The Scripture readings I am doing right now are all from the letters of Paul. I am reading his letters and trying to put them into the context of the story told by Luke in Acts. I am presently re-reading 1st Corinthians. Any commentary I make is in italics.
1 Cor. 6 - It is wrong to resort to the law courts when dealing with a “brother.” The saints should work things out in their community. Paul clearly alludes to the promises made in Daniel’s eschatological passages (7:22-23) that the “holy ones” would be the ones who would eventually possess the kingdom and be judges over others, even angels [though when I turn to Daniel, that seems far from clear in the cited passages]. Paul seems to think it is better to put up with injustices than to go to “outside” courts for judgments in cases between believers. Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom: the unjust, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, boy prostitutes (catamites), practicing homosexuals (sodomites), thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, robbers. Beyond this, the saying, which perhaps Paul had said and others in Corinth have “over-relied” on by some there, that “everything is lawful for me,” (12) does not mean that immoderation or other departures from “moral” behavior is now okay. The standard of the kingdom is high, not slack: “[W]hoever is joined to the Lord [and all the baptized are joined to him] becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside he body, but the immoral person sins against his own body” (17-18). Our bodies are temples “of the holy Spirit within [us] whom [we] have from God. . .” (19)
1 Cor. 7 - “Sex is always a danger,” Paul says. Marriage is for this--neither partner owns his own body in a marriage. Each belongs to the other. So he thinks staying as you are at the time of your call is best (7:25-40). He is sure the “world as we know it is passing away.” The important thing is to give individual attention to the Lord. He goes on to say that if you are married, you are not to separate or divorce; or if you do separate, you should remain single. He does permit believing partners whose unbelieving spouses leave them to remarry. “The brother or sister is not bound in such cases; God has called you to peace” (15). The overriding principle with Paul seems to be that people should not worry about the state they were in before their call, that decisions about changes to one’s earthly state should become relatively unimportant in light of the fact that “time is running out. . .[that] the world in its present form is passing away.” (31).
What shall we make of such advice today, made as it was from such a perspective? I think we ought not to put much weight on it in the last analysis. On the question of how marriage “divides” us from single-minded service to the gospel, it is true to some extent. Yet every person must put the Lord first to some end. The single man or woman serving the Lord puts Him first in order to serve the faith community. The married person must put Him first in order to fulfill the calling of being a spouse and a parent, a citizen or a friend—the only thing that changes is the field of service, for there is no state of life—excepting perhaps the purely contemplative—where only the Lord is served; and then we need to ask “to what end” He is served?
No comments:
Post a Comment