Lessons #237 and 238
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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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Apostle’s reasons for singleness (1 Cor 7:29-35)
... 32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.
The message of this section that we have been considering is You should not allow anything of this life to affect your devotion to the Lord since the world is slowly dying. This message, we indicated, places two responsibilities on you, the believer, that are derived from the apostle’s reasons for advocating singleness among the Corinthians. The apostle’s first reason for advocating singleness is the shortness of time. It is from this that we derived the first responsibility you have regarding this message which is You should remember that you can leave this planet anytime. This responsibility, as we indicated previously, demands that the believer should have a change of view of things of this life or a change in attitude of things of this life from the moment such believer hears this message as conveyed beginning in 1 Corinthians 7:29 in the phrase From now on. In our last study, we concluded our consideration of the believer’s first responsibility when we ended by considering four things that require change of attitude on the part of believer, namely, marriage, emotional expressions, material possessions and response to world system. So, we proceed to consider the apostle’s second reason for advocating singleness among the Corinthians, especially in time of crisis and the believer’s responsibility based on this reason.
The second reason the apostle advocated singleness among the Corinthians in time of crisis is that marital status of a believer affects the individual’s devotion to the Lord. This reason, the apostle developed in verses 32 to 35 of 1 Corinthian 7. As in the first reason for advocating singleness, we should remind you that we are not the Corinthians in that we are not facing exactly the same conditions they faced when the apostle wrote the passage we are considering. However, the Holy Spirit directed the apostle to write in such a way that the message he conveyed to them is applicable to the universal church of Christ. This being the case, the Holy Spirit intended for us to derive the same principle or truth conveyed to them as applicable to us. Consequently, we should derive the same responsibility demanded on the Corinthians based on the second reason given for singleness. This responsibility does not change from generation to generation of believers in Christ until He returns. Based on this explanation, the second responsibility that you have as a believer that is in keeping with the second reason the apostle advocated singleness is this: Remain vigilant to ensure your marital status does not affect your devotion to the Lord.
How can a believer remain vigilant to ensure that the individual’s marital life does not affect the person’s devotion to the Lord, you may ask? The simple answer is to live a worry-free life. I say “a simple answer” because it is not easy to live a worry-free life but that can be attained by a believer who consistently applies the word of God under the filling of the Holy Spirit. The reason for asserting that it can be attained is because we are commanded not to worry in the Scripture. Our God would not command us to do something that He knows we could not do. Therefore, we are confident that it is possible to live a worry-free life although it may be difficult to attain but it can be attained.
Most of us probably think of worrying primarily in terms of life’s necessities of food and shelter. This may be because the Lord commanded us not to worry about life’s necessities in Matthew 6:25:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Some of you could say that you never worry about food or clothing. Do you worry about your finances? If you do, then your worry falls into this category of worrying. That aside, there are several reasons we may worry in life. I will mention some of them and use them to expound on the meaning of “worrying” since the English word “worry” refers to “mental distress or agitation resulting from concern usually for something impending or anticipated.” We worry about the welfare of our family members. It is this kind of worrying that Saul conveyed to the father’s servant when they went searching for his father’s missing donkey, as we read in 1 Samuel 9:5:
When they reached the district of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, “Come, let’s go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us.”
Saul indicated that the father might start worrying about him and the servant who went with him to search for the missing animal. The range of the meanings of the Hebrew word translated “worrying” helps us to understand what it means to worry as well as the things that cause us to worry. The word “worrying” in this passage of 1 Samuel 9:5 is translated from a Hebrew word (dāʾǎḡ) that may mean “to be anxious.” As we stated, the range of the meanings of the Hebrew word enables us to understand what worrying involves and the objects of worrying. The word certainly means “to worry” as it is used to describe the instruction of Prophet Samuel to Saul regarding his father’s missing animal, as we read in 1 Samuel 9:20:
As for the donkeys you lost three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned, if not to you and all your father’s family?”
The instruction of the prophet to Saul enables us to recognize that one of the things we worry about is our property. We may worry about landed property or other properties that we possess such as automobile. A believer avoids being worried about life’s necessities or properties by casting such cares upon the Lord and accepting He cares about you as the psalmist stated in Psalm 55:22:
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.
It is the same action that the Holy Spirit gives us through Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:7:
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Anyway, the Hebrew word that is used in 1 Samuel 9:5 enables us to understand that worrying involves being troubled about something. Thus, our Hebrew word is used in describing the psalmist being troubled about his sin, as recorded in Psalm 38:18:
I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.
