1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7 1 CORINTHIANS 7:1 Marriage is to be used as a remedy against fornication. 1 CORINTHIANS 7:10,11 Christ hath forbidden to dissolve the bond thereof. 1 CORINTHIANS 7:12 Directions how to act where one of the parties is an unbeliever. 1 CORINTHIANS 7:17 Every man must abide in a... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS, TO AVOID FORNICATION; in the Greek it is, Because of fornications; the sense of which can be no other than this which our translators give. The word is in the plural number, to signify that that which he meaneth by this term, is all sorts of impurities and uncleannesses, which are the... [ Continue Reading ]
The word translated _due benevolence, _ signifieth due goodwill or kindness, but from 1 CORINTHIANS 7:5, it appeareth what the apostle meaneth: Moses, EXODUS 21:10, calleth it, the _duty of marriage; _ both of them using a modest term in expressing the conjugal act, as we shall observe the Scripture... [ Continue Reading ]
He gives the reason of it; because marriage takes away from each married person the power over his or her own body, and giveth it to their correlate. The apostle seemeth here to answer a question propounded to him by some members of this church: Whether, though they were married, the husband and wif... [ Continue Reading ]
DEFRAUD NOT ONE THE OTHER; that is: Withhold not yourselves one from another; which he rightly calls defrauding one another, because he had before declared it a debt; and further declared, that neither the husband nor the wife had a power over their own bodies, but the power of either of their bodie... [ Continue Reading ]
Some refer these words to all that had gone before in this chapter; but the best interpreters rather refer them to what went immediately before in the preceding verse, declaring, that he had no express command from God, as to those things of abstaining for a time for fasting and prayer, and then com... [ Continue Reading ]
I WOULD THAT ALL MEN WERE EVEN AS I MYSELF: _I would, _ in this place, can signify no more than, I could wish or desire, (if it were the will of God), that all Christians had the gift of continency, which God (blessed be his name) hath given me: that this is meant, is plain by the next words, and 1... [ Continue Reading ]
By THE UNMARRIED AND WIDOWS, it is apparent that Paul means virgins that were never married, and such as, having been once married, had lost their husbands: though the first word, in the Greek, had been significative enough of persons in both these states; yet the apostle's using of two words, makes... [ Continue Reading ]
That St. Paul's saying: _It is good, _ & c. did not signify, it is the will of God, or, (as the papists would have it), it is my counsel in order to your further perfection, is plain by his precept for them to marry if they could not contain; and this likewise lets us see that second marriages are n... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle had spoke to the married before, but in another case, he now returneth in his discourse to them again, speaking to another case, which it should seem they had put to him; what it was is not plainly expressed, but it may easily be gathered from 1 CORINTHIANS 7:12,13, as also from the apos... [ Continue Reading ]
OLBGrk; How our translators came to translate cwrisyh, which is manifestly a verb passive, _if she depart, _ I cannot tell. It signifieth, if she be departed, and so is as well significative of a being parted from her husband by a judicial act of divorce, as of a voluntary departing. The Jews were w... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT TO THE REST SPEAK I, NOT THE LORD; either as to the other part of your Epistle, or as to the cases of the rest mentioned in your Epistle, I shall give you my advice so far as I am instructed by the Holy Spirit of God, though our Lord Jesus Christ hath set no certain rule concerning them. IF ANY... [ Continue Reading ]
SEE POOLE ON "1 CORINTHIANS 7:12... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 13,14. Sanctifying, in holy writ, generally signifieth the separation or setting apart of a person or thing from a common, to and for a holy use, whether it be by some external rites and ceremonies, or by the infusing of some inward spiritual habits. In this place it seemeth to have a different... [ Continue Reading ]
If the unbelieving husband or the unbelieving wife will leave his or her correlate, that is, so leave them as to return no more to live as a husband or as a wife with her or him that is Christian, LET HIM DEPART. Such a person hath broken the bond of marriage, and in such cases Christians are NOT UN... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle having before determined the lawfulness of a Christian husband's or wife's abiding in a state of marriage with a wife or husband that was an infidel, if she or he were willing to abide with the believer, now argues the great advantage which might be from it, for the glory of God, and the... [ Continue Reading ]
Calling in this place signifieth that station and course of life, wherein by the providence of God any man is set. Some think, that this precept hath a special reference to what went before, as if the sense were this: If God by his providence hath so ordered it that thy heart be changed, thy wife's... [ Continue Reading ]
Is any one who was a native Jew, and so circumcised according to the Jewish law, converted (while he is in that state) to the faith of Christ? Let him not affect the state of him that, having been formerly a Gentile, was never circumcised. On the other side, is any, being a native Gentile, and so no... [ Continue Reading ]
Circumcision was an ordinance of God, a sign of God's covenant, as necessary to salvation in its time, as the fufilling of any precept of the law contained in ordinances: and uncircumcision also was something; for by the law relating to that ordinance, the uncircumcised male is determined to have br... [ Continue Reading ]
Let every man abide in the same state and condition of life in which he was when he was first converted to the faith of Christ, that is, supposing that he was in an honest course of life; for we read in the Acts that the conjurers burnt their books, and unlawful courses of life must not be adhered t... [ Continue Reading ]
ART THOU CALLED BEING A SERVANT? CARE NOT FOR IT: If while thou art a servant to another in any honest employment, thou art converted to the Christian religion, let it not trouble thee, mind it not. A man may be the servant of Christ, and yet a servant to men in any honest employment. BUT IF THOU MA... [ Continue Reading ]
For the state of a servant to men no way prejudiceth a man as to his spiritual liberty; a servant and a free-man, considered with reference to Christ, are both one; a servant may be as near the kingdom of heaven as a free-man; and let a man be in never so good a state of civil liberty, yet, if he be... [ Continue Reading ]
What PRICE we ARE BOUGHT WITH, we heard, 1 CORINTHIANS 6:20: the apostle there pressed it upon us as our duty to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits; here he presseth upon us another duty, viz. upon that consideration not to be THE SERVANTS OF MEN; by which some think he forbiddeth the selli... [ Continue Reading ]
In whatsoever state or condition, whether he be married or unmarried, whether he be a master or a servant, whether he were before circumcised or uncircumcised, let him not think Christianity obligeth him to alter it; he may abide in it, only he must ABIDE in it WITH GOD, as one who remembereth God's... [ Continue Reading ]
He had before spoken to married persons and widows, now he comes to speak CONCERNING VIRGINS; and though he mentions only the female sex, yet the following words show that his advice extended to both. As to them he saith, he had no special direction from Christ, none that would suit the case of ever... [ Continue Reading ]
GOOD here signifieth convenient, (as before), if other circumstances of particular persons make it not sinful; or better with respect to THE PRESENT DISTRESS or necessity: by which, without doubt, the apostle meaneth, not the common necessities of all men that are born once to die, (which is the mor... [ Continue Reading ]
Art thou bound by marriage, or bound by contract, do not use any sinful ways to be loosed from that bond, either by divorce or by a voluntary departure: if the unbeliever will depart, he or she may, you are not obliged to court their stay, but do not you put him or her away. Are you free from a wife... [ Continue Reading ]
I would not have you mistake me, as if I judged marriage sinful for persons in any state or condition, or of any sex; but those that are married in any time, will find troubles about the things of this life, and those that marry in such times as these are, and you are like further to see, will meet... [ Continue Reading ]
He had before spoken to what concerned some, now he comes to what concerneth all. THE TIME (saith he) IS SHORT; furled up, like sails when the mariner comes near his port. He either meaneth the time of this life, or the time of the world's duration; we often find the apostles speaking of their times... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY THAT WEEP, AS THOUGH THEY WEPT NOT; this consideration also should weigh with those who have a more afflicted portion in this life, and are mourners for the loss of their near relations; they have but lost what they could not long have kept, and for the time they kept them must have enjoyed... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY THAT USE THIS WORLD, AS NOT ABUSING IT: while you have any thing of this world's goods you may use them, yea, you must use them, without them you cannot live in the world; but the consideration how little the time is you are like to have them to use, should govern you in the use of them, so... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I WOULD HAVE YOU WITHOUT CAREFULNESS; the reason why I have advised (during the present distressed estate of the church) a single rather than a married life, for those to whom God hath given the gift of continency, is, that those who are Christians might live as free from such cares as divide an... [ Continue Reading ]
But he that is married hath other things which he must take care about; for besides that he is obliged to provide for his family, husbands and wives are under some obligations to please each other by divertisements, which, though not in themselves sinful, yet take up time, which those free from such... [ Continue Reading ]
There is the same difference between a married woman and a single woman, as there is between a married man and a single man. If a woman be unmarried, and be piously disposed, she hath leisure and opportunity enough to mind the things of God; but if she be married, she will then be obliged to attend... [ Continue Reading ]
OLBGrk; AND THIS I SPEAK FOR YOUR OWN PROFIT; for your advantage both as to your converse in the world, and also for your religious conversation, and the performance of those duties which you owe unto God; for those that are married must meet with more troubles and cares in this life, and cannot hav... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IF ANY MAN THINK THAT HE BEHAVETH HIMSELF UNCOMELY: there is a general and a particular uncomeliness; some things are uncomely with respect to all persons; of such things the apostle doth not here speak; but of a particular uncomeliness with respect to the circumstances of particular persons. Ne... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS HE THAT STANDETH STEDFAST IN HIS HEART; if a man be resolved to keep his daughter a virgin, not uncertain in his own mind, and wavering what he should do, upon a just consideration of circumstances; HAVING NO NECESSITY; and doth not see a necessity to dispose of her, either for the avoi... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THEN HE THAT GIVETH HER IN MARRIAGE DOETH WELL: there is no general rule for all parents in this case, where the duty or sin of parents may arise from their or their children's different circumstances. But supposing that a parent, having duly weighed all circumstances, be fully resolved, and he f... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle all along this chapter hath been speaking to several cases, which the church of Corinth had put to him concerning marriage; some that concerned persons already married, others that concerned such as were single, having been never married; he shutteth up his discourse with advice which re... [ Continue Reading ]
But if other circumstances concur, that a widow can abide without marriage without waxing wanton, and running into temptation, and so as to manage her outward concerns without the help of a husband, my opinion is, that she is more happy if she keeps herself a widow, and doth not marry again; not mor... [ Continue Reading ]