Jeffrey Johnson's sermon examines 1 Corinthians 7:25-40, addressing the topic of singleness and marriage within the Christian life. Initially, Johnson admits his position on the passage has evolved; he now sees it as more affirmatively highlighting the benefits of singleness, rather than merely tolerating it due to persecution or distress at the time. He emphasizes that while marriage is a beautiful and sacred institution, highly valued by God and Christians, there is a tendency to idolize marriage and family, sometimes to the detriment of recognizing the value and blessings of singleness.
Johnson discusses the societal and church pressures on individuals to marry and the undue pressure it places on singles. He points out that Paul, in the text, does not discourage marriage but presents singleness as a viable, and in some aspects, a preferable state due to the benefits it offers for individual growth, ministry, and devotion to God.
He delves into the first-century cultural context of betrothal and marriage, explaining how these practices differ vastly from modern ones, but highlighting that the essence of Paul's message is timeless. Johnson identifies four main benefits of singleness from the passage: less stress in distressing times, fewer worldly troubles, living with an eternal perspective, and fewer distractions allowing for undivided devotion to God.
Johnson's interpretation urges both singles and married individuals to consider their state as a means to serve God effectively. For singles, it is a call to use their freedom for God's glory rather than succumb to societal pressures. For the married, it's a reminder to not let marital concerns hinder their devotion to God. The sermon concludes with a prayer for singles, emphasizing contentment and the pursuit of serving God, whether married or single, as the ultimate goal of a Christian's life.
Jeffrey Johnson's sermon examines 1 Corinthians 7:25-40, addressing the topic of singleness and marriage within the Christian life. Initially, Johnson admits his position on the passage has evolved; he now sees it as more affirmatively highlighting the benefits of singleness, rather than merely tolerating it due to persecution or distress at the time. He emphasizes that while marriage is a beautiful and sacred institution, highly valued by God and Christians, there is a tendency to idolize marriage and family, sometimes to the detriment of recognizing the value and blessings of singleness.
Johnson discusses the societal and church pressures on individuals to marry and the undue pressure it places on singles. He points out that Paul, in the text, does not discourage marriage but presents singleness as a viable, and in some aspects, a preferable state due to the benefits it offers for individual growth, ministry, and devotion to God.
He delves into the first-century cultural context of betrothal and marriage, explaining how these practices differ vastly from modern ones, but highlighting that the essence of Paul's message is timeless. Johnson identifies four main benefits of singleness from the passage: less stress in distressing times, fewer worldly troubles, living with an eternal perspective, and fewer distractions allowing for undivided devotion to God.
Johnson's interpretation urges both singles and married individuals to consider their state as a means to serve God effectively. For singles, it is a call to use their freedom for God's glory rather than succumb to societal pressures. For the married, it's a reminder to not let marital concerns hinder their devotion to God. The sermon concludes with a prayer for singles, emphasizing contentment and the pursuit of serving God, whether married or single, as the ultimate goal of a Christian's life.
