As we open up the word once again this morning, I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn once again to First Corinthians chapter seven. First Corinthians chapter seven.

This is a very practical chapter. It is one that addresses issues concerning celibacy and marriage and divorce and remarriage. And I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "celibacy or Marriage." And you will understand why I put it that way in a few minutes. But before we get into the text, let me give you some background here.

First of all, as Paul addresses these issues, at times, he is going to be quoting the Lord Jesus directly and on other issues, he is going to provide new revelation from the Spirit of God, which obviously never contradicts the Lord Jesus, but adds new information and practical application. For example, in verse 12, he says, "But to the rest, I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her." Likewise. In verse 25 he says, "Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who, by the mercy of the Lord, is trustworthy." Also in verse 40, "But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God."

Now, some liberals and certainly some feminists will say, well see, that's just Paul's opinion, that's not Jesus. That's not God speaking. Wrong. He is speaking as an inspired apostle of the living God. So whatever Paul says, God says, you just want to establish that right up front. Now, bear in mind that Satan's world system is designed to thwart the purposes of God and bring utter chaos and deception into our lives, and he has certainly done this in the realm of marriage. And of course, this is nothing new. If you think we have problems with marriage and divorce in our modern era, let me tell you what it was like in the days this letter was written, in the first century AD, in the Greco Roman world, the context of First Corinthians.

Now, first of all, as you will recall from our previous studies, the level of immorality, especially in Corinth, was just over the top, primarily because of their temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty and procreation and so forth. By the way, all false religions are rooted in sexual deviancy, but they also had five different kinds of marriage that were based upon nothing more than human needs and human wisdom, and it just caused chaos in that culture, and especially in what we might call Calvary Bible Church of Corinth, alright" Because they were saints like us. One type of marriage was called "contubernium," which meant tent companionship, and this was for slaves. And of course, there were hundreds of 1000s of slaves. And so if you were a slave, the way you got married is you just would live with someone as long as your master allowed that to happen. It was a cohabitation that was permitted by a slave owner. Now, slaves were considered to be basically subhuman. They had no rights. The only thing they were there for is to work. They weren't citizens or anything like that. So what would happen is, if you were a slave, you would just live together until you didn't like each other anymore, and then if you got permission from your slave owner, you could live with somebody else, and that's what they would do. Or sometimes the one you were living with would be sold. Or sometimes the slave owner would decide, you know, I want that woman for myself. So there's no stability, lots of heartaches, various partners over time. Now imagine some of these people come to saving faith in Christ, and they're part of the church. So what if a woman gets saved and a man wants nothing to do with her religion or vice versa? You can begin to see the problems.

Another type of marriage they had was, "concubinatus."  That was just a marital arrangement between freedmen and slaves. A woman would basically live with a married man as his concubine, and he essentially owned her.

And then there was the "usus." And that basically was what we would call a common law marriage. This was for the lower class the plebeians; they were called the lower-class people. There was no ceremony; after a year's cohabitation, the woman would basically come under the husband's authority, but she could remain a member of her father's family and hold whatever property her father allowed her to hold if she stayed away from her husband for three consecutive days once a year. And so that's what some of them would do. If she did this, her husband could not control her property.

And then there was the, "coemptio," which was the most common form of marriage, where a wife would carry a dowry into the marriage, but she was then ceremoniously and fictitiously purchased by her husband in front of at least five witnesses who would vouch for the purchase. And they would basically take one coin and put it on a scale, a measuring scale, and all of that symbolized a traditional bride purchase from past societies. And so the father of the bride would essentially transfer his daughter to the man in marriage, and then she, and all ofher possessions, belonged to the husband; the wife would then be under his authority. By the way, the wife had the same standing as a child, okay? Completely under the authority of the husband. And of course, one of the problems that they had is when the husband didn't like her anymore, he'd just get rid of her and try to find a wealthier wife with a bigger dowry. And sothese types of things were going on.

