Living Life in a World That Is Passing Away

1 Corinthians 7:25-40 - Riley Boggs

The passage that I had read this morning, Revelation 20:1-6, is one of the most debated passages in the entire Bible. The reason that it is so debated is because it deals with the 1,000-year millennium. A time period where Christ reigns as King and Satan is, in some sense, bound up. This much isn’t debated. The real debate is about when, how long, and what it will look like. Some say that it is a literal 1,000 years, some say it is a symbolic 1,000 that simply means a great number of days. Some say it has happened in the past, some say it is happening right now, and some say it will happen in the future. 

How we understand this passage doesn’t affect our salvation, and so we don’t have to agree on it to worship together and be members of the same church. If you look under “Last things” in our statement of faith it says this, “God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end.”

I bring this up because it’s a point of interest among people. People want to know what is going to happen, when it’s going to happen, and how it’s going to happen. There are movies, terrible movies, made about what “the end”. It causes a lot of fear in some people, a lot of excitement for others. And the book of Revelation can feel altogether overwhelming to people, so even those who want to study for themselves find it difficult. 

I say all this for 2 reasons. First, the book of Revelation is not supposed to scare us, as believers, it is supposed to encourage us. Some of you hear that and say, “How are locusts like horses with faces like humans, supposed to encourage me”? And yes, that is in the book of Revelation. Well, we will figure that out shortly. After we finish the book of 1 Corinthians, we are going to be turning to the book of Revelation. Preaching through Revelation is not something I thought I would do early on, but as I have been praying and thinking through where the Lord would have us go in His Word, I am confident that it is there. Has anyone here ever heard an expositional preaching through the book of Revelation? I think we will all be surprised and hopefully regain our confidence to study it.

The second reason, and the one that is applicable to our text this morning, is that this text gives us an insight into how we are to understand “the end times”. In fact, I think once we get to the book of Revelation, you will likely think back to this very text. That is because Paul is telling us here that we are living in the last days, which is my first point this morning.

1.) We are living in the last days

You’ll remember that Paul, in this chapter, started by giving directions about marriage, singleness, and divorce. Then he interrupts himself for a few verses, which we looked at last week, and reminds the church of Corinth that their circumstances do not need to change in order to obey God, though they are free to change things if they can. And then he encourages them to remember who they are in Christ, rather than subject themselves to the judgment of the world.

Now, he returns to discuss marriage and singleness again. But this passage is more than that. He starts off by saying, in verse 25, “Now concerning the betrothed (that is, the unmarried), I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgement as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.” We talked about how we are to understand this previously when Paul said “I, not the Lord” back in verse 12. We aren’t supposed to read “I have no command from the Lord” and dismiss what he is about to say. Paul is simply saying that Jesus Christ did not speak on this during his earthly ministry. For us, we know that all of the Bible is God’s Word, including this letter. So what Paul is about to encourage here is not some advice we can simply dismiss as secondary because Jesus didn’t say it when he was on Earth.

He starts off his advice, in verse 26, by saying “in view of this present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.” The second part of this is rather straightforward. If someone is unmarried, it is good for them remain unmarried. The reason he gives for this, is not as straightforward. He says that this is his advice “in view of this present distress”. The question is, what is the present distress?

There are two different ways to interpret and understand what he is saying. I’ll tell you both of them, and then I’ll tell you which one I think it is. The first option is that “the present distress” is something that is happening in Corinth that is directly affecting the church. Maybe they were experiencing persecution or some other specific hardship. And so the reading with this interpretation is that Paul is encouraging those who are unmarried to remain unmarried, because of the distress in the distress they are uniquely experiencing. It makes the application of this text a bit more specific for the church of Corinth.

I’ll go ahead and tell you, I do see evidence for this being a good understanding, but I don’t think it is the best one. I don’t think Paul is referring to a specific distress that is happening in Corinth. Rather, I think he is referring to the fact that they are living in the last days. Instead of interpreting this to mean the Corinthians are uniquely experiencing a problem and therefore those unmarried should remain unmarried, I think this “present distress” is true of all Christians who have lived since Christ ascension after His resurrection.

