1 Corinthians 7:1-9
The Voice
Salvation is a costly proposition. You and your body belong to God, so use your body for the work of God, not for selfish pursuits.
7 Now to the topics you raised in your last letter. Some have said, “It is better for a man to abstain from having sex with his wife.” 2 Well, I disagree. Because of our tendency to embrace immoralities, each man should feel free to join together in sexual intimacy with his own wife, and each woman should join with her own husband. 3 Husbands and wives have reciprocal duties. Each husband has the responsibility to meet his wife’s sexual desires, and each wife should do the same for her husband. 4 In marriage neither the husband nor the wife should act as if his or her body is private property—your bodies now belong to one another, and together they are whole. 5 So do not withhold sex from one another, unless both of you have agreed to devote a certain period of time to prayer. When the agreed time is over, come together again so that Satan will not tempt you when you are short on self-control. 6 I am trying to encourage you and give you some wise counsel, so don’t take this advice as a command. 7 I wish that all of you could live as I do, unmarried. But the truth is all people are different, each gifted by God in various and dissimilar ways.
Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians about marriage stands in contrast to the message in Genesis 2, where God declares that it is not good to be alone. There He sculpts woman from the rib of the man: she was molded so that man and woman fit perfectly together. And God blesses marriage as a good and beautiful thing.
So is Paul contradicting the declaration of the Creator God when he suggests that it might be better for some people to choose an unmarried life? Absolutely not! Marriage is a sacred union, but it is possible that many will be able to serve God more fully if they do not have the limitations that come with marriage and family. Paul shares his advice humbly based on his own experience. The tension between the beauty of marriage and the freedom from marital obligations is one we should all explore. As we come to our own conclusions, we must also carry them humbly, remembering that one is not better than the other.
8 To those who are unmarried or widowed, here’s my advice: it is a good thing to stay single as I do. 9 If they do not have self-control, they should go ahead and get married. It is much better to marry than to be obsessed by sexual urges.
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1 Corinthians 7:25
The Voice
25 Now when it comes to unmarried young women, I do not have a command from our Lord. The best I can do is to give you my advice as a trustworthy brother who knows the Lord’s mercy well.
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1 Corinthians 7:26
The Voice
26 Because of the challenging times we live in, I think the best plan is to stay as you are.
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1 Corinthians 7:32
The Voice
32 My primary desire is for you to be free from the worries that plague humanity. A single man can focus on the things of the Lord and how to please the Lord,
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1 Corinthians 7:33
The Voice
33 but a married man has to worry about the details of the here and now and how to please his wife.
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1 Corinthians 7:39
The Voice
39 A wife should stay by her husband’s side all of his life. But if he dies, she is free to marry any man she wishes as long as it is in the Lord.
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1 Corinthians 7:40
The Voice
40 You can likely guess that in my opinion this woman would be better off to remain single, and I think that I have this insight from God’s Spirit.
Read full chapterThe Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