This passage that I'm going to be preaching on this morning. Versus 25 through 40 the end of the chapter has changed my position slightly in just the preparation of it. I've always took this passage and tried to soften it in my own thinking that yes, Paul is under the circumstances encouraging singleness. But that's because of the persecution and the distress that they were facing at that time. But overall Paul encourages this marriage, but not in this particular text. Well, I think my position slightly been tweaked a little bit in the preparation of this that I think Paul is truly trying to tell us the benefits of being single. And sometimes we have overhyped marriage. We may have made an idol out of the family. And of course, the family is very important to God and very important to us. Children are very important. It's a sacred institution. It's a I've always said and still believe that marriage is one of the greatest gifts that God gives us outside of Christ. Marriage is a beautiful thing. A wonderful thing. The Lord says a man who finds a wife has found a good thing. It's not good. The Bible tells us for a man to be alone. God's made us for marriage and he's made us to have a family and a family is something to be treasured, especially among the church. And we're living in an anti-family culture that wants to destroy the family. And so we need to rally around the family. A lot of Christian ministries have done just that rallied around the family to maybe to the extent of putting undue pressure on single people to get married. So I'm going to preach to the singles today. If you're single, if you're not married. And I told Ethan yesterday right before he got married, I said, you barely escaped. Jamie, you watch it. No, I don't want to discourage anyone who's engaged. In fact, Paul doesn't want to discourage those who are engaged or betrothed. He says, go ahead and get married. You're free to do this. It's a good thing. It's something that you'll be in the favor of the Lord. But there are some real benefits if you're single. There's a real benefits of being single that you need to be aware of that and treasure that. And this is for all of us to apply to ourselves because you have children. If you're married, you have children. And sometimes those parents want to pressure marriage onto our children and hurry up when you're going to find a spouse when you're going to get married. When we may need to say, hey, have you considered the benefits of being single? Have you contemplated remaining in an unmarried state? It is so foreign to us. But now I can assume some of you are going, no, no, no, Jeff, we need to encourage marriage. Well, let's look at this data. Let's look at this text. Let's see what Paul is saying to us, especially if you're and I think young teenage girls feel the pressure more than boys. So if you're if you're a young lady and and you're feeling the pressure of marriage and other people get married, when am I going to get married? Maybe this sermon could help ease that weight off of you. And maybe you say, hey, it's OK to be single. And some of you who are single and you would like to be married, I'm not going to discourage. Paul doesn't discourage you from that desire to be married. But maybe this could be something to contemplate and consider. Even if you plan to get married down the line or as the Lord provides you a spouse, you plan on marrying. But here are some things you can do while you're single. If you would, you can take advantage of your singleness. There's four advantages of being single. There's four benefits, our blessings for singlehood. But before we get into the de Paul's case for singleness, this text is very difficult to understand in some ways because it's very hard to interpret. In fact, it's so hard to interpret that many of the translators vary on how they translate the passage, especially verse 35, verse 35. Some of the old in ASB and even the contemporary legacy Bible, they they insert a word that's not in the original insert fathers. And often we look at this text as if a father who has a young daughter and is somehow being overly restricted on her. If she wants to get married, fathers let your young daughters get married. It's not sinful. So give them permission to marry. And some some have looked at verse 35 as addressing fathers. Well, I hold that it's not talking about fathers. I'm I hold to it talking about men who are betrothed to a young lady. This text is built upon the cultural consumption that when you're a teenager, especially if you're a young teenage girl, you're already betrothed. So for us to understand this passage, we have to kind of understand the cultural setting of the first century, the Greek, old Roman customs of marriage. In fact, the way they married in the old days is so foreign to us, it seems almost repulsive. We said no way did the Scriptures condone such traditions. But this passage is built upon the tradition that young ladies would be betrothed to a man typically around the age of Quel. The marriages in that day were arranged and it was more of a family arrangement. And the young girl and maybe the man had the young man, single man had some say in it, but the young lady had almost no say in it. She actually was just a young young girl. In fact, typically around eleven or twelve that they would be betrothed. Now, they wouldn't be married right at that time, but they would be spoken for. The family would get into some type of arrangement with a diary and make the terms. And the man typically, even though the young man was married at the age of fourteen, so if you're fourteen you could get legally married. For girls, you could get married at the age of twelve. That seems so wrong in our