1 Corinthians Lesson 4
First Corinthians - Chapters 7-8
Lesson 4
By Cindy Ketron
On The Edge of Eternity
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So far in the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul has covered the topics of disunity in the church, immaturity in the church and other scandalous things that were going on in the Corinthian church. This church was a hot mess! But they wanted to learn. We can be a hot mess too, but if we want to learn and humble ourselves to be taught, then we can glorify God in our bodies. This week, we are going to continue studying about how we need to look at our bodies and how we need to treat them. We have already studied that the church is a place that houses the Spirit of God, but so is the body of the believer.
In Chapter 7, Paul continues talking about the spiritual truths about our bodies. We learned in our last lesson that our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit. The Jewish temple was thought to house the presence of God over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. Little did the 1st century Jews know that God’s presence no longer resided over that mercy seat in the temple. This week, we’re going to be looking at marriage and how our bodies relate to one another as husband and wife. 1 Cor. 7:1 tells us that the Corinthian church had apparently sent a letter to Paul in regard to sex and marriage. We don’t have that letter, so we don’t know what its contents were. But we do have Paul’s response back to them.
As a counselor, I have a little pet peeve. I never like to see marriage counselors try to give marriage advice if they’ve been married and divorced 5x! When I see a marriage counselor who’s had multiple marriages, then I wonder if this person is taking his/her own advice or if he/she has any marital wisdom at all. I once knew a marriage counselor who had been divorced 3x and his 3rd wife despised him and spoke to others about what a sorry spouse he had been during their marriage. In the same way, I don’t like to see counselors give parenting advice to parents if they themselves have never had children or been around children very much. (I know teachers and preschool workers who have never had children, but they have been around children enough to know and understand their needs.) In both instances, with marriage counselors and children’s counselors who have no point of reference for their advice, they are completely reliant upon their book knowledge because they surely couldn’t bring any experiential knowledge into the session.
The Apostle Paul is getting ready to hand out some serious marriage advice. To your knowledge, was he ever married?
Actually, Scripture never says if he was or if he wasn’t.
2. Go ahead and read 1 Cor. 7:1-9. At the time of the writing of this book, what was Paul’s marital status?
3. Read Acts 26:8-10. What did Paul do in Jerusalem before he was saved? Where did he get his authority and where did he “cast” his vote?
This is a veiled reference to the Sanhedrin Court. The Sanhedrin Court was the ancient Jewish court. This court served as both a religious and a political body. They were responsible for interpreting, enforcing and preserving the Jewish law. There were always 71 men who were members of this court and they met daily with the exception of the Sabbath, feasts, and the day before the feasts started. One of the requirements for members of the Sanhedrin Court was that they had to be married. Now, I want you to go back to the verses you just read and reason with me here. Paul received his authority from the chief priests who would have been part of the Sanhedrin. Then, he mentioned that he voted against Christians. He could not have voted against them if he had not been a member of this court.
Therefore, we must assume that Paul had previously been a member of the Sanhedrin Court and as a member of this court, he would have been married. At the writing of this epistle, he clearly states that he is not married. The possibilities here are that his wife could have passed away or that she had divorced him. It is not likely as a member of this court that he would have ever sought a divorce. And although he did not say that he was widowed, I tend to assume that he was based on all the other external evidence. In fact, not only does this strongly suggest that Paul was at one time married, I believe that he had a loving marriage because of the sweetness in which he instructs husbands to treat their wives. Many of the early church fathers also believed that Paul was widowed.
The Jewish Mishna (the first written collection of the Jewish oral tradition) taught that there was an obligation for a man to marry and if he didn’t marry and produce children, then he had “wasted his posterity”. They used Gen. 1:28 as a proof text for this teaching.
4. What is the teaching in this verse?
One thing that I discovered in doing the research for this lesson was that the reason men who served on the Sanhedrin court had to be married was because they considered married men to be more merciful. Again…I’m smiling.
5. What advice does Paul give right out of the gate in v. 1?
The Greek translation of this means “it is not good for a man to light a fire under a woman.” I’m still smiling! That old song, Come on Baby Light My Fire might have been outlawed for the 1st century church.
There were lots of things that the Jewish population would have frowned upon, but conversion to Christianity not only put these converts at risk for death by the ruling class, they were putting themselves at risk for death at the hands of the Romans as well. Nero was known to take Christians and put them upon stakes throughout Rome and light them on fire at night as a type of street lamp. Friends, we have no idea what some believers have had to face through the ages.
