I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be.
The present distress was the persecution, hardship, and uncertainty about further trouble facing the Corinthian believers in Paul's day, understood as impending persecution. It speaks of a coming time of distress, not that the end itself was near. Nor is it proof that the Lord's coming was immediately at hand. In view of that distress it was good to remain unmarried, because a time of trouble was near. Marriage could bring added responsibilities and burdens in an emergency, so remaining as one was spared those added cares.
This advice was shaped by their circumstances, not a general rejection of marriage. Its instruction also applies to those living when the Lord's coming is near. The verse belongs to counsel for believers whose spouses do not share their faith, to remain with a husband if already married and to seek to win him by good living. A believing wife with an unconverted husband who demands meat, tea, coffee, and everything contrary to health reform should remain in her place and cook what he requires. She cannot be a conscience for her husband and cannot compel his obedience in her place, since obedience is of the heart and not merely the act.
When she is compelled to do for her husband what she would never do for herself, her self-sacrificing loyalty is accepted of God. What would be sin if done for her own sake is counted as obedience and righteousness because of the motive in her heart. Bringing children into the world is right under proper conditions for their care, education, and training for immortality. Selfish yielding to appetite has been the curse of the marriage relation ever since sin came into the world, and those who are candidates for translation must be delivered from it before the close of probation. The verse carries the thought of consecration before God upon entering married life, especially needed then because of surrounding heathen customs and needed now because of looseness on all moral questions.
The present distress was the persecution, hardship, and uncertainty about further trouble facing the Corinthian believers in Paul's day, understood as impending persecution. It speaks of a coming time of distress, not that the end itself was near. Nor is it proof that the Lord's coming was immediately at hand. In view of that distress it was good to remain unmarried, because a time of trouble was near. Marriage could bring added responsibilities and burdens in an emergency, so remaining as one was spared those added cares.
This advice was shaped by their circumstances, not a general rejection of marriage. Its instruction also applies to those living when the Lord's coming is near. The verse belongs to counsel for believers whose spouses do not share their faith, to remain with a husband if already married and to seek to win him by good living. A believing wife with an unconverted husband who demands meat, tea, coffee, and everything contrary to health reform should remain in her place and cook what he requires. She cannot be a conscience for her husband and cannot compel his obedience in her place, since obedience is of the heart and not merely the act.
When she is compelled to do for her husband what she would never do for herself, her self-sacrificing loyalty is accepted of God. What would be sin if done for her own sake is counted as obedience and righteousness because of the motive in her heart. Bringing children into the world is right under proper conditions for their care, education, and training for immortality. Selfish yielding to appetite has been the curse of the marriage relation ever since sin came into the world, and those who are candidates for translation must be delivered from it before the close of probation. The verse carries the thought of consecration before God upon entering married life, especially needed then because of surrounding heathen customs and needed now because of looseness on all moral questions.