day. I'm not vouching for that or condoning that, but it was just what was happening. So young people got married quickly. But normally the men would wait until they were out of the home and could purchase their own place. So they had to have a career, a job and be able to support themselves. That usually is in the early twenties. So the marriage gap was somewhere around ten to fifteen years, was normal, where a man would, a young single man would go and make his way in the world, leave his parents, and once he was capable of supporting a wife, then he would be married. Maybe he would have been betrothed to that young lady for a while, but he was financially capable. That's when it would take place. So typically it was about a ten to fifteen year age gap. Now imagine that. That sounds quite strange to our ears. So what makes this passage hard is trying to understand what Paul means by the word virgin. Our ESV translated it "betrothed" and I think that's taken some liberties in the translations because the original is quite clear. It's a virgin, but when we think about virgins, we've got to understand it's mainly speaking of the young girl, not the young guy. It's talking about the young girl who's ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen years old. This is different between someone who's been married or divorced or married in a widow. This is someone who's never been married at all. And so when the ESV is interpreting the word virgin as betrothed, it's on the assumption that these teenage girls would have been betrothed. Now it might be the case. There's a few exceptions where you'd get thirteen, fourteen years old and you're not spoken for. You may not have been betrothed for whatever reason and that did happen. But it's the basic assumption that all the young girls are spoken for at a very early age. And so this is the custom and the culture that we have to understand that this text. And so basically the Corinthians are wondering because Paul had already warned them about sexual infidelity and sexual morality. They said, well, what about sexual intimacy altogether? And Paul said earlier, hey, it's okay in the context of marriage and you're free to get married. And then what about if you're married to unbelievers? We talked about that. And now he's coming to the last section of this. What about our young girls who are betrothed? What about our young men who are engaged, if you would? What should they do? And so what Paul was doing, he's speaking to those who are, if you would, in some type of arrangement to get married. But he's not encouraging them to hurry up and get married. He's not telling them to get out of their arrangement to break off the patrol. He's just saying, listen, there's no hurry. It's okay not to get married. In fact, he'll give us four reasons or benefits for staying single. And I want us to apply this, you know, especially you who are single and if you're a teenager or if you're single in any capacity, I want you to say, hey, there is a blessing and a benefit that God provides me for being a single person. And I want, especially you young ladies and young men who want to get married, I want you to not throw off your aspirations for marriage because God may have put that in your heart and marriage is a good thing. I'm not telling you, I don't think Paul is telling us to forsake that desire. In fact, Jesus said not very many people can accept being unmarried for the duration of their life, only if few can. But even if you, like I said before, even if you plan on getting married, use your single list today. Use the fact that you're single for God's glory today. So here are four benefits or blessings for being single. One, singleness is less stressful in distressing days. He starts off in verse 25, now concerning the patrols. Again, he's talking to young, particularly young teenage girls. Now, though we may think this custom is so crazy and I think it is crazy personally, I mean, I have a young daughter. Sure, I'm not going to do this. But we also need to realize that we also have our own strange customs. We're not exempt in the culture in which we live in today. How many people, hopefully not so much in the church, but how many people at the time they're married, they've had six, seven, eight, nine, ten, fifteen different boyfriends or girlfriends. I mean, it happens regularly. And what is that teaching our children? This is what it teaches. I think one of the dangers of just dating and dating and dating, and that didn't happen. That very rarely happened in the old days. In fact, I did research on marriage and arranged marriages took place up to the 18th century. And it's still taking place in many of the cultures around the world today. And so most, I would say most, or majority of marriages throughout the world's history has been through arranged marriages. Now, I'm not advocating arranged marriages at all, but they did not have the problem of this dating culture that we have today. Everybody just dates and what happens when you date and get accustomed to dating? This is what happens when times get tough, when you're no longer happy with her or happy with him. And he said this or she said that you break up. You break up. That's what you do when I don't like them anymore. I break up. I break up. And what does that teach you if you're broken up with five different girls or ten different girls, then you get married and one year after the marriage and things go bad as they will happen. Oh, my wife said this or my husband said this. Well, I want to break up. That's what you do. And so this is setting a, you know, not necessarily healthy pattern of marriage. This idea of just dating. In fact, I'm going to advocate for teenagers