviously Paul's own opinion, but why would that stand apart from the other two references, verses 10 and 12?

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What's the nature of verse six? Yeah, he says wish, right?

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So it's not a command. I mean, he outright says, this is a concession, it's not a command. So he shares his own opinion there.

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Just pointing this out, it's important to recognize the context. What's the context in which this is being said?

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Is Paul saying something as a matter of wisdom or is he saying something as a matter of command?

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And he does kind of bounce back and forth between the two. So it's important to recognize the context. So this instruction here in verse 10, it's a direct command.

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To the married, I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband.

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But if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband.

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That's the parenthetical reference. And then the husband also should not divorce his wife.

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Now, why is that important for Paul to say? Why is it important to say, hey, if you're married, don't get divorced?

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God hates divorce, absolutely. That is not what God desires for our marriage.

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And lest anybody think, well, hey, if Paul is talking about the service to the

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Lord that we should be doing, that's where he's gonna go here in chapter seven. Well, maybe I need to divorce my spouse so I can devote myself fully to the

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Lord. Now, that would be sin before God. God does not want you to take that action.

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That's not what he wants you to do. That would not be honoring to the Lord no matter how much you think I would be devoting myself entirely to Christ.

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When you look at the instructions and the requirements for pastors, elders in 1

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Timothy chapter three, one through seven, one of those requirements is that he must manage his own household well.

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Because why? Why must he must manage his own household well?

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Exactly. If he can't manage his own household, how is he gonna manage the household of God?

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Now elsewhere, Paul even says in 1 Timothy chapter five, that if one does not care for members of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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Because even unbelievers know, you don't cheat on or walk out on your spouse.

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Even unbelievers know that. And so if somebody doesn't care for members of his own household, which even pagans know,

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Jesus said the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. Even a pagan knows how to do this. If you don't care for members of your own household, which you walk out on your family or you don't provide for your family, you've denied the faith and you're worse than a pagan.

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You're worse than an unbeliever. So by no means do these instructions suggest that one in order to devote themselves fully to the

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Lord should probably have to give up their marriage. That's not at all what Paul is saying. Don't get divorced.

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You should not separate from your husband or husband, you should not divorce your wife.

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Verse 12, to the rest I say, I not the Lord. Now this was an instruction that comes from Christ in his earthly ministry.

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That if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.

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If any woman has a husband, I'm sorry, this was from Paul, not from Christ's earthly ministry, but Paul's ministry.

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If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.

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For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife. And the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.

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Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Let's hold on there for a second.

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So does that mean if you have an unbelieving husband who is married to a believing wife, is the unbelieving husband holy because of his believing wife?

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Yeah, there you go. He's holy in this sense. The household is set apart from the pagans and the heathens, right?

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They're not like the unbelievers who don't know God, who don't know the gospel.

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The gospel's in that home. The grace of God is upon that home because these two who are one flesh, one of those two has received the gospel and has the dwelling of the

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Holy Spirit. So of course the blessing of God is upon that house. And as Paul mentioned, yeah, there's a greater possibility now that the unbelieving husband has the chance to hear the gospel and therefore become holy himself.

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But they're holy in the sense that that household is still set apart from any other unbelieving household in Corinth.

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Now the rest of verse 14 is rather fascinating and has caused even different denominations because of disagreements over this verse.

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For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.

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Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

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So your children saved because you're saved? No, that's not what Paul is saying there.

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This is not a verse about baptizing your babies. Okay, just so everybody is clear.

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How is it then that your children are holy? Same principle as with the marriage.

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They're set apart, right? They are not subject to worldly teaching.

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They're in a household where the gospel is known and being proclaimed. And so in this way, your children are holy.

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They don't belong to the worldly. They belong to the godly. Yes, sir.

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Yeah, having one of this woman or the man being a believer puts the presence of God on the house and the presence of God overshadows anything that brings light in the darkness.

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And the unbeliever will feel that. And even that has probably caused divorces.

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True, yeah. But that's a great way of putting it. Absolutely, amen to that.

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Yeah, and indeed, because of some couples, you have one spouse that comes to faith, especially in this day and time when the gospel is spreading throughout the world.

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You'll have one spouse that comes to faith. The other spouse resents the believing spouse because they've come to this

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Christian faith. They hate Christianity, don't want to have anything to do with it. So just like my brother mentioned there, that could even result in a divorce.

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So here's these instructions that follow that. Verse 15, but if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so in such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved.

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God has called you to peace. For how do you know wife whether you will save your husband or how do you know husband whether you will save your wife?

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So if the unbelieving spouse walks out, let them go. And you are not under any obligation to have to go and save that person.

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Now, I want to say that's also a matter of wisdom. That's not an exact command. So just because an unbelieving spouse walks out is the command for the believing spouse to just go, fine, you're gone.

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Or can the believing spouse want to have the marriage reconciled and still desire that the unbelieving spouse, even though the unbeliever walked out, still desire that that unbeliever comes to know the gospel.

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There's a wonderful couple in my life and I had the privilege of baptizing the husband.

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They were actually in church with us not that long ago here at First Baptist Church Lindale. But he grew up in a

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Mormon household, very nominal Mormon. And then when he got out on his own, even resented his own upbringing and decided he didn't want to be married anymore.

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So he was married to this woman who was a Christian. She was a believer. He decided he didn't want to be married.

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Didn't feel like he was succeeding in his marriage anyway. So they got divorced. They were both in the military.

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He got stationed over in Hawaii. Well, she got a change of duty station and she got moved over to Hawaii as well.