In this chapter, Paul is going to get into the whole area of marriage and singleness. And if we’re not careful, we might assume that he is advising singleness above marriage. That is not the case at all. Keep tucked away in the back of your mind the cultural climate in Corinth and how sexual immorality was around every corner and not only was it accepted, it was encouraged. Remember all those temples and temple prostitutes that we talked about in lesson 1? Sex was not just something that was flagrant, it was a religion! And those temples were a 1 stop shop! You could eat and drink and have sex all at the same place!
Homosexual sex was celebrated! Men often had sex with young boys and this was thought to be the purest form of sex in that culture. Also in the Greco/Roman culture of Corinth, most men had at least 3 wives. Those wives would have different roles to play. Perhaps one was the cook, one would tend the animals, one might be in charge of the shopping, etc. The husband would go to the temple and have sex with the temple prostitutes, (you know, the sexy ones) and leave the matronly wives at home. This is the reason for Paul’s charge in 1 Cor. 7:2.
6. What does he say to these husbands?
What were Paul’s instructions in 1 Cor. 7:3-4 to the husband and the wife? When we are putting together the Apostle Paul’s teachings on marriage, we need to look at other places where he offered spiritual insight.
7. Read Eph. 5:22-33. What is marriage compared to in these verses?
In the space below, list the commands to the husband and the commands to the wife found in 1 Cor. 7:5-11.
8. In 1 Cor. 7:8-9, is Paul saying that it is better to not get married at all?
First of all, the term “burn” in these verses does not mean to burn in hell. It means to burn with lust. Paul addresses this topic again in his first letter to the church at Thessalonica.
9. What does he say in 1 Thess. 4:3-7 about controlling one’s passions?
God hates divorce. This much is indicated in these verses. Eph. 5:33 is an interesting verse. Men are to LOVE their wives and wives are to RESPECT their husbands. In a nationwide poll that was conducted some years ago, the question was asked of husbands and wives, “Would you rather be loved or would you rather be respected?”. Overwhelmingly, the women said they’d rather be loved and overwhelmingly, the men said that they’d rather be respected. You see, women and men are very different if you haven’t already figured that out.
Over the past 33 years in my work as a pediatric mental health counselor, overwhelmingly, the most common denominator with the children I’ve worked with is divorce. Children always suffer….always. Studies show that there is an increased risk of depression and anxiety with children of divorce. Divorce can cause children to have focus and concentration problems and thus have an impact on academic performance. Did you know that children who come from divorced families are 6x more likely to be poor? These kids are also 3x more likely to have behavioral problems, drop out of school, get pregnant as teenagers, abuse drugs and alcohol, and get into trouble with the law. Those are some pretty serious repercussions! And while the parents can go forward and find love again, for the child of divorce, their family is forever broken.
The generation of young adults who are alive today are the first generation to do worse psychologically, socially, and financially than their parents. When I was growing up, all kids strived to do better than their parents. Today, that is a fading dream. In the 1990’s, I read a book entitled, Fatherless America, by David Blankenhorn. It was a heartbreaking analogy that broke down the epidemic of children growing up without a father. That book is 30+ years old and as bad as society was during the 90’s, it is far worse today. The U.S. has the highest rate of children growing up in single parent households of any other country in the world! Therefore, the Apostle Paul’s admonition to work it out, stick it out, and love it out is as important or more so today than it was in the 1st century.
10. So, while the problems in Corinth were terrible regarding the family, I’m not sure that they were any worse than what we have in the U.S. today. What is Paul talking about in 1 Cor. 7:12-13?
Jewish Law always prohibited Jews to marry outside of the Jewish faith. There is a similar admonition here for the Christian. Marriage within one’s faith is always best, but if a man is married to a woman who is not a Christian, that is not a mandate for divorce. There’s an old Puritan proverb that I found in Chuck Missler’s commentary on this chapter:
If you are a child of God and you marry a child of the devil, you are going to have trouble with your father in law.
Jewish law strictly prohibits a wife to divorce a husband, but in the Greco/Roman world, a wife could divorce a husband.
Paul uses the word “sanctified” in v. 14. This is where we get the word “saint” from and it has everything to do with being set aside for holiness.
11. In 1 Cor. 7:15, what is the believing partner released from if an unbelieving partner walks out on them?
12. Does this mean that the believing partner is free to marry again?
Truth is, Paul doesn’t really flesh that out right here. I believe that in some cases he would have given permission for remarriage based on some of his other writings. Right now, I know a believer who would never ask his unbelieving spouse for a divorce because he knows that he doesn’t have biblical grounds to do so. But in my personal opinion, he would welcome her walking out on him and he might be doing everything he can do to make her miserable enough just so that she would walk on him in order that he could remarry someone else. I think we all know that this kind of manipulation is not something that the Lord would honor.
