More tough instructions from Paul! He knows that the ‘present crisis’ (v 26; see also vs 29,31) – probably the Romans persecuting the Jews, or perhaps just turmoil in the church at Corinth – would put far greater pressure on marriages. It may help to keep these three main points in mind as you think about today’s verses: Paul clearly shows that he himself would rather be single than married – it’s his preference, he thinks that’s the best way, and he speaks from that perspective (v 7); Christians should be content with their current situation and live it out fully to the glory of God (v 17); they should be as free as possible from any major distraction from serving the Lord (v 35). (Paul thinks that, for him, needing to care for and please a wife might be such a distraction.)

Read today’s passage again with these three thoughts in mind, to see if they help you with what it all might mean. Paul wanted the Corinthians to be able to live with ‘undivided devotion to the Lord’ (v 35). No wavering!

Grant us wisdom, O God, to discern the times, to know how to think and act as your redeemed people, living in the world but expecting your return. 

Again, Paul’s guidance had no possible basis other than the one he named: ‘this world in its present form is passing away’ (v 31). Why else should marriage be postponed? Why should family life no longer be important? Why have mourning and rejoicing become irrelevant? Only if the present world is about to be eclipsed by God’s new order. Some find the idea uncomfortable that the early church and the apostles acted unrealistically in expectation of the eschaton, the end of the age. We benefit from two thousand years of reinterpreting Jesus’ words in the light of the passing millennia, but the simple understanding of Jesus’ words by the first Christians was to expect him. Their generation would not die before they would see Jesus ‘coming in a cloud with power and great glory’.¹ Some would still be alive to see that ‘the kingdom of God has come with power’.² Although persecuted, they would not have to flee far before ‘the Son of Man comes’.³ This expectation underpinned Paul’s understanding of Christian behaviour. In his first extant letter, he wrote that it was ‘the Lord’s word’ that ‘we who are still alive’ will see him return and be ‘caught up … in the clouds’ to meet him.⁴ In a later letter, he wrote that believers must be alert because ‘our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed’.⁵

We read these words two thousand years later, yet the basic principles behind Paul’s counsel remain true. We should indeed act as if Jesus could return soon. We should not become indifferent or lethargic. We know that following Jesus in today’s world means we should be good family members and responsible citizens but still we must hold lightly to the things of this world, knowing they are transitory. We, the redeemed people of God, must live in ‘undivided devotion to the Lord’ (v 35).

‘Come, thou long expected Jesus, / born to set thy people free. / From our fears and sins release us; / let us find our rest in thee.’⁶

¹ Luke 21:27,32  ² Mark 9:1  ³ Matt 10:23  ⁴ 1 Thess 4:13–18  ⁵ Rom 13:11  ⁶ Charles Wesley, 1707–88