1 Corinthians 7:1-2 (KJV)
Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

Our culture puts such an emphasis on marriage that a person is thought of as strange if they do not marry within a few years of adulthood. It seems to me that the Apostle Paul, in this chapter, taught about the opposite. Over and over again he references that the best would be to stay single and dedicated to God. He does not forbid marriage. I would even say he recognizes that the majority both of men and women ought to be married. He uses marriage as a picture of the relationship of Christ and the church. It is certainly not sinful or wrong to be married. It can be a pattern of what heaven will be like. One the other hand, he does present this alternative; singleness devoted to the Lord. This chapter then is filled with instructions on how to address the challenges of marriage. If one must marry he or she must understand that there will be difficulties associated with it.

Our world has elevated the married life to the point where they have to make new and evolving perverted norms concerning this relationship. People, who should never have gotten married, find they can’t stand their spouse so divorce laws had to be loosened to let them break free. But we are so pushed toward marriage that new norms had to be created for remarriage. This hasn’t worked out so well so many decided to live as if they were married, only without the formality of legal marriage. New norms and levels of acceptance have come to bear on this practice. Of course, some still can’t bear the extended companionship of a heterosexual relationship so they assumed they must be attracted to homosexual relationships instead. Pressure has been so great that our society is beginning to write new rules of culture allowing that homosexual relationships be granted the same legal rights as traditional marriage. This has then opened up doors to even more possibilities of perverse relationships. These relationships have not been any more satisfying for the participants than traditional marriage and the problems have compounded. Much of this could be avoided if our society only presented and offered acceptance of the Pauline possibility-that of a life dedicated solely to God.

I understand the aversion to it. It smacks of Roman Catholicism, its forbidding of marriage to its priests and nuns (and the terrible abuses that have arisen from it). I am not speaking of forbidding anybody from marriage. I am only advocating for the possibility that a person’s calling in this life might be one without the burdens associated with marriage. You might ask, “What about the blessings of marriage such a person would miss out on?” First, if those blessings are such that they can’t do without them, they are absolutely free to marry. Second, God is more than capable of replacing those blessings with others far greater.

This gets us to the root of the trouble. We don’t believe God. The reason our world would not teach this alternative lifestyle is because they don’t believe God. (I said believe and not believe in because I am convinced every human believes in god of some sort, they just don’t believe God as He has revealed Himself in the Word of God.) This trouble extends into Christianity where we tend to believe God only so far as we are comfortable.

If we thoroughly believed God we would be open to the possibility of a life solely dedicated to God.

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

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1 Corinthians 7:1-2 (KJV) An Alternative to an Alternative Lifestyle

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