to use your singleness for something else. Don't rush into marriage or don't even rush into dating. If you would focus on other things, especially if you're young, say you're 14, 15 years old. I mean, you know, you're not going to get married very soon. You know that marriage is not on the horizon. Well, focus on your education. Focus on preparing yourself. Give your time and energy for something, I think, a little more productive. The Bible would tell us, and this is just my personal counsel to you. You know, the proper seven says the fool will walk by the harlot's house. You know, you know that she's there, but had, and I'm just curious enough just to go to see the door. I don't want to go in. I just want to see where, where this, I just want to see, you know, and you're curious. The next thing you know, you're in the door. Well, there's so much temptations in this world. Don't put yourself into temptations. There's no need for it. So many kids fall and stumble. In fact, we could list, and no need to do it in sensitive ears, but we could list hundreds of cases, thousands of cases of the mighty men, not just, not just non-Christians fallen. We could list hundreds of cases of Christians, those who profess the name of Jesus Christ, falling through temptations. It's had the sad, sad state of counseling. People were engaged, Christians who were engaged that weren't able to make it to the wedding night. It's a sad thing. So please, please recognize that there's, there's danger in flirting, if you would, when the time is not right. You see, Paul gives us, I think, inspired of ice. He says in verse 25, "I have no command from the Lord." That is, he's not referring to the Lord's teaching in his earthly ministry, but he's still inspired of the Holy Spirit."But I give my judgment as one by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy." So he's given a vice. Now, he's not going to give a wall. He's basically, you're free to marry. You're free to stay single. This is, but he is going to give you some counsel, and it's inspired counsel from the Lord. I'm a man who is very much trustworthy based upon God's standards. And what his vice is, because of the present distress, it's best to remain single. Now, when he says in verse 26, "I think in my view of the present distress is good for a person to remain as he is." There's a controversy of what this present distress is. One is saying, because there was a localized famine in the day, that he's talking about the famine that brought economic distress upon the city of Corinth. But I personally don't think that's what he's talking about. Kiss-it-maker, that's his position on Old Testament commentator. I'll hold to some other commentators like Charles Hodge or Gordon T. that says this present should probably be interpreted as impending, impending distress. This is how the RSV translates this word, pending, not necessarily the distress that you have right now, but there could be a potentially pretending distress in the future. And the reason I take this, because we'll see when we get to verses 31 and on, that we need to live as if Christ is coming back. We need to recognize that life is more than just a moment. Nevertheless, this could be talking about some localized affliction. But what application we have for us today is that we should consider outside factors when considering marriage. So when you think about marriage, you should consider your social economic position, your financial situation, where you're at and why. Does it make sense? I know we're eager to say, "Just get married and live off of love," but I think here's some counsel, but say, "Hey, consider, consider. Is this a good time? Is your life in line? I think we need to consider these things." But regardless, we could make this application if we are single and we do somewhat expect and predict some difficult days ahead of us, that it'll be way easier to navigate that as a single person than it would be one who's married. So there is a blessing, especially during trials, to be single. There's less to be accountable for and responsible for. And so that's a blessing that Paul wants us to be aware of. Second blessing or case for singleness is found in verses 27 through 28."Sigleness as a whole is less troubling." Now he says he's not trying to encourage those who are betrothed, these young people who are already bound to their future spouse, not to break it up. Look, verse 27 says, "Are you bound to a wife? Do not set to be free. And if you are free from a wife, do not seek a wife. If you do marry, you have not sinned. And if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned." So it gives three categories. If you're married, stay married. We've already looked at that. If you're single, stay single. And if you're betrothed, or in our language if you're engaged, you can get married. But the overall advice is to stay in the position that you're in, that you can worship God if you're married or if you're single. Your condition is not disqualifying you or hindering you from doing your main job. We see this in verse 28."Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you of that." And basically, the apostle Paul is telling us that marriage is hard. Marriage brings additional worldly complications. He calls it "wordly troubles." And this can be avoided. I'll get to this in a minute, but marriage does bring in a lot of difficulties. That a single person doesn't have to worry about. And we can list all the financial difficulties. You know, have to worry about, I mean, one old change is tough enough. But to have to worry about your wife's old change is this additional thing to worry about. And I'm being a little funny here, but there's so many things that marriage brings to the table. And this can be avoided for those who are single. But third, the third benefit is found in verse 29 through 31. And this is the one for us to make application to all of us. This is where, you know, in this sermon, this is for if you're married, if you're single, this is for all of us to take heed to. Look at verse 29. This is what I mean, brothers. And this is going back to, I think, to the pending distress. I think this is where he gives interpretation and understanding to that. This is what I mean, brothers. The point of time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they have none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as those who are not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. Now, what does he mean here? You have wives pretend like you don't have a wife? Let those who have wives live as though they had no lot, had none? What does that mean? I mean, you married, man. What does it mean? How can a wife on pretend like I don't have one? I'm just going to live as if I don't have one. If I'm mourning, I'm sad, I'm going to live if I'm not sad. If I'm happy, I'm going to live if I'm not happy. If I'm buying things, I'm going to live as if I don't have anything. What does this mean, even? Well, it doesn't mean that we ignore our spouses, or never get sad or happy anymore. It doesn't mean that we're to be stoics. But what it does mean is we're to live our lives in light of eternity. Verse 29 says, "This is what I mean, brothers. The appointed time has gone very short. This life is going to be over soon." Verse 31 says at the end,"For this present form of this world is passing away." This life is going to be over for you, no? Marriage is going to be over for you, no? Your home is going to be destroyed before you know it. Everything you bought is going to be rusted and done away with. Everything of this world is temporal. Remember, this is why we don't want to make an idol out of marriage. Marriage is still temporal. It's not eternal. It's not what you live for. You don't live to get married. You don't live to get the world's goods. You don't live as if your tears are the end of the story or your happiness is the end of the story. This life is passing away. Everything about this life is temporal. And this is a command for us to not make this world, in the things of this world, even marriage an idol in our life. It's passing away. It's going to be gone. And we need to live in light of that. If we're married or if we're single, I've lived long enough. I am talking on the door of fifty. Who's did that? I know it's old. I know it's old. I can't believe, I literally cannot believe I'm this age. I'm serious. It's hard to believe I've reached a half of a century. I am old. Greg, you're a lot older. I've been married almost twenty five years. It's like it goes fast. It goes fast. Everything goes fast. And we forget it. You're single. I know you're single. And you're going, when am I going to get married? If I don't get married, my life's ruined. No, you'll be in the grave for you know it. And I know, listen, that sounds depressing. But listen, don't lay your treasures on earth. You need to number your days. We need to remember that this life is not what we're living for. You know, we're accumulating wealth. Why? It's going to be gone. We're happy and sad. Why are we happy and sad? We understand, hey, what makes us happy? We got something new. Well, big what? You're going to be sad tomorrow. And if you're sad today, you'll be happy tomorrow. Don't live as if this is your life. And for single people, that's the, this is Paul's counsel. I think Paul is really trying to make us realize marriage is not the end of life. The reason we're concerned about marriage is because we're overly concerned about this present life. The reason we're happy and sad, most of the time we're happy and sad is, sometimes it's about eternal realities because you're worried about the salvation of someone. But most of the time you're sad or happy. It's about something temporal, something very fleeting. The reason we get wrapped up in this world is because, and we buy things, is because we think we're going to live here forever. We're pilgrims. We're just strangers. We're passing through. This world is coming to an end. And we need to live knowing that the form of this world is passing away. Let us, none of us live for this world. Don't give yourself to your profession, to your work. Don't wrap yourself up with the concerns of this world. Remember the parable about the seed coming up and the cares, concerns, choking out that seed? Well, in reality, we've got to be careful for marriage because marriage brings more concerns. And for us married people, don't allow your marriage to keep you from serving the Lord. It could be one of the good concerns that keeps you from being concerned about God. Marriage is one of the best gifts God has given us, but member is still of this world. My last point or Paul's last point, singleness is less distracting. Look at verses 32 through 35. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife. And his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and in spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. Simply stating, he's saying if you're married, you're going to have divided attention. And not saying that's sinful or wrong, but it's just a state of reality. I remember taking in college under my professor who taught first Corinthians, I remember arguing him with him about this text. And I said, well, no, if you're married, maybe you could do more for the Lord because there's two of you can serve the Lord more. And he goes, no, son. And he must have been looking at a new washer and dryer set at the time. He goes, no, if you're married, you have to worry about washers and dryers. And it is true, though, if you're married, you have to do all kinds of things to please your spouse. It is not bad things. It's not things you shouldn't be seeking to do. But it is a distraction. And if you're single, you can be wholly devoted to the Lord. You can give that time and that energy to serving the Lord in both your body and spirit. Marriage does require time and attention. It does include additional anxieties. Know that if you're single, say I want to get married, know that it will cost you something. It's worth it, in my opinion. But it does take energy and effort. So I think if you're single, the key is if you're single, be devoted to the Lord. Holy. Now, a lot of you singles. I want to I want to rebuke you if you need to be rebuked. If you're devoted to Xbox, you're wasting your singleness. If you're devoted to gaming. Or just playing. Or just taking the extra time that you have, especially if you're in your upper teens. You're not you're not advancing yourself toward godliness and holiness and using this time wisely. I've seen this myself and I see this in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm convinced and for this potentially for the seminary students, I say this. That if you're if you're not in pastoral ministry, you need to use every bit of extra time you have to prepare for pastoral ministry. Because when you get in it, you're not going to have the time you think you're going to have to be able to do pastoral ministry. You're not going to have all the extra study time to go through all these passages. Do it now. And the same thing if you're single. This is the time to grow in holiness and maturity. This is the time to give your life to making sure you're walking closely to the Lord. Don't wait as I will get mature and live for the Lord when I get my twenties and thirties. No do it when you're a teen. Devote yourself now to be holy in your thinking and your behavior. Don't be distracted if you would with the opposite sex at this time. Now Paul does give advice to the widows who are going from house to house and being idle and busy bodies and gossiping. They said go get married. Go get married. If you can't use your time to serve the Lord then go get married. That's implying that if you are single use your time not to sin but for God. So I think singleness offers some wonderful blessings that we need to promote and encourage among our singles. But you do have freedom to marry. We see this in verse 36. If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly towards his betrothed, if his passions are strong, if it has to be let him do as he wishes, let them marry. That is let the two young people marry. It's no sin. So you're free to marry. Secondly, your freedom to remain single. We see this in verse 37."But Hoover is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity, but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better." That is you're in a win-win situation. If you're engaged, marry. You're good. If you want to refrain from marriage and hold off, serve the Lord a little longer, you're good as well. Then he goes in to conclude. Verses 39 and 40 is concluding the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 7. And he sums up everything by saying, "A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. You're not free to divorce. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she whizzes only in the Lord. Yet in my judgment, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think I do have the Spirit of God." So basically, bottom line is marriage is a blessing of the Lord. It's to be encouraged. It's to be celebrated. It represents Christ in the Gospel. Thank the Lord for marriage. We celebrate marriage. But also we don't want to look down upon singleness or discredit singleness. It is also a blessing of the Lord. Your singleness is a gift from God. If I use that gift to please the Lord, not just yourself, live all of us, no matter what state we're in, let us live as if this world is passing away. Marriage is going to be gone. This world is going to be gone. Everything of this life is going to be gone. What's going to remain is only. The only thing that's going to remain of our lives is what we do for God. Now, you can work for the Lord in marriage and you can work for the Lord in singleness. But that's the objective of life. That's really Paul's message here. You can serve God in whatever condition that God calls you in. You don't have to flee marriage or get into marriage. You can serve God as you are, where you're at, as long as God is your God. And what you do is for His glory. You see, serving God must be our chief objective. Yes, sexual intimacy is holy within marriage. But we see here singleness has its real advantages. Let's pray. Let's pray for the single people. Lord, my prayer today, Lord, that we would use this text not to discourage marriage, but to see the value and the beauty of singleness. How it does have real benefits. I do pray for the singles that are here today, that they wouldn't feel an outside pressure to get married for the sake of just getting married, but rather they feel the pressure by your spirit and the motivation of your spirit to take their singleness and live for your glory and give their singleness and their devotion and their time and their energy to serve you and to serve your church. So, Lord, I pray for contentment for all of us, for married or for single, whatever state that we're in, that we would see the beauty of where we are and how we can please you in the condition and state that you have called us. Lord, I pray for this in your son's name. Amen.[ through j