Free From Concern, 1 Corinthians 7:29-35 (February 23, 2014)

Transcription

1 1 Free From Concern, 1 Corinthians 7:29-35 (February 23, 2014) 29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. 32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 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 spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35 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. PRAY Today is our last Sunday in the marriage sermon series. Several churches across Oxford have cooperated this month to teach on marriage from 1 Corinthians 7. The pastors of these churches have met several times and worked on sermons together, shared outlines. And the climax is tonight. Tonight, 5PM, at First Baptist Church, the pastors of the various churches participating in the marriage series me, Curt Presley over at Christ Pres., Pat Ward at the Orchard, Fish Robinson at the Community Church, Eric Hankins at First Baptist, Justin McGuire at College Hill, and maybe some others will participate in a panel discussion on marriage. So we ll gather at 5PM, sing a few songs, pray, and then our own Jim Davis will moderate a panel discussion on marriage. Please come; members of all the churches are invited to attend. I think the big win is just having all our people from different churches in the same room. There are many things that drive us to worry: our money, our careers, or our health. But few things if any drive us to worry the way that marriage and family do. And Paul has good news; outstanding news about that. I am so glad that we are winding up our marriage series with this text and this message. Two points to the sermon: first, Paul wants you to be free from concern. Second, how you can be free from concern Third, some application. First, Paul wants us to be free from concern. Let s read verses 32-35: 32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 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 spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35 I say this for your

2 2 own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. The traditional interpretation of these verses goes like this: Paul really wants everyone to be single, unmarried, because single people can just serve the Lord better than married people. When you re married, you have to give all this time to your spouse. Oh my goodness, that takes so much time. You have to take care of your spouse, make sure he or she is happy, and once children come along oh my once you have children you don t have time to do anything. But when you re unmarried, then you can really devote yourself to the Lord. You re free from messy, worldly concerns. And when you re free from those concerns, then you can be really spiritual. So goes the traditional interpretation in fact, to this day the Roman Catholic Church uses these verses as one of their primary justifications for a celibate priesthood requiring that all priests remain single for life. And it s not just Roman Catholics who ve taken this view. It s not uncommon to find really sincere Christians on college campuses who say, I m never going to marry, because I really want to devote myself to the Lord. I feel called to this particular type of Christian work, and if I got married and had children it would only slow me down. So I m never going to marry. Now, I m not saying that s remaining single in order to serve the Lord in a particular way is a bad thing to do not at all. I m going to advocate that some of you do just that thing toward the end of the sermon. But sometimes, when you hear sincere Christian young people say things like that, you can pick up more than a little self-righteousness, more than a little disdain for other Christians, for those other Christians who do want to settle down, get married, have children, as if those Christians aren t quite as sold out for their Lord as they are. So, the traditional interpretation: Paul says, I want you to be free from concern (and that s how the NIV translates verse 32 it s free from anxieties in the ESV but free from concern in the NIV), so don t get married. But is that what Paul says? No, Paul doesn t say: I want you to be free from concerns about marriage. Instead, Paul simply says, I want you to be free from concern. Paul doesn t say, I don t want you to be burden by the worries of marriage, he says, I don t want you burdened by worries at all. Remember what s going on in Corinth I think we ve actually said this every week, but we must keep this at the front of our minds or we ll misunderstand Paul here. There was this faction, this clique, in ancient Corinth who was saying, If you want to be really spiritual, really devoted to the Lord, you won t get married, because if you get married you ll have sex, and sex is kind of dirty and defiling, and you can t really be sold

