Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
Free from Anxiety
1 Corinthians 7:32-40
32 But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; · WEB
The argument for singleness is undivided attention, not superior holiness — and the chapter closes by leaving each decision with the person making it.
But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord 1 Corinthians 7:32.
The practical case, and the word running through it is concerned — divided attention rather than divided loyalty. A married believer is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife 1 Corinthians 7:33, and pleasing one's wife is nowhere treated in Scripture as a lesser occupation; it is commanded Ephesians 5:25 1 Corinthians 7:3. The point is arithmetic. A person with obligations has less unencumbered attention, and Paul, whose life was itinerant and frequently dangerous 1 Corinthians 4:11, knew what marriage would have cost his particular assignment.
This I say for your own benefit, not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction 1 Corinthians 7:35.
He states his motive and disclaims the obvious misuse. Not that I may ensnare you — the word is for a noose or a trap, and it is precisely what advice like this becomes when a community turns it into a requirement. Whatever the Corinthian ascetics wanted, they are not given a rule they can impose on anyone.
The verses that follow deal with a father or guardian deciding about a young woman in his household, and with a man's own resolve about his intended 1 Corinthians 7:36–38. The English translations divide over whose decision is in view, and the passage is compressed enough that certainty is not available. What is clear is the shape of the answer: he doesn't sin. Let them marry — and equally, the one who has settled otherwise does well. Both courses are approved in the same breath, and the comparative does better carries the circumstantial preference of verse 26, not a moral ranking.
A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord 1 Corinthians 7:39.
Widowhood is treated plainly: the obligation ends at death, and remarriage is free — with one qualification, only in the Lord. That is the chapter's single restriction on choice of partner, and it is consistent with everything the letter has said about what a union is 1 Corinthians 6:16–17 2 Corinthians 6:14.
But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God's Spirit 1 Corinthians 7:40.
The chapter ends where it has stood throughout: a preference offered, labeled my judgment, and left with the person. The final clause is not a retreat — he does claim the Spirit — but the claim is made with I think, in a chapter that has been meticulous about the difference between the Lord's command and an apostle's counsel 1 Corinthians 7:10 1 Corinthians 7:12 1 Corinthians 7:25. On a question Scripture leaves open, even an apostle declines to close it.
held with reason What this mark means