“However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything. Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called. Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever. For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters. In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God. For the present form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties.” 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, 32

In Greek thought there was a strong tendency to despise the body and the things of the body; and this tendency could result in a position where people might think: “The body is utterly unimportant; therefore we can do what we like with it and it makes no difference if we allow its appetites to have their fullest play.” But that very tendency could issue in the complete opposite point of view — where someone might say: “The body is evil; therefore we must bring it into subjection; therefore we must completely obliterate, and if that is not possible, we must completely deny, all the instincts and desires which are natural to it.” It is that second way of looking at things with which Paul is dealing here. The Corinthians, or at least some of them, had suggested that, if a man was going to be a Christian in the fullest sense of the term, he must put away all things physical (like relations with a woman) thus refusing to marry altogether.

Paul’s answer is extremely practical. In effect he says, “Remember where you are living; remember that you are living in Corinth where you cannot even walk along the street without temptation rearing its head at you. Remember your own physical constitution and the healthy instincts which nature has given you. You will be far better to marry than to fall into sin.”

This may sound like a low view of marriage — or that Paul is advising marriage in order to avoid a worse fate. Actually he is honestly facing the facts and laying down a rule which is universally true. No one should attempt a way of life for which they are naturally unfitted; no one should set out on a pathway whereby they deliberately surround themselves with temptations. Paul knew very well that all people are not made the same. “Examine yourself,” he says, “and choose that way of life in which you can best live the Christian life, and don’t attempt an unnatural standard which is impossible and even wrong for you being such as you are.”

What was true for the Corinthians in the church is true for us in the church today.

Pastor Dave