Tuesday after Trinity 7 1 Corinthians 7:1-40
St. Paul praises celibacy, which is the complete abstention not only from lusts and fornication, but also marriage. What makes celibacy good isn’t that it justifies us before God or earns God’s favor. What makes it good is that it frees men and women from the cares of this world so that they can devote themselves to prayer, the word, and service to the Lord in the church. Yet celibacy is not for everyone. “Each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.” Celibacy and marriage and a family are both gifts from God, not choices we make.
To those whom God has not given the gift of celibacy, Paul writes, “If they cannot exercise self-control [celibacy], let them marry.” Yet even in marriage there is to be self-control so that husbands and wives give themselves to each other in love and sanctification, “not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4:5). Sex within marriage is an expression of the one-flesh union that God has created, so that marriage isn’t a matter of “me” but of “we.” The Christian spouse asks, “What’s good for my spouse whom God has given me? What’s good for us? That’s what’s good for me.” This is how the Christian spouse ought to think about all things in marriage, including physical intimacy, so that in all things the one flesh union is celebrated.
Paul then urges the single who can be celibate to serve the Lord without distraction. But those who desire marriage and family are to pray for a Godly spouse, as well as patience and self-control. Self-control is simply chastity and chastity is something required outside of marriage and within marriage as well. Whatever gift God has given, celibacy, singleness, or marriage, we are to glorify God by living in sanctification and holiness, loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Let us pray: Grant us wisdom, O Lord, to recognize our callings. Increase in us the gift of self-control that in our callings we may love one another and glorify you. Amen.