3 3 out for the Lord and still have sex. That s their argument, and we see it in 1 Corinthians 7:1. And a lot of the young couples in Corinth, a lot of the young engaged couples, were getting swept up in this argument, and they began to wonder, OK, if we go ahead and get married like we had planned, will we be dishonoring God? Will we be sinning? Paul says, No, you won t be. We looked at this last week: If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry it is no sin. 1 Corinthians 7:36. Paul rejects the view that was sweeping through Corinth (and, to some extent, is still present today). Instead, Paul s whole point in chapter 7 is that you can serve the Lord equally well as either a married person or as an unmarried person. One state is not inherently more spiritual, more pleasing to God, than the other. So you should read verses like this: 32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 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 spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. Paul is not pitting the two positions married and unmarried against one another. Instead, he s saying that at the most fundamental level, both married and unmarried people are far more alike than different because either way, you re serving someone. If you re married, he says, you re going to have to serve your spouse. If you re unmarried, you re serving the Lord. But either way, you re serving. So, Paul says, I don t want you to worry about it either way is a perfectly acceptable way to be. I want you to be free from concern. Gordon Fee, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, says, [Paul] is trying to remove any anxiety that marriage might by wrong or unseemly in itself. Different [from singleness], yes; more involved in the present world, yes; but inferior or sinful, no. What is crucial is that either [married or single Christians] live without anxiety, even though they must continue to use the world. That s a major theme throughout the NT be free from anxieties, free from concern, free from worry. In Philippians 4:6, we read this: [D]o not be anxious about anything [the old KJV says, Be careful for nothing], but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Peter, in 1 Peter 5:7, quoting Psalm 55, writes: [Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

4 4 Then Jesus, in Matthew 6:25, says, 25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life Over and over again we are told in the Scriptures don t worry, be careful for nothing, cast your anxieties on the Lord, be free from anxiety. If you are worried about whether or not you can serve the Lord effectively, be sufficiently devoted to the Lord as either a married person or as a single person, Paul says, Be free from concern. Don t worry, live without anxiety one position is not better than the other you are free to do either. Here s the problem: probably there are very few of us today who are worried about that! I doubt many of you married people woke up this morning and your first thought was an anxious one that went, I really don t know whether I can be sufficiently devoted to the Lord as a married person! At least, I didn t wake up this morning consumed by that thought. Maybe you weren t worried about that, but some of you I know woke up this morning (or couldn t go to sleep last night) because of your concern, your anxiety, that your marriage is about to fall apart, or you re worried that things will never get better in your marriage, that you will never be happy in your marriage, or maybe things are going great, but now you re worried that it won t last. Others of you are single, and probably very few of you woke up this morning consumed with worry about whether or not you ll be able to really serve the Lord as a single person. Instead, some of you are consumed with worry about whether or not you will ever get married. Will I ever meet someone who I want to marry? Will anyone ever ask me out? Will I wind up alone? Can I even be a husband or a wife? Do I have the commitment it takes to do that? I love 1 Corinthians 7:35 Paul is summing up his thoughts on these matters, and he writes: 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. He s not saying, I m writing all these to make sure you won t get married so that you can be focused on the Lord, or else he wouldn t in the very next verse tell people to get married if they want to. He says, I m saying all these things about marriage and singleness because I do not want to lay any restraint on you. And lay any restraint translates two Greek words that literally mean to throw a noose around your necks. When it comes to marriage, does it sometimes feel like a noose around your neck, like the breath is being choked out of you because you are so concerned about your marriage or about whether or not you ll ever get married? That s the last thing Paul wants, so he shows us how to be free from concern.

