Paul on Marriage
by
Gary DeVaney
I Corinthians 7 Paul said: It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman. Because of immorality, every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband. They should fulfill their duties towards each other. Neither have authority over their own bodies, the other does. Don’t deprive each other except for prayer then come back to each other so Satan doesn’t tempt you through lack of self-control. I wish everyone to be as I am, but each has a gift from God. For the single, it is better to stay single as I do. If you don’t have self-control, you should marry. It is better to marry than to be on fire. If you’re married, you should not separate nor divorce. If your spouse is an unbeliever, don’t divorce him or her for he or she becomes holy through you. (How?) By being together, your children will be holy. If the unbeliever separates, let him or her. You are not bound in such cases. (Really?) Live as God has assigned you. Are you bound to a wife? Then, do not seek separation. Are you free for a wife? Then do not look for a wife. (What?) If you marry, you do not sin, but you will experience affliction in your earthly life. I would like to spare you from that. Let those having wives act as not having them (Whoa!).
I’d like to see you free of anxieties. Unmarried men and virgin women are anxious about how to please God. Married men and women are anxious about how to please each other; taking away and distracting from God. If one thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, and if a critical moment has come and so it has to be, let him do as he wishes. He commits no sin. Catholic
G: What? Isn’t Paul promoting rape, out of wedlock sex and teen pregnancy?
P: Let them get married. The one who marries his virgin does well. The one who does not marry her will do better.
The Marriage of the Virgin?
G: Paul is not hot on marriage, is he? Doesn’t she, the lady, have any say in the matter?
P: A wife is bound to her husband as long as she lives. If her husband dies, she is free to re-marry. She is blessed in my opinion if she remains single. I think I have the spirit of God.
I Corinthians 11:9 Paul said: Man was not created for woman, but woman was made for man.
Paul said: Woman is made to serve man. How do you feel about that? Does your wife or girlfriend know? Is Paul’s view of women something women valid in divorce court? Why not? In church, have you heard that wives should be submissive to their husbands? Is what the Bible teaches us mostly in the minds of those who wrote it?
Pastor Arnold Murray: God, Himself, is a divorcee because He divorced Israel – and Judah as well, as it is written in Jeremiah 3:8.
I Corinthians 11:14 If a man wears long hair, it is a disgrace to him.
Paul just may have been bald.
I Corinthians 16:22 If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema (cursed). KJV
II Corinthians 11:8 Paul said: I robbed other churches in order to minister to you. KJV
Paul, who wrote about one half of the New Testament is an admitted thief.
The Catholic Church preaches Paul’s teachings much more than Jesus Christ’s teachings. Instead of “Christianity”, maybe the Catholic Church should call its teachings “Paulianity”.
Enough of Paul, an admitted thief who wrote about 2/3rd s of The New Testament.
The Catholic Church did not forbid its Priests to marry until 1139 AD. Before that Catholic Priests could have sex and families.
Celibacy keeps Priests from giving their assets to their families. The Catholic Church just gets richer.
The Seventh Commandment: Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Austin Cline: This is one of the shorter commandments and probably has the form it originally did when written, unlike the much longer commandments that were probably added to over the centuries. It is also one of those regarded as among the most obvious, easiest to understand, and most reasonable to expect everyone to obey. This, however, is not entirely true.
It is reasonable to argue that certain non-sexual acts may be wrong and even more reasonable to argue that sinful acts always start with impure thoughts, and therefore to stop sinful acts we must pay more attention to the impure thoughts. It is not reasonable, however, to equate thoughts or words with adultery itself. Doing so undermines both the concept of adultery and efforts to deal with it. The problem, naturally enough, lies with the meaning of the word “adultery.” People today tend define it as any act of sexual intercourse outside of marriage or, perhaps a bit more narrowly, any act of sexual intercourse between a married person and someone who is not their spouse. That is appropriate in contemporary society, but it isn’t not how the word has always been defined.
The ancient Hebrews, in particular, had a very restricted understanding of the concept and limited it to just sexual intercourse between a man and a woman who was either already married or at least betrothed. The marital status of the man was irrelevant. Thus, a married man was not guilty of “adultery” for having sex with an unmarried woman.
G: Don’t these items answer a multitude of moral and legal questions throughout history?
This restriction makes sense if we remember that at the time women were often treated as little more than property – a slightly higher status than the slaves but not nearly as high as that of men.
Because women were like property, having sex with a married or betrothed woman was regarded as misuse of someone else’s property (with the possible consequence of children whose actual lineage was uncertain – the main reason for treating women this way was to control their reproductive capacity and ensure the identity of the father of her children). A married man having sex with an unmarried woman was not guilty of such a crime and thus was not committing adultery. If she also wasn’t a virgin, then the man wasn’t guilty of any crimes at all.
A “slave mentality” includes those who cannot and / or who prefers not to live free. Freedom is unaccountable time. How much unaccountable time do you live by? Do you account to God?
Unaccountable Time
This exclusive focus on married or betrothed women leads to an interesting conclusion. Because not all extramarital sex acts qualify as adultery, even sexual intercourse between members of the same sex would not be counted as violations of the Seventh Commandment. They might be regarded as violations of other laws, but they wouldn’t be a violation of the Ten Commandments – at least, not according to the understanding of the ancient Hebrews.
Marriage must be Consummated by Sexual Intercourse to be Legal
Contemporary Christians define adultery much more broadly, and as a consequence almost all extramarital sex acts are treated as violations of the Seventh Commandment. Whether this is justified or not is debatable. Less debatable are the attempts to expand the understanding of “adultery” beyond even sex acts themselves.
Many have argued that adultery should include lustful thoughts, lustful words, polygamy, etc. Warrant for this is justified by the words of Jesus: “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.“ (Matthew 5:27-28)
My personal views on marriage: I’m not interested. I prefer to live by “freedom” which is (unaccountable time)”. What happens when you try to live by unaccountable time, and you are married? Figure it out.
Kirk Fechter, an astute legal mind, contributed:
“Violation of the 7th commandment makes you liable for life in prison in Michigan.”
Questions, comments or corrections?