We often think of the last days as this future time where this gets incredibly intense and violent and all of that. The Bible, however, does not speak like that. In 1 John 2:18 John the apostle says, ““Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour”. He says that right now, which was 2,000 years ago, the last hour was happening. That many antichrists had come, and will come. John wasn’t making a guess, and he happened to be wrong. John is telling us that the last days are not a handful of days towards the return of Christ. The last days are the days between Christ’s ascension and Christ’s second return.

And so, we are living in the last days. We have been living in the last days for 2,000 years, and we do not know how much longer they will last. Maybe 2,000 more years, maybe 20, maybe 2, or maybe 20 minutes. While we don’t know the length of these days, we do know how they are characterized. The Gospel is going to spreading, people are going to come to know Christ, God’s church will be sustained. And at the same time, there will be hardship, persecution, and suffering. It is a both, and. Things will continue on in this way till Jesus comes back, once and for all, on the last day.

This is what I think Paul has in mind here. The present distress is not specific, it is a reference to this era of history. You’ll see why I think this is the right way to read this if you look down at the second half of verse 28. Paul says, “Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles.” This word troubles here is the same word used in the book of Revelation to reference tribulations. In other words, for those who marry during these last days, there is going to be tribulations as a result. We’ll talk more about what that means here in second.

Now jump down to the end of verse 31. Paul says, “For the present form of this world is passing away.” See how he is rooting all of this in the fact that the very world we live in is fading away. He doesn’t say your situation is fleeting. He says it is all passing away. The distress, and the worldly troubles are simply pointing to the greater reality that the world is passing away. That we are living in the last days.

In light of that, our life should reflect it. That’s what Paul is saying here, and that is our next point.

2.) Our life should reflect that we are living in the last days

Starting in verse 26 Paul says, “26 I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. 27 Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.28 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 much is pretty straightforward. We are free to marry or to remain single, but Paul, not as a command, but as general advice, says being unmarried will cause you to have less worldly troubles in a time where worldly troubles are everywhere. In the last days, when we are to expect a lot of tribulations. 

When I was in college, before I met and married Shelby, I did whatever I wanted. I didn’t make a lot of money, because I didn’t need a lot money because I was splitting rent with 3 other guys, and it’s not expensive to eat eggs, toast, and play the guitar. My worldly troubles were pretty low. When I met Shelby, things started to change. I needed enough money to buy a ring, find a place to live after we got married, and so on. My worldly troubles started increase. And Lord willing, if we have children, the worldly troubles will increase much more. And Paul is not saying this is bad or not worth doing or anything like that. He is simply just saying, that in a fallen world, in these last days, being married will take a lot of effort.

Okay, that’s the simple part. But starting in verse 29 he says it a different way, and it gets a bit confusing. Look with me, starting in verse 29. Paul says, “29 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, 30 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,31 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.”

The simplest reading of these verses cannot be true. Paul is not saying those who are married should just act like they don’t have spouses because we are in the last days. That would directly contradict what Paul had just said concerning marriage. And so if that’s not what he means there, then he isn’t speaking literal in any of these verses. So what is he saying?

He is saying that things are coming to an end. The time is short, the world is passing away, and so we must live like that is true. In other words, do not live like this world is eternal, it isn’t. Your ultimate joy and hope cannot be derived from any of these things. Marriage, worldly sorrows, earthly pleasures, our possessions, all of our dealings; all of it gets left here. And knowing that to be the case should cause us to live a certain way.

If we live like those things are eternal. If we put all our hope and joy and worth in those things, we are going to be sorely disappointed. It is like looking out your window, seeing a tornado barreling down on your house, and deciding that it’s a good time to bring out the broom and sweep the house. If you heard of someone doing that, you would think they are crazy.

Well, that’s the point. If we put the world, and the things of the world, on the same level as Christ, that is crazy. Paul isn’t saying that there are wonderful things about this world. He isn’t saying abandon the world. Be married, love your spouse, devote yourself to them, and serve them, but don’t elevate them to the level of your Savior. When you are low, when you are sorrowful, don’t let it consume you. You know this world and all the pains don’t last forever. Your earthly pleasures, enjoy them! Go on vacations, see the world, grow your community, eat, drink, and be merry. But do not lose sight of the fact that Christ is greater than them all, far far greater. And He is the one who saved you, the one who grants you all joy, and the one who we shall dwell with forever. You aren’t taking your possessions with you, your success in this world is not carried over. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have nice things and enjoy them, or that you shouldn’t seek to be very successful here on earth. But don’t live for those things. Live for Christ. This world is passing away.

