1 Corinthians 7 - Introduction

VII.

Concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me. — Some members of the Church having written to St. Paul to ask his counsel on matters concerning which there existed a difference of opinion at Corinth, the Apostle now proceeds to answer these inquiries, and his reply occupies the remainder of the Epistle (to 1 Corinthians 16:4). The subjects concerning which the Corinthians sought for St. Paul’s opinion are treated of in the following order:

I. MARRIAGE, 1 Corinthians 7.

II. THE EATING OF MEAT OFFERED TO IDOLS, 1 Corinthians 8:1 to 1 Corinthians 11:1.

III. THE ATTIRE OF WOMEN IN PUBLIC WORSHIP, 1 Corinthians 11:2.

IV. THE LORD’S SUPPER, 1 Corinthians 11:17.

V. SPIRITUAL GIFTS, 1 Corinthians 12:1 to 1 Corinthians 14:40.

VI. THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION, 1 Corinthians 15:1.

VII. THE COLLECTION FOR THE POOR IN JUDÆA, 1 Corinthians 16:1

In the consideration of each of these subjects various collateral matters are introduced, and the great principles which guided the Apostle, and which ever should guide the Church and individuals, are set forth. Many of the subjects were of purely local and temporary interest. The particular combination of circumstances which for the moment rendered them important has ceased to exist, and can never arise again; but the principles on which the Apostle based his arguments, and which he enunciates as the ground of his decisions, are eternal. To apply the injunctions of the Apostle in these Chapter s with a rigid and unyielding literalism to the Church in all ages, is to violate those very principles which guided St. Paul in enunciating them, and to exalt the dead and death-bearing letter at the sacrifice of the living and life-giving spirit of the apostolic teaching. As we proceed with our examination of St. Paul’s reply to the Corinthians’ letter we shall have little real difficulty in distinguishing between those practical injunctions which were of local and temporary application, and the wider and larger truths which are of universal and lasting obligation; for the Apostle himself is always careful to point out when a command is based upon some particular necessity of the day, and when it arises from some unchanging Christian principle.

The first subject concerning which the Corinthians sought advice was MARRIAGE. From the opening words of St. Paul’s reply, “It is good for a man not to marry” (such is the force of the word rendered “touch,” Genesis 20:6; Proverbs 6:29), it would seem that those who wrote for the Apostle’s advice were inclined to regard celibacy as preferable to the married state: so much so, indeed, that they had scruples as to whether even those who had been married should not separate (1 Corinthians 7:3). We may, therefore, conclude that it was probably from the Pauline party that the inquiry came. It would be improbable that those who exalted some other teacher would have written to St. Paul to ask his guidance upon matters of controversy; and the tone of the Apostle’s replies on such questions as marriage, and the meats offered to idols (from which we can conjecture the line taken in the letter addressed to him), leads to the same conclusion. It would be natural for the Pauline party unduly to exaggerate the importance of celibacy and to undervalue matrimony. St. Paul’s own example, and his strong preference for the unmarried state, would have easily come to be regarded by his followers as matters of moral import, and not of merely temporary advantage and personal predilection. It is likely, also, as we know from other religious controversies, that the opposition of the Petrine party would drive the Pauline party into more extreme views. They would quote the example of their leader as a married man in opposition to the conduct of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 9:5, and Matthew 8:14).

Good for a man. — We must not, on the one hand, force this statement into meaning that it is merely expedient, nor must we, on the other, attach to it so great a moral import as to imply that the opposite is morally wrong (as St. Jerome, “ergo est malum tangere”). The English word “good,” in its most general sense, accurately conveys the meaning. It is laid down as a proposition that it is in St. Paul’s opinion a good thing to remain unmarried. But that general proposition is immediately limited in its application by what follows. St. Chrysostom paraphrases this and the following verse thus: “For if thou inquire what is the excellent and greatly superior course, it is better not to have any connection whatever with a woman; but if, what is safe and helpful to thine own infirmity, be connected by marriage.”