The psalmist confessed his sins, but he admitted that they caused anxiety to him or that they troubled him. Thus, worrying involves being troubled by something. Some believers are troubled by their sins even after they confess them to the Lord. The worrying about sin that has been confessed is tantamount to doubt of whether the sin has been forgiven. The Scripture is clear that if we confess our sins that God will forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness as the Holy Spirit stated through Apostle John in 1 John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If after you confess your sin, you are still troubled by it then it is the enemy of the truth that is tormenting you. In effect, he wants you not to accept that Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for your sins, according to 1 Corinthians 15:3:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
Thus, when you are troubled to the point that you are suffering mentally because of a sin you have confessed, you should recognize that you have bought Satan’s lie that denies that Christ died and paid for your sins. Therefore, reject such thought by telling Satan that Christ died for your sins and that according to His promise that once you confessed your sins they have been forgiven. Of course, you should be careful to remember that depending on the nature of the sin or when you confessed it, that you may still suffer because of the sin.
Another thing that is part of worrying, according to the Hebrew word, we are considering is fear or being afraid of someone harming you or living in fear of physical violence against you. A person who so lives is an individual that worries. Thus, the Hebrew word is translated with the meaning “afraid” in Jeremiah 38:19:
King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”
The antidote of such kind of worrying is to trust the Lord and not humans. Anyone who trusts in the Lord and not human should be confident that regardless of the situation or hardship the Lord can deliver the person so that the person would not live in anxiety or worry as we may gather from Jeremiah 17:5–8:
5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
We have mentioned some of the conditions that may lead us to worry but there is also the situation where we face a hostile condition that may cause us to be anxious of how to defend ourselves before hostile individuals. The Lord assured us that when that is the case, we should not worry about how to defend ourselves because that would be done by the Holy Spirit providing us the right words to use against such situation, as we read in Luke 12:11–12:
11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
The Lord repeats this promise as recorded in Luke 21:14–15:
14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
We have considered what worrying entails and the situations that may lead to them, but our concern is with the kind of concern or worrying that one is to avoid in order to fulfill the responsibility of ensuring that one is not distracted from being devoted to the Lord. The kind of concern or worrying that we are to be careful or vigilant about is that due to trying to please others. In effect, the worrying associated with trying to please others may affect a believer’s devotion to the Lord. Remember that being afraid of situations or even individuals, is one expression of worrying. Thus, when a person is pre-occupied with trying to satisfy or please another that could become a kind of worrying that affects an individual’s devotion to the Lord that will be similar to the kind of worrying or concern in the question of the Lord to Israel regarding the reason they were not devoted to Him, as we read in Isaiah 57:11:
“Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have been false to me, and have neither remembered me nor pondered this in your hearts? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?
The word “dread” is translated from the same Hebrew word we have indicated may mean “to worry” or “to be anxious.” The question the Lord posed to Israel concerns who they dread so much that they refused to be devoted to Him or they became false. You know that because of fear, it is not uncommon for us to become false to the Lord. It is this situation that worrying or living in dread of someone that results in being false to the Lord that we should be concerned as well.
Be that as it may, the responsibility we are considering is that you should Remain vigilant to ensure your marital status does not affect your devotion to the Lord. We stated that the way to do this is for the believer to live a worry-free life. We have also indicated that it is possible for believers to live this kind of life as indicated by the command of the Lord to us during His earthly ministry. However, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul demands the same from us although it is put in form of the apostle’s desire for the Corinthians in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 7:32 I would like you to be free from concern.
The word “like” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (thelō) that may mean “to like” in the sense of “to take pleasure in” as in the description by the Lord Jesus of the teachers of the law during His earthly ministry that loved attention, as recorded in Luke 20:46:
“Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
The word may mean “to desire” as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that God’s election is not based on what a person desires or does in Romans 9:16:
It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
The word may mean “to want” as the apostle used the word to describe how a believer would live free of fear of those in authority by doing what is right as stated in Romans 13:3:
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.
The word may mean “to prefer” as in the question of the apostle to the Corinthians as recorded in 1 Corinthians 4:21:
What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
The word may mean “to wish” as Apostle Paul used it to describe his desire that is tantamount to not die before the return of the Lord, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:4:
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
The word may mean “to will” in the sense of to have something in mind for oneself, as it is used by Apostle Paul to indicate what God does in believers regarding His purpose in Philippians 2:13:
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
The word may mean “to have an opinion,” “to think something to be so,” that is, “to maintain” something that is contrary to the true state of affairs as it is used to describe false teachers whose opinion is described in 2 Peter 3:5:
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
The clause they deliberately forget is literally in maintaining this it escapes them. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:32, the sense of the word is “to have desire for” something or “to want strongly.”
The apostle wrote under the control of the Holy Spirit so that what he strongly wants from the Corinthians and so from all believers is precisely what the Holy Spirit wants from believers. There is no reason for the apostle to have the strong desire expressed in the passage we are dealing with except that the Holy Spirit directed him. Therefore, the desire he expressed is what the Holy Spirit wants from believers. That strong desire of the Holy Spirit expressed through the apostle is given in the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 7:32 to be free from concern. The verbal phrase is indeed concerned with living a worry-free life although what would cause a person to worry is the individual’s desire to satisfy another.
The expression “free from concern” is translated from a Greek noun (amerimnos) that appears only twice in the Greek NT; it means “free from care” or “without worry” but it is translated “out of trouble” in the promise of the Jewish authorities who wanted the Roman soldiers to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ with the promise to keep them out of trouble from the repercussion of soldiers losing one under their guard, as recorded in Matthew 28:14:
If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:32, the word has the sense of “carefree,” that is, free of trouble and worry and care. The thing that the apostle indicates he was concerned with believers being carefree is that of satisfying another person because one is obligated to do so than then affects the peron’s devotion to the Lord. To convey this point, the apostle gave illustrations using both a man and a woman that are believers. We begin with his illustration using an unmarried man.
The apostle started with the devotion of the unmarried man to the Lord as given in the next clause of 1 Corinthian 7:32 An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs. The word “concerned” is translated from a Greek verb (merimnaō) that may mean “to worry” as in the command of the Lord against worrying about life’s necessities in the passage we cited previously, that is, Matthew 6:25:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
The word may mean “to attend to” or “to care for” or “to be concerned about someone” as Apostle Paul used it to describe Timothy’s concern for the Philippians in Philippians 2:20:
I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.
The word may mean “to be anxious” as in the instruction against anxiety about anything of this life in Philippians 4:6:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
It is in the sense of “being concerned about” something that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:32.
The focus or the concern of the unmarried man is described in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 7:32 the Lord’s affairs. Literally, the Greek reads the things of the Lord. This may be understood as the things from the Lord, or the things associated with the Lord. It is probably the sense of the things associated with the Lord that the apostle used it since the things associated with the Lord invariably are from Him and belong to Him. That aside, the Lord in the phrase the Lord’s affairs refers to the Lord Jesus Christ since whenever Apostle Paul used the word “Lord” when he is not quoting from a passage in the OT Scripture, he usually means the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have indicated that the literal phrase the things of the Lord should be understood as the things associated with the Lord although the NIV translates it as the Lord’s affairs. The question we have to contend with is what the apostle would have meant in the use of the word “things” in the literal translation or “affairs” of the NIV since he did not directly state what he had in mind in the phrase. Nonetheless, two factors help us to interpret what the apostle had in mind. The first factor is what the apostle states regarding the focus or the concern of the unmarried man given in the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:32 how he can please the Lord.
The word “please” is translated from a Greek word (areskō) that we are told is “a favored term in the reciprocity-conscious Mediterranean world, and frequently used in honorary documents to express interest in accommodating others by meeting their needs or carrying out important obligations.” Thus, it may mean “to please” in the sense of to give pleasure or satisfaction, as that is the sense the apostle used it in Romans 15:2:
Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
The word may mean “to please” in the sense of acting to win favor or approval as Apostle Paul used it to remind the Galatians, he was not seeking human approval as he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we read in Galatians 1:10:
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:32, the Greek verb means “to please” in the sense of “to delight” or “to give pleasure to.” Thus, the word indicates that the unmarried man focuses on how to delight the Lord in his life as a believer. This then is first factor to bear in mind in interpretation of the literal phrase the things of the Lord or in the words of the NIV the Lord’s affairs. The second factor that enables us to interpret what the apostle means in the phrase we are considering is the context of Scripture. Based on these two factors, there are at least three things that the apostle would have had in mind in the literal phrase the things of the Lord or in the words of the NIV the Lord’s affairs.
A first thing Apostle Paul would have had in mind regarding the things associated with the Lord is the word of God that the Lord Jesus taught directly while on this planet or the word communicated by the Holy Spirit through human agents. There can be no doubt that the apostle would have had in mind the word of God since he knows the importance of communication of God’s word in developing a lifestyle that is pleasing to the Lord as he reminded the Thessalonians, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:1:
Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
It is inconceivable that the apostle who recognized that pleasing the Lord requires living a lifestyle derived from teaching of the word of God would not have had in mind the teaching of the word of God as the thing that would be foremost in his thinking in the literal phrase the things of the Lord or in the words of the NIV the Lord’s affairs. Furthermore, the apostle associates sound doctrine with the Lord Jesus as we may gather from 1 Timothy 6:3:
If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching.
The phrase sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ means either the sound instruction taught by the Lord Jesus or sound doctrine taught about Jesus. It is probably the case that the apostle meant both interpretations. In other words, sound instruction comes from Him, and sound instruction is about Him. Anyway, the apostle would have had in mind the word of God or sound doctrine of the word of God as that which is associated with the Lord Jesus. Hence, the unmarried man would be so concerned about the word of God that he devotes his time to its study. Devotion to the study of the word of God is an important activity of a believer. This we learn from the fact that it is devotion to the study of the word of God that is mentioned as the first of the activities of the early church, as we read in Acts 2:42:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
An unmarried man would definitely have more time to devote to the study of the word of God than a married man unless, of course, the married man is a pastor who understands that his primary responsibility is to the word of God, implying that he devotes time to its study. I am saying that if a pastor is devoted to the study of the word of God, then an unmarried man would not be more devoted to the study of the word than he. However, if we compare two pastors who are truly devoted to the study of the word of God then the unmarried pastor would most likely spend more time in the study of the word of God than the married pastor, all things being equal. The point is that an unmarried man has more time to devote to the study of the word of God than a married man who faces similar situations in life except for marriage.
A second thing Apostle Paul would have had in mind regarding the things associated with the Lord is the proclaiming of the word of God. The apostle knows that proclaiming of the word of God is the most important activity that a believer should carry out that affects others. He knew that the Lord commissioned the church to be involved in this activity. He also knew that the early church was involved in the proclamation of the gospel message. Take for example, he would have been aware of the preaching ministries of Peter and John in Samaria prior to his intense persecution of the early church since both men had visited Samaria to proclaim the gospel following the evangelistic campaign of Philip the evangelist, as we read in Acts 8:25:
When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
The apostle himself knew that preaching of the gospel was the primary task the Lord Jesus called him to do as he testified in Acts 20:24:
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
He referenced this task of preaching the gospel as something he did, not to please humans but the Lord, as implied in 1 Thessalonians 2:4:
On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.
An unmarried believer would have more time to devote to witnessing for Christ than perhaps a married believer with all things being equal. The apostle proved this point in that because he was single coupled with God’s grace, he labored more in the preaching of the gospel than the other apostles as he stated in 1 Corinthians 15:10:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
We do not mean that a married man would not witness for Christ or work hard to advance the gospel of the Lord Jesus but if we compare two believers who are equally devoted to witnessing with similar environment, the unmarried would have more time to spend in witnessing than a married man as we may gather from what the apostle states later.
A third thing Apostle Paul would have had in mind regarding the things associated with the Lord is doing good in a general sense. The apostle encouraged believers in Corinth to be involved in the work of the Lord as in 1 Corinthians 15:58:
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Part of the work of the Lord is doing good in the sense of being generous as the Holy Spirit commanded through the apostle in Galatians 6:10:
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
The generosity a believer engages in is part of the good works that the Lord had prepared for that believer as implied in Ephesians 2:10:
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
A person may be surprised that we included good works that involve generosity as part of the way an unmarried man may be more devoted to the Lord than a married man. To see that there is a difference between the devotion of an unmarried man and a married man in this respect of generosity, let me state that we are dealing with two believers who know that they are to honor the Lord with their wealth, as stated in Proverbs 3:9:
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;
Furthermore, let us assume that the two believers – one unmarried man and the other married – have the same financial status or they earn about the same salary. The believer who is unmarried would probably give more than the married believer because the married believer has a family to take care financially. If I may go a step further. Suppose both know that they should support the ministry even after their death, and they have the same financial stand. The married man would think of how to take care of the family after his death and so whatever portion of his wealth he wants to give for the support of the ministry would be reduced by the provision he makes for his family. On the other hand, the unmarried believer has no other recourse than to leave most of his wealth to the support of the ministry after his death. So, you get the point that even in good works that involves dispensing of a person’s wealth, there is a difference between married and unmarried believing men. The point is that when Apostle Paul wrote that the unmarried man would be more concerned about the things associated with the Lord than a married man, he states that which is a reality.
The reality of the difference between the devotion to the Lord of the unmarried man and married man is introduced with the conjunction but that begins 1 Corinthians 7:33. The conjunction contrasts the concern of the married man to that of the unmarried man. The contrast is stated in terms of the focus of concern and the focus of the one to be pleased. In the case of the unmarried man, the concern was with things associated with the Lord as in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 7:32 the Lord’s affairs but in the case of the married man, it is with things of this life as in the clause a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world. The phrase the affairs of this world is literally the things of the world.
Our focus in examining the concern of the married man is with the phrase the affairs of this world or literally the things of the world. But before we examine the phrase, we should understand that the comparison between the married man and the unmarried man is a matter of degree. This is important to avoid any misunderstanding in what the apostle is teaching in the section. For example, although instead of the focus of the married man being the things of the Lord his focus is presented here as the things of the world. This does not mean that a married believer does not care about the things of the Lord as that would be a terrible state to be in spiritually. Instead, the comparison is between the degree of his attention to the things associated with Lord and that of the married. Likewise, an unmarried man could not possibly ignore the things of this world if he is to exist on this planet. For to do so would result in an unhealthy physical living that would not honor the Lord. So, you get the point that we are saying that the comparison does not mean that the married man does not care about the things of the Lord just as it does not mean that the unmarried has no concern about the things of the world. No! It is a matter of degree of devotion that is at stake. With this caution, we turn our attention to the phrase the affairs of this world or literally the things of the world.
We encountered the Greek word (kosmos) translated “world” in 1 Corinthians 7:31 where we indicated that it meant “the system of human existence in its many aspects” that includes such things as possessions, cares, sufferings, values, and things that are hostile to God. It is not quite in this sense that it is used in our passage. This should not surprise you because the Greek word has several usages depending on the context. Take for example, the word “world” may mean “the created realm considered as a distinct, spatial-temporal entity in distinction to the heavenly realm.” It is in this sense that the word is used in the priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus in John 17:24:
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
The Greek word may refer to unbelievers on this planet earth as that is the sense the word is used still in the priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17:14:
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
When the Lord stated that the world hated the disciples, He did not mean “a system” since a system is not a person to hate. Therefore, the Lord meant that unbelievers on this planet earth hate believers in Christ. The second use of the word “world” in John 17:14 has the sense of “world system” since believers are not or should not be part of the world system. The Greek word translated “world” may mean “inhabitants of the earth” without distinction as that is the sense of the Greek word in John 17:18:
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
The Lord did not send His disciples to “world system” but to the inhabitants of the earth since they are the target of preaching the gospel. Thus, when the Lord said He sent His disciples to the world He meant He sent them to the inhabitants of the earth or people living on the earth. It is in this sense of people living on planet earth that Apostle Paul used the Greek word in Romans 3:19:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
It is not the world system that is held accountable before God but humans or people on the earth. That the Greek word translated “world” may mean “inhabitants of the earth” or “people” is reflected in the translation of the NIV of our Greek word in 2 Peter 2:5:
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
The phrase ungodly people is literally “the world of the impious.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:33, the Greek word translated “world” has the sense of “material” or “physical.” The meaning of our Greek word as “material” is reflected in the NIV of 1 John 3:17:
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
The phrase material possessions of the NIV is literally “goods of the world.” Hence, it should not be strange to you that we indicated that our Greek word has the meaning of “material” or “physical in the passage we are considering. This meaning enables us to understand the literal Greek phrase of 1 Corinthians 7:33 the things of the world may be translated “material things” or “physical things” implying that we have treated the Greek word translated “world” as an adjective since the Greek syntax permits such interpretation. Thus, the concern of a married man is with material things or physical things of this life and not the spiritual things. Anyway, the question that we still need to consider is to determine what the material or physical things that a married man is occupied with in contrast to the unmarried man. We are out of time so we will consider what it is in our next study. But let me end by reminding you of the second responsibility we are considering which is Remain vigilant to ensure your marital status does not affect your devotion to the Lord.
07/10/20