13. Paul spells out the goal for the believing spouse in v. 16. What should the believing spouse aim for?
In 1 Cor. 7:17, Paul encourages people to remain in their marriage. Read 1 Cor. 7:18-20. These are not easy verses to understand.
When you become saved:
If you are circumcised (an Israelite)...........then don’t try to be uncircumcised (a Gentile)
If you are uncircumcised (a Gentile)..........then don’t try to circumcised (an Israelite)
The important thing is to remain obedient to Christ. That same principle relates to marriage.
When you become saved:
If your spouse is not saved…………then do not leave your unsaved spouse in order to be married to a saved spouse.
14. In 1 Cor. 7:21-22, Paul continues to make similar comparisons. What are the 2 categories of men that he is using in these verses?
In the Greco/Roman world, there were 2 categories of people, those who were slaves and those who were free. In the 1st century, there were a lot of slaves. People could find themselves in the unfortunate position of being a slave for the following reasons:
1. You were a prisoner of war. Julius Caesar shipped 1 million slaves in from his victory in Gaul between 58-51 BC.
2. You were a criminal.
3. You were poor and had to sell yourself into slavery for a period of time so that you could have food and shelter and clothing. These slaves were called indentured servants or bond servants. This was voluntary servanthood.
4. You were sold by your family to pay a debt.
5. You were unwanted at birth and sold.
6. You were born to slave parents.
The Apostle Paul being a scholar of Jewish tradition and Scripture was likely very knowledgeable about slavery and the Old Testament’s view on slavery. Slavery in the Greco/Roman world was somewhat different from slavery within the culture of practicing Jews.
15. What do you learn about slavery in the Jewish tradition from the following verses:
1. Deut. 12:1-14
2. Lev. 25:39-40
3. Exodus 21:7-11
4. Lev. 25:47-49
This does not mean that the Jewish people always followed these laws, but this was to be their guiding instructions. The prophet Jeremiah was aware that during his time, the people did not follow these laws.
16. What did he prophesy to the Jews regarding this in Jer. 34:8-14?
During Paul’s day, 1 in 4 people in Italy were slaves. Paul spends an entire book (Philemon) discussing the issues of one slave and his owner. We neither understand nor do we like talk of slavery because it makes us uncomfortable and it is not something that we see in our American culture. Paul makes a point of telling us that we are all slaves to sin in Gal. 4:3-7.
17. When we become believers in Christ, how does this change our standing as slaves to this world?
By what means does 1 Cor. 7:23-24 explain that we have been bought out of slavery? In 1 Cor. 7:25-40, Paul begins to address those who are not married and those who are widows. He seems to be speaking out of personal experience, but he is also speaking against the backdrop of this licentious Corinthian culture. Let’s see if we can piece together these difficult to understand verses.
18. Did God instruct Paul into what he is speaking about in these verses or is Paul piecing together what he knows about God’s ways and coupling that with his own experience?
19. What is the “current distress” that he is speaking about in Corinth? In 1 Cor. 7:17, 20, 24, Paul gives the same admonition. What is that?
If you are:
Married >>>>>>>Do not seek a divorce in order to be free.
Unmarried (by way of divorce or widowhood) >>>>Do not seek to be married.
Married >>>>>>>>>You will have worldly troubles.
Unmarried >>>>>>>>>>>You will only have to worry about how to please God.
Married >>>>>>>>You will have to worry about how to please your husband or wife.
Before you get your gander up and think that Paul is saying that it is not good to marry, he is not saying that at all. But what he is saying is that if you are unmarried, you will not have any divided loyalties in your service to God. The only person you will have to please is God.
In my work as a counselor, I often take on the pain of others. Sometimes, that gets very heavy. My dear friend, Preachie, tells me that he and I are pain sponges and that we have to figure out
how to wring out those sponges lest we become too bogged down. He is right. But, I also have my responsibility at home to my husband and my disabled son. When Gabe was diagnosed with cancer and he and I moved to St. Jude in Memphis for a year, I had to leave my counseling business behind and all the people I had been seeing who were hurting and in need of help. That first week, I worried about all my clientsI had left behind as well as my son with cancer. But my worries didn’t stop there, I had another son who didn’t have cancer and my husband who was struggling in a similar way as me at home. Being away from me and Gabe put extra worries on them. My plate was full of worry and it was too much. But after a few days in Memphis, I completely unsaddled myself from worry about my counseling clients because I didn’t have the mental and emotional capacity to carry all of that burden. I was left with just having to take care of Gabe and I knew that Todd was taking care of Colton. My loyalties were no longer split between having to care for others and having to care for my son. I was only taking care of my son and as hard as it was, it was freeing to be able to focus my whole self on taking care of him.