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She just wanted to be nearby. She just wanted to know you've let go of our marriage, but I've not.

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She wasn't stalking him. She wasn't trying to do anything obnoxious. She just wanted to be near. So that he would know if you're feeling convicted about this, you want to reconcile,

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I'm still here and I'm still waiting for you. And sure enough, as time would have it, the

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Lord worked on his heart and convicted him and he recognized that he needed to repent of his sin and be reconciled with his wife.

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And so he was. They were relocated to Fort Riley, Kansas, which was right next to Junction City, where I was pastoring before I came here.

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And during that time, while he was there in Junction City is when the Lord was really working on his heart. This was after they had already been reconciled.

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And so he came to us elders at First Southern Baptist Church and he said to us, I'm a sinner in need of a savior came to us in tears and said,

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I know what I need is Christ. And I had the privilege of baptizing that man. And he came to faith because his wife wouldn't give up on him.

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And if it was not for the desire of that woman to want to please the Lord and honor her marriage, though her unbelieving husband did not want to.

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Then he would not have been saved and come to faith. And they're a beautiful family to this day. We love all their kids.

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Still visit with them on a regular basis. So beautiful to see the grace of God work in a marriage just like that.

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So this isn't a command. This isn't a command that like, hey, if your unbelieving spouse walks out, you're under obligation to let them go.

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No, rather it's you're not under obligation to have to win them back. If they're going to walk out, let them go.

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And that's not upon you. But oh, what a wonderful grace of God it is when we desire to honor the

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Lord with our vows, even though unbelievers do not.

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So let's continue on. Let's finish up the rest of this section. And I'm going to go rather quickly through this verses 17 through 24.

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This section right here is kind of a hinge. It joins verses 1 through 16 with verses 25 through 40.

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So you could fit this section on either side, really. But in verse 17, Paul says, only let each person lead the life that the

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Lord assigned to him and which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

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Once again, we come back to this principle that whether God has given you a gift of marriage or God has given you a gift of singleness, live in this way to God's glory, for he has appointed you for the position and the condition that you are in.

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Verse 18, was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision.

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Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. Now I have to think that Paul is probably speaking hyperbolically in this way because you can't really undo your circumcision.

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But the point, the purpose of this is whatever condition in which you were called, don't think that you have to change your condition in order to honor

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God. If you're married, I have to become single in order to honor God. No, continue in the way that you are in in the time in which you were called.

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Paul gives another example, verse 19. Well, sorry, this is still with regard to circumcision, but for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

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Now here's another example, verse 20. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.

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Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it, but if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.

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For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freed man of the Lord. Likewise, he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.

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You were bought with a price. Same thing we saw back in chapter six, isn't that right?

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At the end of chapter six, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.

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And so we see it here. You were bought with a price, verse 23. Do not become bondservants of men.

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Do not enslave yourselves to men. So brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

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Now these are two examples that Paul has given with regard to your condition of being either married or single.

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Be careful how you apply that though. Because where he says, if a person is a slave, if they can buy their freedom, then they should go ahead and do it.

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That was the statement that he made in verse 21. But don't apply that to marriage. And like, if I can get out of this, let me go ahead and, you know, that's not the way that he means for that to be applied.

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But if you were previously married and you have become single, follow the principle to remain single.

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That's how you would apply that in a right way. And then you also have an application, a direct application that would apply to those who are slaves.

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If you're a slave, you're not doing something dishonoring to God by remaining a slave.

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But if you have the opportunity to buy your own freedom, buy your freedom. So that you would consider yourself a slave to God and not be enslaved by any man.

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If a person is free, he should not try to enslave himself to men because he is a bondservant of Christ, not a bondservant to men.

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So in whatever condition each was called, let him remain that way with God.

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So the same principle that was stated in verse six is fleshed out further in verses 17 to 24.

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So as a concession, not as a command, I say this, I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

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So if you're single, consider that a gift from God. And if you're married, consider that a gift from God.

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Do all of that unto the glory of Christ. Now Christ in his own earthly ministry, of course was not married, but Christ does have a bride.

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And who is his bride? We are, that's right. The church is his bride. And so Jesus is ridiculously faithful to his bride.

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But his bride is not quite as ridiculously faithful to Christ, are we? But it's because of his love for us that we are kept near to him.

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And he does not let us go. Praise God for that. As I've heard John MacArthur say, if you could lose your salvation, you would.

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But in Christ Jesus, we are kept near to him. And this union that we are in, we are his betrothed.

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We're waiting for the day of consummation. That doesn't happen until Christ returns to receive his bride.

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But in the meantime, live in faithfulness unto Christ, who died for us and gave himself for us so that we might be reconciled to God.

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Amen? Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness and grace of God that you have shown us in Christ.

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What a wonderful thing. And may we not take that for granted. May that not just be a bullet point we stick at the end of a discussion about marriage, but our very marriages themselves would be built upon Christ.

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Marriages can change like any other circumstance that happens in the world.

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Tomorrow, we can have different feelings than we had the day before. We need to be built on something solid and unmoving, something unchanging, something full of love and grace.

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And that is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let the love that you have shown to us fill up our marriages.

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And to those who are single, we understand that we have a union that is with Christ. And there cannot be a relationship greater than this.

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To those who are single, God, may they recognize that their singleness itself is even a gift from the

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Lord. And they live in singleness unto the praise of your glorious grace.

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In whatever condition that we are called, may we do all things to the glory of Christ. It's in your precious name that we pray and all