Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 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. 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, 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, 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.
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.
Comment: This passage is very unusual. Paul says that this is not what he has been ‘ordered’ to write by God, but that as an experienced and trustworthy person he is offering counselling advice. Paul writes two thousand years ago ‘the appointed time has grown very short’. Is two thousand years accurately described as ‘very short’? I guess compared to eternity it is very short but compared to the time each of us lives on the earth it is a long time! So is Paul seeking to underline the urgency of understanding what is going to happen in God’s long term plan compared to the pleasures of living here for our appointed number of years? Certainly he is correct in stating that marriage adds to both men and women responsibilities of caring for their partner in marriage. When children come into the equation that responsibility is multiplied. Tomorrow’s material continues on the same subject, so we’ll see what more Paul gives as his advice. I’m very happy in my married state and I’m glad that Paul tells me that in marrying I haven’t committed a sin!
Prayer: Help me, Father, to not fail in my caring for my family but to realize what Jesus meant when He spoke about my love for Him being so much more important than my love for any person – be that my marriage partner or my child!
As I read it! 