5 5 Second, how can we be free from concern (verses 29-31). 29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. 1 Corinthians 7: How can we be free from concern? We must know the time is short. A lot of people have looked at where Paul said the time is short and the world in its present form is passing away and thought he was saying, The world is about to end, Jesus is about to come back and consummate his earthly kingdom and life as we know it is over. The world is about to end. That s not what s going on here instead, Paul is saying this, We live in the overlap of two ages. The first age, the age of sin and death, is ending, because the second age, the age of the Holy Spirit and the church and the reign of the kingdom of God, is beginning. This new age, this second age, began with the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and it is overcoming, it is overpowering, the old age of sin and death, and that process will be completed when Jesus Christ finally returns and established his earthly kingdom. This appointed time, this kairos (that s the Greek word), Paul says, is growing shorter and shorter every day. The age of the Spirit is overwhelming it it s growing longer and longer. So Paul does not mean that Jesus is coming back any minute, but that he definitely is coming back, and our time in this age definitely is fixed, and our future definitely is secure, and we will definitely one day find ourselves forever in heaven with the Lord. So because our time is short you see all over the New Testament that we, as Christians, need to live, to act, and to think differently from everyone else. 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:11. Do you know what a sojourner is? The closest translation for us today might mean immigrant. We, as Christians, aren t citizens of this world this world is not our home. We shouldn t get too comfortable here and we certainly shouldn t seek to find our comfort here. We are, instead, immigrants, pilgrims, passing through this world. Now, here s the question: if you are an immigrant, where do you find your happiness? Do you find it in the stuff you take with you? And the answer is: no. You can t take anything with you when you are an immigrant. Is it in the place you ve left behind? Again, no, or you would never have left. But still many, many immigrants have been joyful anyway you see all those pictures taken on Ellis Island years ago, under the Statue of Liberty. Why are so many of them

6 6 happy? Because the joy in being an immigrant is not what you leave behind nor is it you carry with you; the joy in being an immigrant is your destination. The joy is the life that awaits you in your new home. Those immigrants on Ellis Island have a smile on their face because they ve almost made it to the new world, to their new homes, where they can make a better life for themselves. Friends, as someone who is at least a ninth-generation American, as someone who loves America, I can tell you that Christians are immigrating to a much better place than the United States. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Philippians 3: Friends, our future in heaven is certain, it is definite, it is secured by Christ s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension and one day he will come back so that we can be with him. And we eagerly await that day! So in light of that, let s re-read 1 Corinthians 7:29b-31a: From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. Paul s not saying, Don t get married, just like he s saying, never own anything. What s he saying? He saying, The time is short you re just an immigrant. This age will end and then you ll be home. Therefore, you must never invest all your emotional eggs and your ultimate hopes and meaning in your possessions, in your relationships, in your marriage, because those things are all a part of this life. We re immigrants, and so we can take none of those things not even marriage with us into our new home. Jesus is very clear about that, there will be no marriage in heaven. Did you know there will be no marriage in heaven? He says in Matthew 22 that in the eternal age they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like the angels in heaven. I know one woman, very much in love with her husband, who has reconciled herself to being unmarried in heaven so long as in heaven she can be her husband s roommate. Paul says, You can try to find ultimate satisfaction in marriage, in possessions, in children, but it won t work they are a part of this world, you can t take them into heaven, so they cannot satisfy you. And anyway you are an immigrant; the time is short and soon you will be home. We read from Joshua 1:1-9 earlier in the service, and there God charges Joshua to be obedient and courageous. But where is Joshua when God tells him that? He s right on the edge of the promised land probably, from where Joshua stood, he could look over the River Jordan and see the promised land, a good and pleasant land flowing with milk and honey, the inheritance of the people of Israel.

