1 Corinthians 7:7 The Severe and Social Virtues (for St. Philip and St. James's Day). I. St. James, surnamed the Just, was remarkable for the severities of a mortified life, and a meek and austere sanctity, so that the violent death to which he was put by the Jews was looked upon even by their own... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:19 _(with Galatians 5:6; Galatians 6:15)_ Forms _versus_Character.. Note: I. The emphatic proclamation of the nullity of outward rites. II. Look at the threefold variety of the designation of the essentials. (1) The keeping of the commandments of God is everything (1 Corinthians... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:23 I. St. Paul's words, "Be not ye the slaves of men," have an important bearing upon the exercise of the understanding. "Bought with a price" by one who claims, not one part, but the whole of you, not more the conduct than the will, not more the energies than the affections, not mo... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:24 The Christian Life. I. We are led from the words before us to the thought that our chief effort in life ought to be for union with God. "Abide with God," which, being put into other words, means, I think, mainly two things constant communion, the occupation of all our nature with... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:29 I. St. Paul tells us that the time is short. In one sense not an unimportant one time is very long. The great God who is working out His plan in the universe has no stint of time. What we see is but a point in an infinite line, of which we can see neither beginning nor end. It is... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:29 I. Let us contrast the world's treatment of sorrow with that of Christ. Here we use the word world in the widest sense the world of which the Apostle John speaks as including all that is not under the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has no law but its own interest, or p... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:31 Note: I. The reason why we should not abuse this world: "For the fashion of this world passeth away." Literally, the scene changes. The surface of the world is always shifting. The moral instability of the earth, in the history of its inhabitants, is like the physical instabilit... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 7:32 I. If you look at the context of this passage, you will perceive that St. Paul's words refer to a particular case, or take their rise from circumstances peculiar to the times. The times were those of persecution, when men who avouched the Christian faith exposed themselves to the... [ Continue Reading ]