Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto
me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman [1 Cor. 7:1].
It is obvious that the Corinthian believers had written a
letter to Paul concerning this problem. We do not have the question, but we
do have Paul’s answer. Paul has taken a long time to get to this. He first
dealt with the divisions and the scandals in their midst. However, he has no
reluctance in dealing with the subject of marriage, and he writes boldly and
very frankly. Before we get into the text itself, I wish to deal with two
introductory matters.
First there is the question: Was Paul ever married? If
Paul was never married, then in his explanation he is simply theorizing. He
is not speaking from experience. However, Paul did not do that. Paul always
spoke from experience. It was not the method of the Spirit of God to choose
a man who knew nothing about the subject on which the Spirit of God wanted
him to write.
It has always been assumed that Paul was not married on
the basis of the seventh verse: “For I would that all men were even as I
myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner,
and another after that.” If we are going to assume that Paul was not
married, we need to pay attention to the verse that follows: “I say
therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide
even as I.” Someone will say, “He still says that he is unmarried.” Granted.
We know he was not married. But notice that he mentions two classes here:
the unmarried and the widows (or widowers). He could have been unmarried or
a widower.
It is difficult to believe that Paul had always been
unmarried because of his background and because of who he was. Paul was a
member of the Sanhedrin. In Acts 26:10 Paul says, “Which thing I also did in
Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received
authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my
voice against them.” How could he give his
voice against them? It was by his vote in the
Sanhedrin, which means he was a member of the Sanhedrin. Since Paul was a
member of the Sanhedrin, he must have been a married man because that was
one of the conditions of membership.
There was an insistence upon Jewish young men to marry.
The Mishna said this should be at the age of eighteen. In the
Yebhamoth, in the
commentary on Genesis 5:2 it states: “A Jew who has no wife is not a man.” I
believe it is an inescapable conclusion that Paul at one time was a married
man. He undoubtedly was a widower who had never remarried. In chapter 9 we
read, “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other
apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?” (1 Cor. 9:5). I
think Paul is saying, “I could marry again if I wanted to; I would be
permitted to do that. But I’m not going to for the simple reason that I
would not ask a woman to follow me around in the type of ministry God has
given to me.”
It is my conviction that in the past Paul had loved some
good woman who had reciprocated his love, because he spoke so tenderly of
the marriage relationship. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Eph. 5:25).
I would like to give you a quotation from F. W. Farrar
who writes in his Life and Work of St. Paul:
“The other question which arises is, Was Saul married? Had he the support of
some loving heart during the fiery struggles of his youth? Amid the
to-and-fro contentions of spirit which resulted from an imperfect and
unsatisfying creed, was there in the troubled sea of his life one little
island home where he could find refuge from incessant thoughts? Little as we
know of his domestic relations, little as he cared to mingle mere private
interests with the great spiritual truths which occupy his soul, it seems to
me that we must answer this question in the affirmative.”
The position of many expositors is that Paul had been
married and that his wife had died. Paul never made reference to her, but he
spoke so tenderly of the marriage relationship I believe he had been
married.
The second introductory matter is not a question but a
statement. We need to understand the Corinth of that day. If we do not, we
are going to fall into the trap of saying that Paul is commending the single
state above the married state. One must understand the local situation of
Corinth to know what he is talking about. Notice the first two verses again.
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible
Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997,
c1981, S. 5:30-31