Lessons #225 and 226
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Concern about marital status (1 Cor 7:24-28)
. 24 Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.
25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are. 27 Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.
Recall the overall message of 1 Corinthians 7:17-28 is: there are appropriate and inappropriate concerns of one’s status quo after salvation. In our last study, we started to consider the third concern the believer in Christ should avoid which is that associated with marital status as given in verses 24 to 28. We ended by emphasizing that you as a believer should never take any part of the Scripture as the human author’s view or opinion because of the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:25 but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy, we started to consider. We indicated that there is more to this clause than our caution regarding treating any portion of the Scripture as an opinion of the human author of the Scripture. It is with this further consideration of the clause that we begin our study today. Our further consideration of the clause is concerned with the reason the Corinthians and so all believers should not take the “judgment” or “advice” the apostle gave in the passage we are considering as his subjective opinion. The apostle’s reason is based on what he says about himself.
In any case, Apostle Paul conveyed something about himself that should cause the Corinthians and so every believer to accept that although he offered an advice, but his advice is sound and is from the Holy Spirit and not his personal opinion. There are two things the apostle conveyed in the clause we are considering that should cause us to recognize that his advice was from the Holy Spirit not the apostle’s subjective opinion. The first thing the apostle conveyed is that he is a recipient of the Lord’s mercy as in the phrase by the Lord’s mercy. The Greek literally reads having been shown mercy by the Lord.
The expression “shown mercy” in the literal translation is from a Greek verb (eleeō) that means “to have pity” as it is used in the plea of the men with leprosy to Jesus as recorded in Luke 17:13:
and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
The word may mean “to have mercy” as it is used in the quotation from OT in Apostle Paul’s defense of the doctrine of election in Romans 9:15:
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
The word may mean “to receive mercy” as it is used in Romans 11:31:
so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.
The word may mean “to be shown mercy” as in 1 Timothy 1:16:
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:25, it has the sense of “to be shown mercy.”
Be that as it may, you may wonder how the phrase of 1 Corinthians 7:25 of the NIV by the Lord’s mercy or literal having been shown mercy by the Lord indicates that the advice of Apostle Paul is from the Holy Spirit. It is because the literal verbal phrase having been shown mercy described the apostle in his status as one who is in a unique service to the Lord in the sense of being an apostle. The apostle had already indicated to the Corinthians in his introduction of this epistle that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 1:1:
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
Paul’s description of himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ was in his mind when he wrote the Greek verbal phrase, we translated literal having been shown mercy. That the apostle was thinking of his position as an apostle who had God’s authority to give the advice in the passage of 1 Corinthians 7 that we are considering is something that we learn by going to the Greek grammar involved in the apostle’s statement. The apostle used a perfect passive participle in the Greek. The use of the perfect tense implies that the apostle was thinking of his present state based on what happened to him in the past. His present state as he wrote the epistle is that he is an apostle under the control of the Holy Spirit. The apostle was not merely thinking of what happened at his salvation that was clearly a demonstration of God’s mercy to him but his present state as an apostle of Jesus Christ who under the Holy Spirit was authorized to offer the advice from the Holy Spirit. We contend that the apostle was not merely thinking of the mercy of God shown in saving him but his position as an apostle under the control of the Holy Spirit. For, when the apostle wanted to convey the sentiment of mercy at salvation, he used what is known as aorist tense in the Greek. Twice when he had in mind the mercy he received at salvation; he used the aorist tense. His first usage was after the apostle had referenced the fact that he was appointed an apostle although he used the word “service” in 1 Timothy 1:12:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
Following this assertion of the apostle, his mind went back to his salvation. Thus, he used an aorist tense in the Greek to describe the momentous point of his salvation as one who received God’s mercy in 1 Timothy 1:13:
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
The sentence I was shown mercy is translated from the passive form of an aorist tense in the Greek to convey something that happened as some point in the past, which is the apostle’s salvation. Before the apostle used the same Greek passive form of an aorist tense in the Greek a second time, he referenced the fact that he was one of the most notorious sinner or in the word of the NIV “worst” of all sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
The apostle was not so much of thinking of his appointment as apostle but his salvation when he referred to himself as the worst or most notorious sinner that the Lord Jesus came into the world to save. It is after his mind went back to the point of his salvation that we find the second usage of aorist tense in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Timothy 1:16:
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
Thus, the apostle when he wanted to focus on the point of salvation when he received mercy from God, he used aorist tense in the Greek. However, in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:25, as we have already indicated, he used a perfect tense because he was thinking of his present state as an apostle of Jesus Christ under the control of the Holy Spirit with full authority to communicate God’s word to the Corinthians and so to the church at large.
