***Commentaries by David Prior, Leon Morris and Simon Kistemaker have contributed greatly to this outline***

I.                   Introduction

This week has been a very rough one for me.  On Tuesday night I felt a little sick, so I took my temperature and found that I had a 101 degree fever.  But, it broke in the middle of the night and when I woke up on Wednesday morning I felt better—not great, but better.  So, work must go on.  I came into the office and was getting ready for the Outreach Week students.  Then I ran off to class.  Then I came back to the church, met all the students, ran a few errands, got some stuff ready for the AWANA kick off BBQ and went back into my office to check my phone messages and maybe return a few emails…then it hit me.  Fever, body ache, tremendous pressure behind my eyes, extreme fatigue.  I came home and took my temperature and it was 102.8.  I laid down a while and continued to feel bad.  So, around 6:30 I took my temperature and it was 103.6!  I can’t recall ever having a fever that high in my life!  I was a little concerned.  So, I talked to Erin and we decided that I should go to Urgent Care.  We went over there about 7:45 p.m. and the Dr. confirmed that I had the flu and sent me home to rest, drink lots of liquids and ingest a lot of Tylenol.  I’m feeling much better now thanks to God’s grace and good advice from the Dr.

Why did I tell you that story?  To make you feel sorry for me?  Maybe a little, but more so because it perfectly illustrates the point that Paul was making in today’s passage.  Let’s read it.

1 Corinthians 7:25-35  Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.  (26)  I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.  (27)  Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.  (28)  But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.  (29)  This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,  (30)  and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods,  (31)  and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.  (32)  I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.  (33)  But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,  (34)  and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.  (35)  I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

How does my story illustrate Paul’s point?  Well, Erin and I certainly would have been at opening night of AWANA had we not been married.  My absence probably doesn’t have so much to do with being married because I was very sick, but in my single days I probably would have tried to tough it out and made myself worse—and gotten other people sick in the process.  But Erin’s absence from opening night of AWANA was directly correlated to her being married.  She needed to be home to take care of me.  Mainly she needed to be home to make sure I didn’t try to go to AWANA!  But she was also there to care for me and help me make the proper decisions about going to the Dr. since my brain was baking at about 104 degrees!  Her interests were divided. 

II.                Instructions for the whole church  (vv. 29-31)

Paul started out responding to a specific question about the betrothed (vs. 25).  But then here he launches off into a little excursus that includes his concerns for all the Corinthian believers, regardless of the marital or social status.  This is very typical of Paul, I think he had a bit of A.D.D.!  He would often get of track, but then he always returned to his original point and obviously wrote exactly what the Holy Spirit directed him to write.   

1 Corinthians 7:29-31  This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,  (30)  and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods,  (31)  and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

Once again, Paul addresses the Corinthians as brothers.  Remember way back at the beginning of our series on First Corinthians I told you that we should watch for three things; the seriousness of the sin of the Corinthians, the harshness of Paul’s rebukes, and the love that he has for them.  Here is another example of Paul’s love for them. 

Then, he uses a phrase that many interpret to be eschatological in nature.  It is almost habit for us to look at a sentence like, “the appointed time has grown short” and automatically interpret that to be referring to the end of the world.  But there are other scholars who think that it is a stretch, given the context, to interpret this phrase with end times connotations.  I tend to agree with the latter.  It seems that quite simply that “the appointed time” is referring  to the “present distress” (vs. 26) that was occurring in Corinth at that time.  Paul was simply saying that the present distress was drawing to a close.  Then he gives instructions on how they are to conduct themselves in light of the appointed time.

He used a very poetic structure with his instructions here.

                             Let

 Those who have wives

                                                Live as though they had none

                                       Those who mourn 

                                                Live as though they were not mourning

                                       Those who rejoice

                                                Live as though they were not rejoicing

                                      Those who buy

                                                Live as though they had no goods

                   Those who deal with the world

          Live as though they had no dealings with it

The question probably immediately pops into your head, as it does mine, what in the world does Paul mean?  Is he really telling people to ignore their wives, stop their mourning, quit rejoicing, stop buying stuff and lock themselves up in the houses?  Certainly not!    

He is carrying over from last week/passage when he was telling them not to be seeking a spouse.  The idea here is don’t be consumed by those things. Don’t be consumed by your spouse, overwhelmed by your mourning, distracted by your rejoicing, caught up in your buying or weighed down by your dealings with the world.

Paul wanted the Corinthians to be aware of what was going on around them and be promoting the Gospel in light of the present distress and the fact that the appointed time was drawing to a close.  Paul was a firm believer that the Gospel was advanced very effectively in times of distress. 

During times like we are facing now, with the economic distress of our culture, it is a normal reaction to be concerned about how we are being affected by the present distress.  Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with being concerned about that.  It’s when that becomes so overwhelming and consuming that we miss gospel opportunities springing up all around us that it becomes a problem. 

Paul gives a parting reminder that the present distress is passing away.  Therefore, the appointed time for the Gospel to be most openly received is passing away.  Paul wanted them to be about the work of the Gospel.

So what would lead us to believe that Paul is not actually asking us to ignore our spouses, and quit our mourning, rejoicing, buying and dealing?  Well, the next sentence passage helps us a lot.

III.             Instructions for the married and unmarried (vv. 31-35)

1 Corinthians 7:32-35  I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.  (33)  But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,  (34)  and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.  (35)  I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

Paul kept maintaining that he didn’t want Corinthians to be burdened.  In a lot of what he was saying he was giving his opinion, as one who is counted trustworthy by the Lord.  Here Paul said he wanted the Corinthians to be free from anxieties.  It doesn’t seem plausible that Paul would actually expect the Corinthians to ignore their spouses and quit mourning, rejoicing, buying and dealing with the world, and then tell them not to be anxious about things.  Those sorts of commands, if that’s how you interpret them, certainly come with some anxiety.  That is why it is improbable that Paul was being literal.

Paul then returns to his discussion about the married and the unmarried. The unmarried man is not concerned about the things of the world, but is anxious about the things of the Lord.  The same is true about the unmarried or betrothed woman.  She is anxious about the things of the Lord and how to be holy in body and spirit.

The married man, however, is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife.  And the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.  Their interests are divided. 

At first glance and without any knowledge of context it is easy to understand why many think that Paul was not in favor of marriage.  It seems as if he is putting the married and unmarried in contrast to one another and that the unmarried would be held in higher standard since they are single minded and not divided. 

However, for the last three weeks or so we have seen over and over that Paul was not opposed to marriage; in fact, he considered marriage and singleness to be on the same level; both being gifts from God.  The same thing applies here and we are going to see that in the last verse.

1 Corinthians 7:35  I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

He is not laying restraint on the Corinthians but promoting good order and securing their undivided devotion to the Lord.  The good order that he is promoting is the order of concerns or anxieties.  He’s promoting the fact that the married person is anxious about how to please their spouse.  That is what they are supposed to be doing!  It is what they are commanded by God to do.  Their undivided devotion to the Lord includes caring for their spouse.  Paul is encouraging the proper perspective, however.  God first, spouse second.  That is the good order that he is promoting.

IV.            Conclusion