1 Corinthians 7:25

Further Instructions Concerning Marriage In View of the Urgency of the Times (7:25-40).

‘Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.'

‘Concerning virgins' here, in view of 1 Corinthians 7:26, probably means ‘concerning those who have not yet married', whether men or women, whom he assumes to be pure (compare Revelation 14:4). Although it may be that he was asked a question about virgin women and chose to answer it at first more generally, for in 1 Corinthians 7:28 and later the virgins are women.

It is clear that Paul had been asked whether ‘virgins' should marry. In many pagan sects there were women who were called ‘virgins' who did not marry. They were dedicated to the gods and offered their bodies to men so that the men might come into ‘communion' with the god through sexual activity. It was typical of men's deceitfulness in making what was disgraceful appear even a ‘good and pious' thing.

While we must presume that the Corinthians were not thinking fully in these terms, yet the idea of pure virgins being separated to God, and to God alone, may well have seemed attractive, and may suggest they mainly had women in mind. Paul, however, answers in respect of both.

Paul gives his answer on the basis of His Apostleship, ‘as one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful', as in 1 Corinthians 7:6; 1 Corinthians 7:12. There was nothing he knew of in the Scriptures or in the Lord's teaching on such matters. Perpetual virginity was never considered a godly notion among the Jews, and Jephthah's daughter bewailed the fact that she must die a virgin (Judges 11:38), while for men the married state was seen as a necessity. (But compare Jesus' words in Matthew 19:12 of which Paul may have been unaware).

‘As one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.' He received His Apostleship by the Lord's mercy, having been deliberately chosen in accordance with that mercy (1 Timothy 1:12; 1 Timothy 1:16). And as a chosen Apostle his responsibility was to be faithful in all things pertaining to God. Thus they can be sure that when he gives his guidance it is as one who is being faithful.

But even as Paul begins his reply about virgins he wants it clear that the principles do not just apply to virgin women but to all. Virgin women are not to be seen as particularly under pressure.