There is another reason from the Greek grammar that we know Paul was describing his position as an apostle of Jesus Christ, under the control of the Holy Spirit, to communicate God’s word. It is because he used a Greek participle in 1 Corinthians 7:25 in contrast to the other two usages of the Greek word that has the sense of “to be shown mercy.” A participle in English grammar is a word formed from a verb so that it can be used as an adjective or a noun or to make a compound verb forms. In effect, a participle is a word that may function both as a verb and adjective or noun. Take for example the word “move.” If I say, my car is moving. The word “moving” is used as a verb but if I say, he shot at a moving car then the word “moving” is an adjective. If I say, slow moving, the word “moving” is then a noun. It is in the sense of a noun that the apostle used the Greek participle of the word that literally translates having been shown mercy. To reflect that the participle used in the Greek has the sense of a noun in our passage, the Greek participle used in our passage may be translated one shown mercy as in the Lexham English Bible. Hence, when the apostle descried himself a recipient of God’s mercy, in the context we are studying, he was thinking of his status as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not only in this passage we are considering that we find our Greek word used as a participle to describe someone or a group. Apostle Peter used the word to indicate Gentiles have become God’s people in 1 Peter 2:10:
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Those who once were not God’s people are Gentiles and they are the ones described in the clause once you had not received mercy or literally the ones not shown mercy. When they became God’s people, according to the clause but now you are the people of God, they were then described with the last clause but now you have received mercy. Thus, the Greek participles used in this passage of 1 Peter 2:10 is used to describe people. Thus, it should not be strange that the apostle used the participle to describe his status or position as a special agent of God or as an apostle. It is because of this that we can assert that the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:25 but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy that we are considering enables us to recognize that the apostle’s advice was from the Holy Spirit not his subjective opinion.
Apostle Paul often conveyed that Jesus Christ is God without stating so directly. The phrase by the Lord’s mercy or the literal translation having been shown mercy by the Lord is an example of an indirect description of Jesus Christ as God. The word Lord here refers to Jesus Christ. This we know because it is the Lord Jesus Christ that saved the apostle on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. Furthermore, it is the Lord Jesus that appointed the apostle to the ministry as he indicated in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Timothy 1:12:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
So, there should be no doubt that the one who showed the apostle mercy is the Lord Jesus Christ. This being the case, we can be certain that the apostle considered Him God. This is because, the apostle had described mercy as that which comes from God. In his defense of the doctrine of election, he indicated that it is God who shows mercy to anyone He wants in Romans 9:18:
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
The apostle also referred to God as through whose mercy he was in the ministry of the word, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 4:1:
Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
If the apostle recognized that mercy is that which comes from God, but he chose to assign the source of the mercy he received in his position as an apostle to Jesus Christ, it must be because he considered Jesus Christ to be God. That aside, the first thing that enables us to recognize the apostle conveyed in the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:25 but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy that his advice was from the Holy Spirit not his subjective opinion is his status as an apostle of Jesus Christ, as implied in the phrase by the Lord’s mercy or the literal translation having been shown mercy by the Lord.
The second thing in the clause but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy, we are considering that should cause us to recognize that Apostle Paul’s advice was from the Holy Spirit not the apostle’s subjective opinion is his description of himself as trustworthy. The word “trustworthy” is translated from a Greek adjective (pistos) with different meanings. When used of a person, it may mean “faithful” as Apostle Paul used it to describe Christ’s evaluation of him in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Timothy 1:12:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
The word may mean “trustworthy” as the word is used by the Apostle Paul to describe the qualities expected in the wives of deacons in 1 Timothy 3:11:
In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.
It may mean “reliable” as Apostle Paul used the word to describe the kind of men that Timothy should pass the truth of the church to, according to 2 Timothy 2:2:
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
The Greek word may mean “believing” or even “believer.” It is in the sense of believing that the word is used to describe Christian slave masters in 1 Timothy 6:2:
Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.
It is in the sense of “believer” that the word is used in 1 Timothy 5:16:
If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:25, it is used in the sense of “trustworthy” or “faithful” in the sense of being characterized by steadfast allegiance or devotion to the Lord.
We have indicated that the Greek word the apostle used to describe himself may be understood either as “trustworthy” or “faithful.” Truly, the apostle’s description of himself using the Greek word we considered is intended for us to understand him both as trustworthy and faithful. This is because it is difficult for a person to be trustworthy and not be faithful. On the one hand, a person is trustworthy, if the person can be relied on as honest, truthful, or reliable. On the other hand, a person is faithful if the individual is loyal and steadfast. Being faithful from the English perspective implies that a person unswervingly adheres to a person or thing or promise. Hence, there should be no doubt that the apostle meant that he was trustworthy and faithful by God’s mercy to him.
How does the fact that the apostle is trustworthy and faithful imply that the advice he gave in the passage of 1 Corinthians 7 that we are considering is from the Holy Spirit, you may ask? It is because these characteristics are produced in him by the Holy Spirit as the apostle implies when he stated one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy or literally as (one who) having been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful. The literal verbal phrase to be as found in such English versions as the NET and the LEB is to be understood as conveying a result of the mercy shown to the apostle. The result of the apostle having received mercy is that of being faithful. The Greek used what is known in Greek grammar as a present infinitive. The use of the present tense conveys what occurs at intervals. The filling of the Holy Spirit is something that occurs at intervals with the believer. No believer is continuously under the control of the Spirit since no believer is perfect. If it were possible for a believer to be continuously under the control of the Holy Spirit, then such a person would not sin. There has only been one person who has been on this planet that this is true. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout His stay on this planet, He never sinned because He is God in human flesh; consequently, there was never a time that He was not filled of the Spirit. Apart from Him, every other person on this planet is at best controlled by the Holy Spirit at regular short intervals. Thus, the apostle used the present tense to imply that he was at repeated intervals filled of the Holy Spirit. Whenever, he is filled of the Holy Spirit, he would certainly be trustworthy and faithful. This is in keeping with the truth that faithfulness is a facet of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, as we may gather from Galatians 5:22:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
We contend that when the apostle described himself as one whose faithfulness or trustworthiness results from the mercy the Lord had shown him, that that is his way of saying that whenever he is controlled by the Holy Spirit then he is both trustworthy and faithful. Someone may dispute what we have stated. If so, let me remind such a person that faithfulness is not natural to us as fallen human beings. Even as those who have been regenerated, we still cannot claim to be trustworthy or faithful on our own power. Recall that we indicated that in the English the word “faithful” describe a person who is loyal and steadfast, or a person who unswervingly adheres to a person or thing or promise. You may say that you are such a person but before you are quick to such a claim let us note what being faithful means from the declaration of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord indicates that being faithful refers to doing exactly what one is expected to do without deviation of any kind, as we may gather from the Lord’s assertion recorded in Luke 12:42–43:
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.
In the context of the teaching of the Lord, He referred to a manager that consistently discharges his duty of providing food to other slaves as he was expected. Thus, being faithful is related to specific action or requirement. If I may put it in another way, faithfulness is not a virtue that stands alone without being related to an action. I am saying that you cannot say that a person is faithful without referring to an action or activity that enables you to make that assertion. That aside, God requires us to obey Him at all times. Who among us can say that he/she does this? If you say you are I can say to you on the authority of the Scripture that you are not being truthful to yourself and worst you are arrogant because you are saying that God’s word is not true. I am referring specifically to what the Holy Spirit states through Apostle John in 1 John 1:8:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
We do not consistently obey God but whenever we are controlled by the Holy Spirit then we obey Him. If you understand this, you will agree that it is only when we are controlled by the Holy Spirit that we can claim to be faithful in the sense of doing exactly what God wants from us.
The point we are stressing is that when the apostle used a Greek verbal phrase that is literally translated to be, that he meant that whenever he is controlled by the Holy Spirit, he does exactly what God intended for him to do which is to remain faithful to the mission the Lord had called him. The Lord called Paul to preach the truth to Gentiles so they would be turned from darkness to light as he stated in his defense before Agrippa, as we read in Acts 26:15–18:
15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
The Lord also called Paul as an apostle or a messenger of God with an extraordinary status and function as the apostle had already reminded the Corinthians in his greeting section of this epistle as we read in a passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 1:1:
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
Whenever the apostle carries his function, he was filled of the Holy Spirit although the apostle did not necessarily say so but we can gather this fact from what is described about him when he was witnessing to the Proconsul as we read in Acts 13:7–9:
7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said,
Notice the verbal phrase filled with the Holy Spirit or literally filled of the Holy Spirit as it is used to describe Paul. Hence, we are correct in asserting that whenever the apostle carried out his function as it relates to the word of God then he was under the control of the Holy Spirit. The implication of what we have stated is that when the apostle gave the advice in the passage of 1 Corinthians 7 we are considering that he was under the control of the Holy Spirit and so it was not his subjective opinion that he rendered. Furthermore, we should recognize that when the apostle described himself with the word trustworthy of the NIV or literally faithful, he was thinking of his relationship to the word of God he communicated. We can deduce this because the Greek adjective that may mean “faithful” the apostle used to describe himself is one that he used to describe others often in connection with their action in relation to the word of God. He had already described Timothy as faithful in the Lord so the Corinthians would pay close attention to what he says about God’s word or the apostle’s doctrine, as we read in 1 Corinthians 4:17:
For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
The apostle described Tychicus as faithful so the Ephesians would accept to be true whatever he tells them about him as we read in Ephesians 6:21:
Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.
He described Epaphras using the word faithful so the Colossians would recognize that the preaching of the gospel and teaching about God’s grace they received from him should be trusted, as implied in Colossians 1:7:
You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,
The apostle also described Onesimus as faithful because he wanted the Colossians to accept as true whatever he and Tychicus tell them, as we may deduce from Colossians 4:9:
He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
The pattern is clear. Whenever the apostle used the word “faithful” to describe someone it is because of the person is involved in communication of God’s word that is to be believed. Consequently, when he described himself as faithful, he meant for the Corinthians to understand that what he said to them can be trusted because he spoke under the control of the Holy Spirit. Because the apostle used a present tense in the Greek word that literally translates to be, he did not describe himself as faithful to indicate that he was always faithful in the sense of not ever sinning but that whenever he is dealing with God’s word he was under the control of the Holy Spirit since faithfulness is one facet of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
We stated that the Greek adjective translated “trustworthy” in 1 Corinthians 7:25 should be understood to mean that the apostle is both trustworthy and faithful. We have shown that the meaning “faithful” is one the apostle used to indicate he was under the control of the Holy Spirit when he wrote the advice we are about to consider. The same truth is applicable if the meaning “trustworthy” is used. Recall, we have indicated that if a person is described with the word “trustworthy” that means the person can be relied on as honest, truthful, or reliable. The apostle several times in his epistles conveyed that he did not lie in what he communicated in written form. Before he embarked on the doctrine of election, he described his feelings towards the Israelites of his generation and indicated that what he wrote was not a lie, as we read in Romans 9:1:
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—
In his communication to the Corinthians, the apostle indicated that he was not lying regarding what he wrote to them in his second epistle, as we read in 2 Corinthians 11:31:
The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
The apostle recounted his experience following his conversion to the Galatians, but he conveyed to them he was not lying, as we read in Galatians 1:20:
I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.
So, there is no doubt that the word “trustworthy” indicates the apostle was under the control of the Holy Spirit when he wrote the passage of 1 Corinthians 7 that we considering. In any event, the point we are stressing is that the word “trustworthy” or “faithful” used by the apostle in the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:25 one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy implies that the advice the apostle gave in the passage of 1 Corinthians 7 that we are considering is from the Holy Spirit and not his subjective opinion. This brings us then to what we describe as the apostle’s situational advice that he received from the Holy Spirit as given in verse 26.
There is a question as to how we should relate verse 26 to the previous verse. This is because the apostle used a Greek particle (oun), not translated in the NIV, to relate what he said in verse 26 to verse 25. The Greek particle although has several usages but in our passage, there are two possible ways of understanding its usage. It could be understood to mean that it is used to denote that what is stated in verse 26 results from what is stated in verse 25 and so may be translated “so, therefore, then.” This seems to be the interpretation adopted by the English versions, such as the CEB and the HCSB, that began the verse with either “so” or “therefore” or “then” as in the NASB. The implication of this interpretation is that the apostle conveys that his situational advice stems from the fact of his position as an apostle of Jesus Christ who is under the control of the Holy Spirit as he wrote what follows. In effect, the apostle implies that his instruction is based on his authority that the Lord had given him to represent Him and communicate His will to believers in Corinth and so the church at large. A second interpretation is that the Greek particle is used as a marker of resumption of a subject once more after an interruption, in which case, it may be translated “so” or “now” or “then” or it may be left untranslated. This seems to be the interpretation of most of our English versions since they left the Greek particle untranslated. The implication of this is that what the apostle stated about himself in the last clause of verse 25 is to be considered parenthetical so that he resumed in verse 26 with what he started in the first half of verse 25 regarding the issue of what should happen to those who were virgins. This makes sense. But considering that the apostle explained that the Lord did not teach what he was about to advise in verse 26, it is more likely that the apostle wanted to convey that because of his position in the Lord Jesus Christ, his advice is authoritative, coming from the Holy Spirit.