I think this is what the Apostle Paul is saying to this church. If their sole focus could be on God and their loyalties did not have to be divided, then that was great. But, if they wanted to get married to a believer, that was great too.
20. What do you think some of the “worldly troubles” that Paul is speaking of in marriage are?
He is not saying that “if you are married, don’t act like you are married”. That is not the context of this. He is not saying that “If you’re sad, act like you’re not sad”. He is not saying that “If you’re rejoicing, don’t act joyful”. He is not saying that “If you have stuff, act like you don’t have anything”. He is not saying that “If you are dealing with the stress of this world, act like you’re not dealing with the stress of this world.” But what he is saying is this, if you’re married, then you still put God first. If you’re sad, put God first and do not allow your sadness to take over. If you are on top of the world with joy, don’t forget God. Put Him first. If you’re dealing with stress, don’t let it overtake you so that you forget God. Don’t let the worries of today become bigger to you than God. Still put Him first. Have an eternal perspective.
Bottom line - DO NOT LET ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD CONTROL YOUR LIFE BECAUSE IF IT DOES, THEN CHRIST DOES NOT HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE! And if God hasn’t told you to move, then stay where you are!
I’ve often heard that the only thing constant is change. Oh, how true that is. The only unchanging force in the world is God.
Regardless of whether we are married or unmarried, if we are not putting God first in our lives, then we are not living a life devoted to Him. As bad as things were in Corinth, I’m not sure that they were any worse than what we are currently experiencing in our own culture.
Before we move onto Chapter 8, I want to again remind you that Paul is responding here to a letter that this church sent to him. So although some of these things may seem strange to address, these were things that were apparently asked of Paul.
We all have things we like and don’t like. And we all like some things that aren’t good for us. If I could eat a pint of Strawberry Haagen Daz ice cream every single night, I would! I love it! But, it wouldn’t be good for me to do so. All cultures have foods that are common to that culture. In 1st century Corinth, the city was full of temples to idols. And in these temples, there were altars. Anything that God does, Satan tries to replicate.
21. What was the very first altar to God with the first animal sacrifice in Gen. 8:20?
Ever since then, Satan has had his own religion with his own ways that mimicked the ways of God. People offered sacrifices to God on altars long before there was a tabernacle and a temple. As the people of God gathered together to give thanks and worship, so did the followers of all the false gods. When we studied about the feasts of the Lord, one thing that we learned was that the things offered to God were to be the best, the first fruits and the blood of spotless animals. So too do we see a similar pattern in all of the ancient temples to idols in the city of Corinth. The people who worshiped in those temples always brought the most choice meat to offer to their gods. After the animal had been killed, the people believed that the spirit of their god ate the spirit of the sacrificed animal after which the meat would be taken straight out to the street to be sold.
If I really want to feed my family the best of the best meat, I’m not going to Aldi, or Food City, or Ingles, I’m going to my favorite butcher shop. Well, if you lived in Corinth and you wanted to buy the best meat, you would go to one of the temple markets. Apparently, the people of the church in Corinth had written to Paul asking him if it was okay to buy this meat that had been sacrificed to idols and eat it. Some people in that church thought it was no big deal while others were having meltdowns over it. Many people in this church came out of idolatry and as such they had issues with it. Paul is getting ready to answer the question, “Is it okay for a Christian to eat meat offered to idols?”. Go ahead and read 1 Cor. 8.
22. What does knowledge do and what does love do?
The most dangerous doctors are the ones who just graduated from medical school and think they know everything. The most dangerous counselors are the ones who just graduated from college and think they know everything. The most dangerous preachers are the ones who just graduated from seminary and think they know everything. Wisdom is knowing that you don’t know everything. I think that is what Paul is saying here. If you think you know everything, that just proves how ignorant you really are. But, if you are humble and love the truth, then that will be evident.
23. What do the following verses say about humility?
2 Cor. 5:17 -
Gal. 2:20 -
Matt. 20:26-27 -
1 Pet. 5:5 -
Jesus set the standard for humility. He humbled Himself as a servant and died a cruel death for us. If Jesus humbled Himself, then who are we to be puffed up? And while I’ve heard some Christians say that they thought Paul was full of himself, I’m not sure they are taking in the fullness of his writings. Paul knew who he was and he knew who he wasn’t.
