1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Ordinary 3
January 24, 2021
William G. Carter
I mean, brothers and
sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who
have wives be as though they had none, 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 possessions, 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.
There are plenty of scripture verses that give us a jolt. The first line of our text ranks high on the list: Paul says, “From now on, let those who have wives be as though they had none.”
Over the course of my pastoral ministry, I’ve encountered married people who didn’t act like they were married. It got some of them into trouble.
Picture a middle-aged sales manager who traveled a lot for business. He liked to meet up with his buddies in a nearby city. They had a favorite watering hole and frequently started the evening early. Sometimes it got out of hand, he confessed. On one occasion, he motioned to the waitress and declared, “I’ll have another.” One of the buddies said, “Does your wife ever get on your case for how much you drink?” Tom said, “I don’t care. And she’s not here.”
Unknown to all of them, his wife had driven into town to surprise him. She had walked up behind him just in time to hear his wisecrack. “Tom!” she exclaimed. He snapped to attention. Then she asked, “Why did you take off your wedding ring?”
And Paul says, “Let those who have wives be as though they had none.” Why does he say something like that? It’s an unusual thing to say.
Of course, there are different ways of being married, as different as one couple from another. Some hold hands when they walk down the sidewalk. Other travel in separate cars. There are some extraordinary marriages where the two spouses work and sleep in separate cities. I don’t know how they do it. One wife said, “It works for us, and I never complain about him using my toothbrush.” Some of you can sympathize.
“Let those who have wives be as though they had none.” Who talks like this? The apostle Paul, for one. And he was never married, so what does he know?
What we have today are a few verses from the chapter where the apostle announces his commitment to staying single. He says to those who are unmarried, “It is good to remain unmarried, just like me.” (6:8) “Stay the way you are.” “I don’t want you to feel the anxieties of being married.”
It almost sounds like Paul is the one who is anxious. Years ago in a study group, some of us were reading through this chapter. One woman piped up, “I wouldn’t want to be married to him anyway.” We turned and looked at her.
She said, “Well, look at what he does: hopping on a ship, floating across the Mediterranean, arguing in the synagogues, running away before a mob comes after him with torches and pitchforks, in and out of jail, never staying in one place very long. You’d have to be crazy to be married to the apostle Paul. It would be exhausting.”
One of the seasoned widows smiled at her
and said, “Now, honey, don’t be too hard on that man. I’m sure there was a
Special Someone out there who would love to marry a preacher. After all, there’s
a lid for every pot.”
To which Paul writes, “Let those who have wives be as though they had none.” I may be wrong, but it doesn’t sound like he was looking for a lid.
To read this whole chapter, we discover
Paul is giving advice. The church in Corinth had a list of questions.
· Some of them were converts, new Christians married to people who were not Christians. They loved their spouses, but what should they do?
·
Some of them were single
people, a few with an eye on somebody else. They wanted to know, “Can we step
up our game?”
·
Some of the church folk were
engaged couples, tempted to get on with the honeymoon before they stated their
vows. They were committed to one another, but the marriage wasn’t official yet.
·
All of them were citizens of
Corinth. By all accounts, both sacred and secular, that Greek city was
electrically charged with physical expressions of passion. How should a
Christian live in a burning hot town?
Paul, the single man, takes their concerns seriously. He doesn’t dismiss a single question. In one situation after another, he offers the best advice he can. Paul does not presume this is “Christian advice,” as if he is the absolute authority on such matters. Rather he responds as a Christian to say, “These are my opinions. This is what I think. These are my rules. I think I’m speaking with the Holy Spirit.”
And he already stood in a long-established moral tradition. I was on the phone with my friend Jim yesterday. He was asking about the sermon and is tuning in today to listen. “I’ve been reading the Book of Sirach with my coffee every morning,” he said, “and you might find some help in chapter 9.” (I have some unusual friends.)
So I found a copy of Sirach, also called “Ecclesiasticus.” It’s a Jewish book of wisdom from 200 BC. It almost made the cut for getting in the Bible. I looked up chapter 9. Let me give you a few highlights:
· Do not be jealous of the wife of your bosom, or you will teach her an evil lesson to your own hurt. (9:1)
·
Do not go near a loose
woman, or you will fall into her snares (9:3).
