Scripture Daily

Context No. 863 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

1 Corinthians 7:32-40: in context

32But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; 33but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. 34There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. 35This I say for your own benefit, not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction. 36But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry. 37But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well. 38So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better. 39A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord. 40But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

In a chapter full of practical counsel about marriage and singleness, Paul lays out his real concern, and it is not a rule about who should marry. It is a longing for his people to be free from anxiety and undivided in their devotion. The unmarried person, he observes, is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please him; the married person is necessarily concerned about the things of this world, how to please a spouse. He is careful not to disparage marriage; over and over he says the one who marries does well. His point is gentler and more honest than a rule: our attachments and responsibilities, good as they are, divide our attention. He wants, he says, to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord, that you may attend to him without distraction.

Paul is not condemning the ordinary loves and duties that pull at us; he holds them up as genuinely good. He is simply naming, out loud, something we all feel, that a heart with many legitimate claims on it is a divided heart, and that there is a rare freedom in being able to attend to the Lord without being pulled a dozen directions. He even guards against turning this into a burden, adding that he says it for their benefit, not to lay a restraint on them. But the phrase he keeps circling is worth keeping: undivided devotion, without distraction. Whatever our situation, married or single, the question underneath it is the same. It is one thing to love the Lord. It is another to attend to him without the constant tug of everything else, and Paul treats that undistracted attention as a treasure worth wanting.

Paul prized an undivided devotion to the Lord, attention given without distraction. What legitimately good things are dividing my attention from God, and when did I last attend to him without being pulled a dozen directions at once?

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