24. What does he say of himself in the following verses?
1 Tim. 1:15 -
1 Cor. 15:9 -
Paul knew who he was in Christ. He knew his strengths and he knew his weaknesses and he was able to accept them both. Knowledge without love and humility will just blow up….puff up! Paul broke down this topic by saying, “We all know something. You know something. I know something. We know who God is and that He is superior to anyone else. And we know that idols are nothing. Sacrificing meat to “nothing” does not affect the meat.”
You see, this meat would not stay on the altar very long until it was picked up and taken to be sold. I guess it didn’t take that long for the spirit of those gods to eat the spirit of the dead animal! I’m joking, of course. To us, this all seems insane. It is.
25. To whom is Paul referring when he said that “not every man has that knowledge” in v. 7?
The Corinthian church was a young church. Not young as in the age of its members, but young in the spiritual maturity of the church. There were those in the church who were further along in their relationship with God than others and there were those who were mere babes in Christ. Paul has already addressed these people by saying that for many of them, they were still drinking milk instead of eating meat. It was the babes in Christ who were offended by those who were eating this meat. Those who were more mature in their faith weren’t bothered by this.
26. What was the principle that Paul established in 1 Cor. 8:8?
Have you ever eaten anything that has improved your relationship with God? Have you ever refused to eat something and that has improved your relationship with God. What we put into our mouths neither draws us closer to or further away from God. The Jewish people had a very strict diet. There were foods that were considered clean and those that were considered unclean. Even today, the Jewish people have diets that are different from ours. Read Acts 10. Peter was confronted with foods that were unclean.
27. What was on the sheet in his vision?
28. Peter seems to have a habit of disobeying 3x before he finally gets it. What was the message from heaven for him?
29. When Peter got to Cornelius’s house and found the large crowd that was gathered there, what did he tell them?
The food was a parallel analogy. Unclean food was eaten by unclean people (Gentiles). God was teaching Peter an important lesson. There is no more unclean food. The dietary laws that say one animal is clean and another is unclean are to be done away with from this point on. In a similar way, there are no people who are unclean. The Gentiles are human beings just like the Jews. They are all image bearers of God.
30. How did Paul tell them in 1 Cor. 8:9 they should discern whether they should or shouldn’t eat meat offered to idols?
31. Once again, it is not a matter of whether the meat offered to idols affected their relationship with God. Did each of them have the liberty or freedom to eat this meat if they chose to?
I grew up in a conservative Baptist church and I still attend a conservative Baptist church. Growing up, I thought the unpardonable sin was drinking alcohol. That was some embedded theology in my mind that was preached in my church, but it wasn't exactly biblical in nature. I have never drank. I never wanted to. My husband doesn’t drink either. But we don’t abstain because our faith does not allow us to drink. We absolutely have the liberty to drink within reason. We choose not to drink because we would never want anyone to see us out and about drinking and have someone disappointed in us so as to ruin our witness. We have made this choice because we love others and want others who might be of a weaker faith than ours to never question whether we know the Lord or not. Most of my friends do drink. It doesn’t bother me one bit. There are other reasons I chose not to drink. I hate the taste of alcohol and I have a strong family predisposition to alcoholism.
32. We can be legalistic about anything. Paul is warning the Corinthian church against this. How does Eph. 5:18 and 2 Pet. 2:19 express this?
As believers, we have no right to question what others eat or drink and we should never draw conclusions regarding someone else’s relationship with God based on this. Now, if someone is drinking to indulgence and drunkenness, that is prohibited by God. If someone is a glutton, that is prohibited by God. In both situations, what the individual puts in his/her mouth causes the body to suffer physically.
Paul gave these Corinthian believers the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols if they wanted to, but he warned them that if it caused a weaker brother or sister in Christ to stumble, then they should abstain out of their love for their weaker brother.
33. What did 1 Cor. 8:12 say about who would be affected if those in the Corinthian church ate meat offered to idols in front of a weaker brother?
34. Paul is going to pick this argument back up in 1 Cor. 10:23. What are the principles we can draw from this verse?
I can’t drink alcohol in excess to the glory of God. I can’t eat a bunch of junk food in excess to the glory of God. In the space below, write out 1 Cor. 10:31.
The most common things we do in our day is to eat and drink. We do it every single day of our lives. Whatever we do, even the most mundane of things, we can and should do to the glory of God. Every day matters. Every day is significant. How are you honoring God and bringing glory to Him today?
Blessings.
© Cindy D. Ketron. All Rights Reserved
