Chapter 7 begins with “Now concerning
the matters you wrote about” indicate that they had written to Paul for answers
on some issues they had. The copy of that letter is not available but we can surmise
what some of the issues were from Paul’s response. So whenever we read words
like, “Now about” or “Now concerning” we know he was about to deal with an issue.
In this first seven verses he was
talking to them about sexual intimacy in marriage.
The first thing we need to note is that
in verse 1 Paul was referring to husband and wife. The words “Man” and “Woman” in
Greek are also used for “Husband” and “Wife.” And the word “…touch” is
referring to sexual intimacy. Thus, it seems preposterous for such a question. Why
couldn’t a man have sexual intimacy with his wife? We need to understand the reason for their
question. Before they became Christians, many of the Corinthians were pagan.
Their worship of the goddess of love included sexual intimacies with the member
of the opposite gender. They did this to come into contact with the goddess. As
a result some women would volunteer themselves for such service with the male
worshipers who came to worship the goddess and vice versa. They were influenced by their environment to
think worship is tied up with sexual intimacy. Now that they have turned to
Christianity they were wondering if something they were doing as pagan was
allowable in Christian living. Many men have thought that they could no longer
have sexual intimacies with their wives now that they have become Christians.
In verse 2 the issue was about sex
within marriage and not whether one should marry. He was saying that a married man
should only have sexual relationship with his own spouse and not to practice immorality,
that is, having sex outside of marriage. Paul here was saying that a married man
and woman must have sexual intimacy with their own spouse and then proceeded to
give the reasons.
Verse 3 tells us that sexual intimacy
is an obligation a husband and a wife owed to each other. Verse 4 tells us that
this sexual intimacy would best represent God’s creative design for man and
woman. God created Adam and Eve as counter gender for intimacy. God made man
and woman so that husband and wife could be physically satisfied by each other.
One cannot be satisfied without the other. What did Paul mean when he said that
the husband and wife do not have power over their own bodies? What Paul is saying is this: that both husband and wife do
not have power to be satisfied in the sexual dimension without each other’s contribution.
Every time a husband and wife have intimacy they have helped each other to
fulfill the creative design of God for the mate and for self. In verse 5 Paul
tells us that sexual intimacy within marriage would be a protective shield for one’s
spouse from the attack of Satan. The apostle urged that their sexual abstinence
should be by mutual consent, so that they would not be lured by Satan’s
temptation. Paul is suggesting that when a married couple wants to abstain from
sexual intimacy both must be in agreement. It must be done for a proper purpose
– the purpose of prayer. The use of the word ‘depriving’ bothers on the word
cheating. He was calling on the spouses not to rob each other of the need to
find sexual fulfillment. The apostle was making three conditions for sexual abstinence:
(1) by mutual consent, (2) for a spiritual purpose, and (3) for a limited duration
only. Paul quickly added that what he said here was not a command but as a concession.
Paul
probably knew that some would conclude that to be married is a must, he quickly
shared his personal preference, to be unmarried. But he also quickly said that
not everyone could be like him. So in verse 7 he acknowledged here that both to
be married or celibacy is a gift of grace from God.
We
cannot run away from the fact that God expects sexual fidelity. And through
Paul, God gives married people some very explicit instructions. Let’s seek to honor
God in these matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment