Now back up and let’s pick up a summary in verse 27. Look at this. “Are you bound unto a wife?” What? “Seek not a divorce. Are you divorced from a wife?” What? “Don’t seek to get married. But if you marry, you have not…what?…sinned. And if a virgin marries….” now note that. Two people here are given the right to marry: a virgin and a person loosed from a wife. Divorced, of course, on divine terms…hard?hearted adultery or an unbeliever departs or something prior to your conversion. If you’ve been loosed from a wife, now you’ve come to Christ, see if God would have you single but if you marry you haven’t sinned.
Two more questions, I’m just going to give them to you fast. You know what else happened in the Corinthian church? In this whole deal about sex is evil and we ought to be celibate to the glory of God and all this, some fathers were imposing perpetual virginity on their children, their daughters. And so he has to deal with that in verse 36. He says: “If any man, any father thinks that he behaves himself in an unfitting manner toward his virgin,” that’s his virgin daughter, “if she pass the flower of her age,” that means the time of her physical maturity or sexual maturity, “and need so require,” that is she needs to be married, “let him do what he will, he sins not, let them marry.”
See, here was a father saying boy, this singleness??Paul’s really hot on this stuff, being celibate for the glory of God and devote your whole life to Jesus Christ and he’s laying this big trip on this girl and she reaches the flowering of her age and she says, “Daddy, that’s a wonderful thought, but I need to be married.” And he’s saying, “No, I want you to be spiritual.” And she’s saying, “But, Daddy, I can’t be spiritual if I have to be single the rest of my life,” it’s too difficult a temptation and her need requires her to marry. So he says ? Hey, Dad, let the girl marry … it’s okay.
So, verse 38: “So he that gives her in marriage does well and he that gives her not in marriage does well.” Hey, some of them ought to stay single…some of them ought to stay single.
And then the last question: What about the widows? What about them? Verse 39: “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; if her husband’s dead she’s at liberty to be married to whom she will.” And what’s the last line again? “…only in the Lord.” Only in the Lord…only in the Lord.
But then he throws this in: “But she’s happier if she stays the way I am.” See, he’s always got to get that in there, see. And he said the things I’ve been saying at the end of verse 40
I have received from the Holy Spirit.
Good words to us, very clear. Let me summarize quickly, listen now.
You’re single…if you’re single you fall into four categories. Category number one is what I call the “delay.” You’re single but you’re not going to stay that way. This is just a delay until you can get married. What does the Word say to you? Get married, right? Better to marry than to burn.
You’re single by “divine design” for the service of Christ. What should you do? Stay single.
You’re single by “divorce.” Well, you should consider whether you ought to stay single first of all and then if you’ve been divorced out of an adulterous situation or if your divorce was before you were saved, or if your divorce was an unbeliever departing?you’re free to marry. In fact, it’s better for you to marry than to burn also.
And the fourth category of singleness is those that are single by “death.” Stay single if you can. But if you can’t, get married?you haven’t sinned.
Now what about the married? If you’re married to a Christian… what? … stay married. If you’re married to a non-Christian … what?… stay married. If the unsaved person wants out??let him out, you’re free.
Now, there’s only one other category. And some of you are sitting there saying ? Ummmm, I’ve got a problem … because I got a divorce that wasn’t legitimate when I was a Christian, I fouled up my marriage when I was a Christian … I am an adulterer or an adulteress … I remarried when I had no grounds??what is my status? Well, you’re a sinner. Welcome to the club. If you’ve already violated God’s laws as a Christian, if you were illegitimately divorced, illegitimately remarried when you had no grounds, if you’re in a union that the Bible defines as an adulterous union, you have only one recourse… that is, to confess the sin, tell God the sorrow of your heart, and stay in that same union and see if God will not make sweet out of the bitter…honey out of the lion’s body.
You see, if we confess our sins He’s faithful and just to… what?…forgive us our sins. And it’s easy for us who haven’t had sin in that area to sit in judgment on those because we forget the sins of our own life. And God’s in the sin?forgiving business … Matthew 12:31 says: “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven you.”
One pastor suggested that if that’s your case you’ve got to divorce the adulterous partner and try to get back with the other one… don’t do that. That you cannot unscramble the egg… stay where you are, confess it, repent and thank God for the grace that you’re still alive and make the most out of the union you have.
Well, I don’t think the Bible’s that fuzzy, is it, on divorce… pretty clear. It’s only a question of whether we’ll be obedient. Let’s pray.
Father, we come again with thankful hearts for the clarity with which the Spirit of God speaks through the Word. Help us to be as Paul said to Timothy, “Diligent to be approved of God, workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Help us to study the Word. You know my heart, Lord; you know that I have prayed that I would speak Your truth and Your truth only from the pages of Your book. And may You be pleased with our response as well. And You make of every single life for Your glory, all the fullness that You would have planned in eternity for that life. And for those single who need to be married, would You bring them the right partner because they’re the right person? Would You set their life in the line of the Spirit?controlled life, a life of obedience so that they’ll be led to the right person? For those that are married, would You make the most of those marriages? For those, O God, that are married to an unsaved partner, would You bring that partner to Christ? And for those who have been made single by death or divorce and are free to marry, would You bring them to the one they can marry in the Lord that the church may know the fullness of power that comes through obedience to Your holy Word?
Thank You for instructing us and help us to be not just obedient but eagerly so. And may we never tread on Your grace. If we have no right to marry, if we have no right to the relationship we’re in, may we cease if that is possible. If not, may we repentantly seek Your forgiveness and be grateful for grace?
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
