Responsibility in Marriage
and Singleness
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Key Verse: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” Selected Scripture: |
IT IS EVIDENT THAT THE principal part of this epistle was written in answer to some questions which had been sent to the Apostle in a letter from the Corinthian church. The first question asked: “Is it proper for a man to marry?” Paul, as a follower of Jesus, advises that a New Creature who decides to marry, would be wise in every way to choose a mate ‘in the Lord.’ He says, “I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs, … But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—and his interests are divided.”—I Cor. 7:32-34, New International Version
The Apostle Paul taught that those who are married are to be faithful to their spouses, while those who are single are to practice celibacy. (I Cor. 7:1-16) In this respect he said, “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”—I Cor. 6:15-20
God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen. 2:18), indicating that he did not approve celibacy for natural man. In marriages that are ‘in the Lord,’ woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. (I Cor. 11:11) Commenting on the first institution of marriage, Jesus said, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matt. 19:4-6) Paul said, “Marriage is to be honored by all, and husbands and wives must be faithful to each other.”—Heb. 13:4, Today’s English Version
We have in Adam and Eve the first institution of marriage: God made the woman out of the man in Eden so the man should consider and treat her as part of himself. No one hates his own flesh, but nourishes and supports it. So should a man deal with his wife. And the woman should consider that the man was not made for her, but that she was made for the man. Derived under God, her being from him, she should reverence her husband. (Eph. 5:33) A blessed union is one that respects God’s institution, and where marriage is in the Lord!