·
Do not dally with a singing
girl, or you will be caught by her tricks (9:4)
·
Turn away your eyes from a
shapely woman, and do not gaze at beauty belonging to another (9:8)
· Never dine with another man’s wife or revel with her at wine, or your heart may turn aside to her, and in blood you may be plunged into destruction (9:9).[1]
Now, Rabbi Paul certainly would have known the ninth chapter of Sirach. As a man, he certainly would have been instructed by this teaching to other men. He also would know how much of it is easily translated for women. Naturally, Jewish teachings like these would have bubbled up in his memory when he gets a letter from Corinth that asks, “Is OK for a man to touch a woman?”
But Paul has a concern of his own, a deeper concern. He knows the Corinthian church wants to talk about marriage and romance, but he wants to talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Why? Because the death and resurrection of Jesus has changed everything. This is the conviction woven throughout all his writings.
For Paul, the world has changed – or more specifically, the old order of things is passing away. God gives birth to a new creation, a new kind of dominion. Christ was crucified, cancelling the powers of sin and destruction. Christ was raised from the dead, lifting him up as the Crucified and Living Ruler over “all things.” He is the One who is coming – and in that promise, every human relationship is flooded with light.
We can hear him struggling to say this in a way the Corinthians can hear it. On the one hand, they are looking for helpful guidance to stabilize their chaotic lives. So Paul says, “I encourage you to stay the way you are. Don’t go dashing around. If you are single, stay single. If you’re in a relationship, be in a relationship. If you are married to a pagan, hang in there if you can because you might be a good influence on him. Don’t lead a disruptive life. What God is birthing in the world will be disruptive enough.
On the other hand, Paul has tasted the redemption of God in Jesus Christ. Here’s a man who was knocked off his high horse when he was chaotic and destructive. Then he was lifted out of the dust, forgiven, and offered new vision. He knows this is how the Gospel is unleashed in all its power. This is how the crucified and risen Christ works among us: through death and resurrection.
So his advice must be more than “don’t drink with wine with somebody else’s spouse” or “don’t dally with the singing girl.” The advice is more like “don’t dally with anybody.” The time is short, he says. Lead the life to which Christ has called you. For the present form of the world is passing away. Ahh – there is the key to all of Paul’s thinking.[2]
As I was working on this, my wife said, “What is your sermon about?” I confess I stammered a bit, started to say something, backpedaled, tried again. And then I remembered the other scripture text for today, the call of the first disciples. You remember it. Jesus walks the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. He sees two fishermen and calls them to follow. They drop everything and follow him. Then he sees two more and calls them; they abandon their father and follow Jesus.
There has always been plenty of
speculation about why they did it. Why did they drop everything to follow him?
Was there a twinkle in his eye? A special sound to his voice? Did they have
some prior history with Jesus?
Mark doesn’t say any of that. Rather, Mark says Jesus preceded the call with an announcement. The time is full. God’s dominion is at hand. It’s right here, breaking in. Turn from the old ways and embrace the new.
Mark believes – and I believe – that Simon, Andrew, James, and John believed what Jesus announced. As Paul says it, “The present world is passing away.” As he says it somewhere else, “If anyone in in Christ, there is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:16).” As Paul says it somewhere else, “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).”
His invitation, then, is this:
If
you are married, be married, yet keep a “light touch,” because Christ is going
to reveal a love much more magnificent than anything you’ve ever experienced in
marriage.
If
you are grieving, that’s important work. Yet don’t let grief define everything,
because something better than grief is at work in you through Christ.
If
you are rejoicing, delighted that everything is going just fine for you, don’t
expect the advantages and assets you enjoy will remain the same; for there must
be a death before God’s resurrection.
And
if you are preoccupied with buying a lot of possessions, filling up your garage
with things you might need someday, spending your stimulus check on goods you
never thought about before the money arrived, loosen your grip. Learn to live
with less. The day is coming when having a lot of stuff will not matter.
And if you are consumed with dealing with the world, especially the powers and present principalities, take a breath, step back, and lighten up. Soon you won’t be dealing with the world. You’ll be dealing with God.
So the invitation today is an invitation to a certain kind of Christian freedom. It’s not a freedom that releases us from our commitments. Neither is it a freedom to turn us loose to pursue any old whim or hunger as it strikes us. No, it is the freedom of belonging to Christ, who, as Paul says more than once, “bought you with a price.” Whoever was called in the Lord is free, and you belong to Jesus before anything else. That is the Word from God for today.
Now I need to tell you, of course, that
freedom can become distorted, even twisted out of shape. That’s the Word for
next week, and I will see you then.
(c) William G. Carter. All rights reserved.
[2] See J. Christiaan Beker, Paul’s
Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming Triumph of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1982, p. 29.
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