7 7 Friends, when God tells you to be courageous, and believe him when he says to not put all of your emotional eggs into the basket of marriage, do you know how you can be courageous? Because you stand right on the edge of the true and better promised land, heaven. If you close your eyes, you can hear the river Jordan rippling by. As you get older, you can really hear it rushing by. But the time is short until you cross over, and once you cross over you will never be anything but perfectly happy in the Lord again. Because of what Jesus has done, our future home is definite. It s just across the river. So take heart, Paul says, be free from concern because no matter what you re going through right now, the time is short. Third, some application. First, neither a happy marriage nor singleness is a prerequisite for happiness. I know some of you this morning think you will never be happy until you get married. You so desperately want to be married, you re terrified of being alone, and you want the security and the companionship that you think marriage will bring. I know others of you this morning are convinced you will never be happy in your marriage, and while you may never get a divorce, you secretly daydream of your spouse dying in a car-accident so that you can be single again. Now what really makes that illustration interesting is that one of the pastors here in town gave it to me while we were all meeting to work on this sermon last week. And I ll tell you who it is if you come to the panel discussion tonight I ll point to him while we re on stage and say, It was him! But, you think that s the only way you ll be happy if you re married, single again. If you re single, married. But if Paul is right (and he is) then no matter how badly you want to be married right now, or no matter how bad your marriage is right now, either way the time is short. And if you are in Christ then this world is not your home, the present form of this world is passing away, so no matter if you are always single or if your marriage never gets better you will be happy one day! You will experience a joy that will not only last forever but it will be of an intensity that you cannot even begin to imagine right now. Revelation 21:1-4: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. You will be happy if you are in Christ without regard for marriage or singleness. Second, neither marriage nor singleness is an inherently easier life than the other. In verses it might sound like Paul is saying that if you re married, you re just serving your spouse, but if you re single then you re serving the Lord! So, some Christians have

8 8 asked, Is Paul saying that if you re married you re not going to be serving the Lord as much as you will if you re single? And isn t it better to serve the Lord than your spouse? Is that what Paul is saying? The answer is: no. Not at all. Many scholars think that in verses 32-34, Paul s painting a rosy view of singleness. I think it s just the opposite. After verse 28, all Paul is saying is that if you re single life s not going to be easy, either. You may not be serving a spouse, but you ll be serving the Lord. You won t have a life just to yourself to do with whatever you want; a husband is to a great degree accountable to his wife, but a single man is still accountable to the Lord. Neither life is inherently easier than the other both have their struggles. Third, in both marriage and in singleness, you must look to the love of the ultimate family. Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. Mark 10: What does he mean by that? He s talking about the church. Through the church you will receive right now ( in this time ) a hundredfold more than you have now. Look, for those of you who are single and desperately want to be married, there s almost nothing I can tell you to make you feel better. When you feel like Rachel did back in Genesis 30 give me children or I ll die, or, to paraphrase, Give me a husband or I ll die, nothing I can say directly will help. But you can tell yourself, Right now, right now, my Lord Jesus says, the Lord who died for me, who gave himself up for me, who loves me, says I have a hundredfold more in the church than I ever will in my family. And instead of feeling like you re going to die, you can dive in dive into relationships and service in the church and find the love and satisfaction Jesus promises in the Scriptures. And if you re married, but angry, frustrated in it, you also must look to your friends in the church for support and encouragement so that you can stay married and keep those vows. Fourth, in both marriage and in singleness, you can fully serve the Lord. Years ago Paige Benton Brown wrote a great article called Singled Out for Good. At the time she was single, but she really wanted to be married. She really wanted a husband and children. But she kept hearing these trite explanations for her Christian singleness by well-meaning but basically clueless believers they d say things like: As soon as you re satisfied with God alone, he ll bring someone special into your life [and her response was] a though God s blessings are ever earned by our contentment.

9 9 You re too picky as though God is frustrated by our fickle whims and needs broader parameters in which to work. Before you can marry someone wonderful, the Lord has to make you someone wonderful as though God grants marriage as a second blessing to the satisfactorily sanctified. But one that really irked her was this one: As a single you can commit yourself wholeheartedly to the Lord s work as though God requires emotional martyrs to do his work, of which marriage must be no part. That s not true there are great ways to serve the Lord in marriage: by having a family, children, community involvement through both. It s the basic building block of civilization; you build civilizations through families. You ll get into the lives of people that way you But there are great ways to serve the Lord by being single: can work longer hours, can get into places married men and women can t, can devote yourselves to all kinds of people you can t if you have a family, you ll give into lives married people can t. Paul is not pitting the two against one another. Either way, married or single, Paul says, you can be happy, you can serve the Lord, you can be fulfilled, you can be satisfied, either way. So be free from concern. Be anxious for nothing, but cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. PRAY