If you place all your hope in a world that is passing away, your hope will pass away with it. Don’t do that. Hope in the sure hope. Hope in Christ, the Risen Savior who bought you, keeps you, and will bring you home. Until then, we labor on, living a life that reflects the reality that the world is indeed passing away, as we are living in the last days. 

So far, Paul has essentially given us a principal. Now, he gives us a specific example of how this might be applied. Let’s look at point number 3,

3.) Singleness encourages an undivided devotion to the Lord

In verses 32-35, Paul applies this idea of how our lives should reflect that we are in the last days to whether or not someone should get married. He doesn’t say marriage is bad because it’s worldly and therefore you should avoid it. No, he simply says that marriage, rightly, takes your devotion and will cause earthly worries. A married person has their interest divided more so than a person who is not married, for a good reason. They should live with a desire to please their spouse, serve them, and so on.

And when you do this, it will cause you to lessen your devotion to the Lord. Now, Paul makes in clear in verse 35, this is by no means to be a restraining thing for us. We aren’t supposed to hear this and think that singleness is holier, more noble, or anything like that. What we are supposed to do is recognize the benefits of singleness. We are supposed to acknowledge the unique opportunity a single person has to, in Paul’s words, “secure their undivided devotion to the Lord.”

Paul continues on with this argument in verses 36-38. Verse 36, though there is some debate, is likely referring to an engaged couple. Paul says, if their passions are strong, they are free to be married. But if they have their desires under control and can be married or not be married, it makes no difference, then it is a good thing. Paul says, if all things are equal, considering the benefits of singleness, it is better. 

Now, because we have worked our way through this book, we know that earlier in chapter 7 Paul says that if someone has the desire to be married, it is better for them to be married, than to burn with desire. And so he isn’t saying singleness is better than marriage for everyone. But for the person who does have the, what I would consider the “gift of self-control”, which is often called the gift to singleness, then being single would be better. Since you have no desire, live fully devoted to Christ, devoid of extra worldly troubles that come along with spouses and children.

As a quick encouragement, if someone tells us that they don’t desire marriage, we shouldn’t try to convince them to change their mind. Maybe their desires will change, and they are free to be married. But let’s not dismiss the unique opportunity and joy that can be found in singleness, as Paul has laid out here.

Alright, the last point this morning is this…

4.) Marriage and singleness are good, and should be pursued in a manner that honors Christ

If it has not been clear enough yet, both marriage and singleness are good. That much has been made more than clear through chapter 7. And now, in these final verses, we are reminding of the fact that no matter what which we do, we are to pursue them in a manner that honors Christ. If you think God is calling you to marriage, but you don’t pursue it in a Christ-honoring way, you’ve missed it. If you think God is calling you to singleness, but you don’t pursue it in a Christ-honoring way, you’ve missed it.

See that is what Paul is saying here in verses 39 and 40. He says, “39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.” In other words, he says for those of you who are married, it is a life-long commitment. If your spouse dies, you are free to be married again, but only to another believer. He says, my advice, as one who has been inspired by the Spirit of God, is that singleness may be the better thing, where you can be devoted only to Christ.

Do you see the thread of obedience and submission to Christ here, in all things? As followers of Christ we have been granted so much freedom. We can stay single, be married, take this job, move to the place, and so on. But all of this is done in accordance with how God would have us do it. 

To obey Christ in singleness is to remain pure, to guard yourself. To truly be single, and to devote yourself to Jesus. To obey Christ in marriage is to be loyal, to guard yourself. To devote yourself to them, for your entire life, and to rightly see them as your spouse, not your savior. This is true with all of our lives.

And so that is how we spend our days on this earth that is passing away. We spend it in service and obedience to our King who reigns on the throne, and who is one day coming back for us. Until then we labor on. We enjoy our lives, but we see them in the right perspective. We do not hope in this world. We do no find our worth in this world. We do not worship this world. We do not live for this world. We hope, find our worth in, worship, and live for Christ.

This morning, we are going to come to the table to proclaim this. We come to the table to say corporately that everything pales in comparison to our glorious Savior, who redeemed us from our sin.