1Corinthians Chapter Seven

This chapter has often been drawn upon as a text to explain marriage and divorce and remarriage, but it is not that. The reason that marriage is brought up is that some of the women of Corinth had believed that they were already part of the resurrection and as such should live like the angels, and so had no need of marriage. They have been referred to as the ‘eschatological’ women of Corinth. The spinoffs of their attitude and behavior were that some of the men were visiting the temple prostitutes while living in a celibate marriage, while some women were actually leaving their husbands, and some husbands were divorcing their wives. It was a typical Corinthian issue of confused ideas about relationships and partnership, resulting in individuals becoming obsessed with either their own spirituality or their carnal desires.

Paul as always brings the main issue into relief when he challenges them about their wholehearted response to the love and partnership with Jesus and the Father that was on offer through the gospel. He is in rather an awkward spot situationally as he was celibate himself. But he explains that this was not being ‘super spiritual’. He advocated that Christians should live in the same calling in life after becoming Christians as they did before they became Christians. He explains himself in verse 24. ‘So you should all stay doing what you were doing when you became a Christian, but now what you are doing is being done in partnership with God.’

He challenges all of our daily pursuits and emotional states, including sadness and happiness and possessions. He says in verse 30 and following verses ‘And if people are sad they are not to live for their sadness, and if they are happy they are not to make their happiness all there is to life. If they are in the business of buying and selling they must not live for their possessions.

31. If you have to own and to use the things of this world, don’t let the things of this world own and use you. All those things will one day pass away.

32. And I don’t want your lives to be overly concerned with those things’

Paul only advocated ONE way to live - Trust God in ALL things and love him back..

He said this on the basis that we are no longer our own anyway, and our lives have been bound up with Jesus who invites us into his life and invites himself into our lives so that we can receive the love and goodness of his father together.

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1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7- CONTEMPORARY ALIGNED VERSION (SPIRITCODE)


1. Now with respect to the things you wrote about to me, It is right for men not to get physically involved with women.


2. So to avoid this kind of sexual promiscuity, men are to enjoy sexual relations with their wives and women likewise with their husbands.


3. Husbands and wives should be kind and caring in this regard to one another.


4. Wives and husbands are not to withhold the privileged entitlement that is due to their partners regarding sexual fulfillment.


5. Don’t deprive one another unless you mutually agree to a time of abstinence so that you might fast and pray more effectively. But this should be a temporary arrangement, and then the normal relations should resume. Otherwise you could get tempted by Satan into a lack of self control.


6. But what I am now about to say I will submit to you without putting you under any obligation,


7. And that is that I would prefer that all men could be as I am, even though I am aware that God has given some men certain capabilities in this area that he has not given to others.


8. So what I suggest to widows and to widowers is that it is good if they can remain single just as I do.


9. But if it is beyond their ability to suppress their natural desires, then it is better for them to get married, because it is better to get married than to live a life of inflamed passion.


10. Now to the married I say, with God’s authority, that a wife should not leave her husband.


11. However if she does leave, then she should either remain single or return and reconcile the differences with her husband. And a husband should not send his wife away or leave her.


12. But to everybody else I submit this to you, without putting you under obligation. If a man has a wife who is not a Christian and she wants to stay married to him, then he should not send her away.


13. And the same goes for a woman who has a husband that is not a Christian. If he wants to stay married to her she should not leave him.


14. For the unbelieving husband is put in a special place under God because of the wife’s faith, and an unbelieving wife is put in that same place by her husband’s faith. Otherwise the children are deprived of that special place under God, but this way they have a spiritual safeguard.


15. But if the unbelieving partner wants to leave, then let them leave. Neither partner is a slave to the marriage in such cases, because God wants people to have freedom in these situations.


16. But if you are a wife, you have to think of the possibility that your husband could get saved if he stayed with you, and the same goes for you men if your unbelieving wife stays with you.


17. What I recommend in all the churches is that everyone lives his life according to his God given purpose and ability.


18. If a person became a Christian as being circumcised, then he should not become uncircumcised, and if uncircumcised, then not to become circumcised.


19. Circumcision or uncircumcision is not the point, but doing the will of God is.


20. A person should stay doing what they were doing before they became a Christian.


21. Were you a bonded servant when you became a Christian? Don’t worry about it, but if you are offered free citizenship, take advantage of it.


22. Because if you are a bonded servant when you become a Christian you are the Lord’s free citizen. And if you are a free citizen when you become a Christian you become a bonded servant of Christ.


23. You have been purchased by God for a price, so don’t even think of yourselves as being owned by men.


24. So you should all stay doing what you were doing when you became a Christian, but now what you are doing is being done in partnership with God.


25. Now as regards to single men and virgins, I have no direct commandment from God to give you, but I will give you the best advice that I can, considering that by God’s mercy I have remained faithful in living my particular lifestyle.


26. And so I suppose that considering the difficult times in which we live I would recommend that single people live just the way I do.


27. If you are already married, then don’t try to become single, but if you are single, don’t try to get married.


28. But if as a single man you do get married, that is not a wrong thing, and if you are a single young woman and get married, then that is not a sin either. Nevertheless marriage will bring all the problems of your human nature to the surface, and I just want to spare you from this.


29. What I am saying is that the time is short for when The Lord comes back, so you need to be able to live without the distractions of marriage as if you were single.


30. And if people are sad they are not to live for their sadness, and if they are happy they are not to make their happiness all there is to life. If they are in the business of buying and selling they must not live for their possessions.


31. If you have to own and to use the things of this world, don’t let the things of this world own and use you. All those things will one day pass away.


32. And I don’t want your lives to be overly concerned with those things. When you are single you can focus your concern upon the things of God, and how you can please the Lord.


33. But when you are married you have to focus on the worries of life, and pleasing your wife.


34. The same goes for a young single woman as compared to a married woman.

The single woman can focus her concern upon the things of God, being devoted to him in body and in spirit. But a married woman will focus on the worries of life, and how to satisfy her husband.


35. I’m telling you all this for your own good, not to try and manipulate you, but to help you perform something virtuous and noble, so that you can serve The Lord more faithfully.


36. But if a man has been engaged to his fiancée for some time and he feels that his attitude is a problem to her, as they are getting past their prime, and he should do something about it, let him do what he thinks best and get married.


37. Nonetheless, if he feels strongly about what he is doing, and does not feel under obligation, being determined to follow what he believes to be right in his own heart that they will stay celibate, then he is doing a good thing.


38. So then he that decides to get married is doing the right thing, but he that decided to stay celibate is doing a better thing.


39. A wife is legally obliged to remain with her husband as long s he is alive, and if he dies she is free to remarry, but she should marry a Christian.


40. But she would be much better off staying unmarried, in the way I have been saying, and I think I have The Lord’s mind on this.



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