The apostle was emphatic regarding the advice he was about to issue. We say this because although there is no fixed order of a sentence in the Greek as we have in English, it is not normally the case to begin a Greek sentence with a verb unless the author wants to emphasize what the Greek verb conveys. This is what we have in the Greek of 1 Corinthians 7:26 in that the verse begins with a Greek verb that is translated in the NIV as I think, implying the apostle intended to emphasize the word “think” that he used.
The word “think” is translated from a Greek verb (nomizō) that may mean “to suppose” as it is used in Jesus’ explanation of possible misconception about an impact of His mission regarding peace among people in Matthew 10:34:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
The word may mean “to assume” as it is used to describe the erroneous assumption of the Jews in Jerusalem who thought Apostle Paul brought a Gentile into the temple area as Luke recorded for us in Acts 21:29:
(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)
The word may mean “to think” as it is used by Apostle Paul to describe the misconception of some regarding the spiritual life as he wrote in 1 Timothy 6:5:
and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
It is in the sense of “to believe” something to be correct without entertaining any doubt about the correctness of what is stated that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:26. The apostle believed what he was about to say to be authoritative without it rising to the level of a command. In other words, the advice he offered, while it is sound because it is from the Holy Spirit it is not a command that is required of believers to follow but a prudent advice.
Be that as it may, the apostle first provided the reason we indicated that the advice he offered is situational because of the first phrase of 1 Corinthians 7:26 Because of the present crisis. The word “present” although an adjective in the phrase we are considering but it is really translated from a Greek verb (enistēmi) that may mean “to be at hand, arrive, come” as it is used in 2 Timothy 3:1:
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
The word may mean “to be present” as condition or thing at the time of speaking, so it may also mean “to be now” or “to happen now” although it is in the sense of “to be present” that the word is used in Romans 8:38:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
The word may mean “to be imminent, be impending.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:26, it may mean either “to be the present” or “to be impending” as some suggest. However, we believe the apostle used it in the sense of “to be the present.” The basis for this interpretation is grammatical. The apostle used our Greek word six out of the seven occurrences of the word in the Greek NT. In two of these usages, the apostle left no doubt as to how it is to be interpreted. He used it to correct those who declared to the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord had already come and gone as we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:2:
not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.
His other usage where there is no doubt as how it is to be interpreted, concerned what will occur in the future as it is used in the passage, we cited previously in 2 Timothy 3:1:
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
The other four usages of the Greek word are all as verbal adjectives (participles). In two of these usages the apostle is clear that he meant that the word should be understood as referring to the present. So, he used it in the passage we cited previously, that is, Romans 8:38:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
He also used it in 1 Corinthians 3:22:
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
In these two passages of Romans 8:38 and 1 Corinthians 3:22, there is no doubt that the apostle meant that the Greek word should be understood as a reference to the present because he used a Greek verb (mellō that means “to be about”) that as a verbal adjective conveys the sense of future, making clear that the Greek word we are concerned should be understood in these two passages to mean “to be the present.” This leaves us with two other usages of the Greek word we are considering, our present passage of 1 Corinthians 7:26 and in Galatians 1:4:
who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
The context demands that the verbal adjective should be translated “present” in this passage in Galatians 1:4 because the apostle is concerned with evil age that believers were in and not a future age. Since it is the same Greek perfect participle used in Galatians 1:4 that is used also in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:26 without any indicator of future in the verse, we should conclude that the apostle meant for the Greek word to be understood as referring to the present situation in Corinth. The apostle’s use of the perfect tense in the Greek implies that he was concerned about the present state of affairs resulting from past action. Thus, the apostle would have been thinking of the present state of things in Corinth that resulted from things believers had faced in the past or are facing at the time of this epistle that may also continue in the future.
The state of affairs the Corinthian believers were facing is described in the phrase the present crisis. The word “crisis” is translated from a Greek word (anagkē) that may mean “necessary” as it is used in the instruction of obeying governmental authority in Romans 13:5:
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.
The word may mean “compulsion” as it is used in apostle’s teaching regarding giving in a local church that should avoid pressurizing believers to give, as stated in 2 Corinthians 9:7:
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
The word may mean “hardship” as Apostle Paul used it to narrate his difficult experiences as it relates to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 12:10:
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The word may mean “distress” as in 1 Thessalonians 3:7:
Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith.
It is, of course, translated “crisis” in the NIV of our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:26. However, a more general meaning of the word in our passage is “distress” as a state of trouble or pressure. What is the present distress the apostle had in mind that was reason for the Holy Spirit to provide him the situational advice? Well, we out of time so we will answer this in our next study.
05/29/20