Marriage During Tribulations
Lessons From 1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: Lessons From 1 Corinthians.
Hope: To draw closer to God through a better understanding of who he is through his word, specifically through the various and diverse doctrines found within this great book.
Last week we looked at 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 wherein Paul was explaining…
A Christian does not need to change their marital situation or circumstance as long as it doesn’t violate any other aspect of God’s law and as such should “Live As You Were Called.”
Practically speaking whether we are a welder, farmer, preacher, homemaker, school teacher, or any other situation we are where God wants us and should further the kingdom therein.
Today, Paul continues this line of thought but extends it to “Marriage During Tribulations.”
The focus is not on “marriages troubles,” but on those betrothed and those married when “times of suffering” come and you are married or betrothed.
Before we really break this down there is a possible confusion with verses 25-28.
Many have asked…
How Can Virgins Be Bound?
How Can Virgins Be Bound?
Virgin Wives & Husbands?
Virgin Wives & Husbands?
In our text we find this phrase in “most translations” from verse 25…
1 Corinthians 7:25 (NKJV)
25 Now concerning virgins…
1 Corinthians 7:25 (CSB)
25 Now about virgins…
Yet when we continue reading from our text we find this said to the virgins in verse 27.
1 Corinthians 7:27 (ESV)
27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free…
1 Corinthians 7:27 (LEB)
27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release…
Does this word translated virgin mean something other than virgin?
No, it means virgin and cannot mean someone that has had sexual relations.
So we must then ask ourselves “who are virgins that are bound to a husband or wife?”
If you have the ESV you have already noticed the answer as the ESV rightfully gives the correct contextual usage of the word as Paul is using it.
The ESV in 1 Corinthians 7:25 reads…
1 Corinthians 7:25 (ESV)
25 Now concerning the betrothed…
Someone betrothed was similar to someone today being engaged but a betrothal held a more permanent meaning.
When one is engaged today they are not considered “bound” until the marriage and can call off the engagement even at the last second without being considered bound as husband or wife.
However, back during biblical times a when one got engaged they got betrothed which both spiritually and legally bound them as husband and wife though not married yet.
This is why Joseph, who was betrothed not married to Mary, sought to divorce Mary when he found her with child knowing it wasn’t his.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Summary
Summary
So Paul is addressing those betrothed and those that have have married.
27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
What’s Paul’s message to the betrothed and married?
26 I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.
Paul says this because he knows…
Marriage Will Have Worldly Troubles
Marriage Will Have Worldly Troubles
Marriage Is Not A Worldly Trouble.
Marriage Is Not A Worldly Trouble.
The apostle Paul is not saying marriage “more trouble than it’s worth” or that “marriage is trouble” but that when it comes right down to it marriage, during times of tribulation, will have wordly troubles.
1 Corinthians 7:28–29 (ESV)
28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. 29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,
30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
Marriage, as we have seen over and over the last several weeks, is ordained by God and therefore considered “very good.”
Marriage does not “make wordly troubles” for a couple but all married couples will…
Suffer From Worldly Troubles.
Suffer From Worldly Troubles.
The point Paul is making is that the time of distress is coming and these brethren needed to be ready for the upheaval and therefore persecution that was coming.
These brothers and sisters lives were about to be completely turned upside down and everything was going to change.
Whatever situation they were presently in was about to become drastically different and not in a good way.
Now this is where Paul’s focus on marriage comes in.
The simply fact is when dangerous and trying times come for Christians it is far harder on those married than on those that are single.
Why, because those married will suffer “wordly troubles,” but what does that mean?
1 Corinthians 7:33–34 (ESV)
33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.
Why point this simple truth out?
Why is Paul concerned about a man pleasing of his wife or a wife pleasing her husband when “times of distress” come?
Why, because…
It’s Harder To Be Devoted To The Lord.
It’s Harder To Be Devoted To The Lord.
Notice 1 Corinthians 7:35…
1 Corinthians 7:35 (ESV)
35 I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
Here we have the crux of Paul’s point on this matter.
Paul knows that it is harder for a married man or woman to have an “undivided devotion to the Lord” than for a single person to have such.
Now, before we go on notice I didn’t say it’s “impossible” to be devoted to the Lord.
It certainly is not impossible, but it most certainly is harder to have an “undivided devotion to the Lord when “times of distress come.”
A single person has only themselves to consider God and themselves but a married person is going to consider his family as well.
Let me illustrate it this way…
When I was single and living on my own I did not care if I ate Ramin noodles or fast food every day, but when I got married that all changed. Now I need to care for and protect the wife God gave me. I am expected to provide better for her than my own self.
This is Paul’s point in that the impending crisis will tempt the married husband and wife to divide their devotion between their God and their family.
Yet, to “promote good order” as Paul puts it here in our text we must secure an undivided devotion to the Lord.
Summary
Summary
Unfortunately, too many Christians use their family as an excuse or spiritual trump card for not giving God their undivided attention.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard people openly use their family as an excuse to not help others, teach bible class, have home bible studies and of course the most common, not worship God with their brethren.
We have all use our family to forsake and neglect the assembly of the saints.
But the fact of the matter remains, as Paul has made it clear we are to forsake the family for Christ where the two collide.
Luke 14:26 (ESV)
26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The great apostle Paul concludes his message on marriage and sexual purity in chapter five here.
Sexual purity within the bounds of biblical marriage is certainly that which pleases God as he created it.
But an undivided devotion to him is required of all, including the married, if they are to fully please their Creator.
Let us love with our all our Lord God.
27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.