And then there was another kind of marriage, the "confarreatio," and this was for the patricians, the wealthy class, the ruling class; and they would only marry other patricians. And this was the stately form of marriage, and really the only legal form of marriage at that time. This consisted of a very elaborate ceremony; hey had to have at least 10 witnesses; the two families would come together with witnesses and other people. They would have a huge bridal wreath. By the way, this is the basis of our bridal bouquet. The bride would choose a matron, and she would be the maid of honor. The groom would also choose a best man, and the bride would wear a veil until the end of the ceremony, you kind of see where we get what we do. A temple priest would officiate the ceremony. The couple would join right hands; they would recite vows; they would offer prayers to Jupiter and Juno, who don't even exist, and they would exchange rings. It's fascinating, their physicians believed that there was a vein in the fourth finger of the left hand right and they believed that vein ran directly to the heart. It was called the "vena amoris,", or the vein of love, and so that's where placing the ring on the fourth finger came from.

Now, by the way, that's a myth. That's not true, but for those of you that are hopelessly romantic, it's a wonderful thing to know. By the way, the Roman Catholic Church adopted these customs in those early days, and when the church broke away from Rome during the time of the Reformation, the church brought with it all of these things, and so even as the width of our railroad tracks are based upon the width of a Roman chariot, so too our wedding ceremonies are based on the pagan ceremonies of Rome. I know you didn't want to hear that, but that's the reality. In fact, the grain, or the wheat, which was called far was baked into a special wedding cake called a "farreum" for the occasion, and hence the name, confarreatio - the name of that particular high-class wedding. So that's where we get our wedding cake. So a little bit of background.

You know, as I was thinking about this, it would be very different if the church had adopted the Hebrew betrothal and marriage ceremony, which is a detailed illustration of the Messiah's relationship to his bride. That's a... I could spend several weeks on that. But there the bride and the bridal party would anticipate the groom's arrival for his betrothed. She would have to keep a lamp next to her bed and her veil beside her bed. The bridesmaids also had to be always prepared with the oil ready for their lamps, and then the bridegroom would come unexpectedly - and I've seen this in Jerusalem - I'll never forget the first time I saw it. It's an amazing sight.

The bridegroom comes with his entourage, and I mean, it shuts everything down, and he says, "Behold, the bridegroom comes." And he goes until he comes to his bride's house, and he takes her unto himself, and then the ceremony begins. By the way, in the Hebrew custom, it's the groom that is, you know, the one that everybody's looking for, not the bride, right? I mean, in the Hebrew custom, if you read about it, it was the groom; that's what everybody was really looking at, not so much the bride. It's so different now, right? I mean, for grooms, we rent a tux, and we get dressed back there in the janitor's closet, and then we come out, and nobody pays any attention to us, and then the bride comes, you know.

By the way, the reality is we need to be focused on the bridegroom, not the bride, right? Because he is coming in power, in great glory. Well, anyway, I'm off the subject here. But the pinnacle of that whole celebration was a marriage supper. And they had seven days of festivities of eating and music and all of that. Well, they didn't adopt that one. So we've got the Roman pagan ceremony. So that's how it works.

Now, back to the problem at the church in Corinth. Folks from every strata of society are coming to Christ, and they're coming into the church with all of these pagan backgrounds. Soit's scrambled eggs. I mean, nobody's going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again with all of this chaos. You know, what do you do if you’re in a tent companionship and your spouse no longer wants anything to do with you because you've trusted in Christ? Or if you're in an upper-class marriage - and by the way, the men would typically use their wives to bear children and to cook meals and to keep house, and they had other women that they used for pleasure - and so now you come to Christ. Now what do you do?

And if all of this wasn't bad enough, because of the mistreatment of women in that day, a feminist movement was sparked in the Roman Empire, and as you read the history, you see that some of the women refused to bear and raise children because it would ruin their figure, and they would no longer look as beautiful as they once did. Many of them lived separate lives from their husbands. A lot of them would compete with men in feats of strength, and some attended chariot races dressed like men, and a lot of them became women wrestlers. In fact, Juvenal, who was a late first century Roman satirical poet, said this, "With spear in hand and breasts exposed, these women took to pig sticking." That was wild boar hunting, typically on horseback. He said, "What modesty can you expect in a woman who wears a helmet, hates her own sex and delights in feats of strength?" I mean, no wonder divorce was rampant in that day. There are records that speak of people being divorced, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 times. It's kind of like every year, you know, you get divorced. I mean, who wants to be married to a topless pig sticker, you know? I mean, it was just crazy what was going on back then. And remember, these are young people, alright? We got to keep that in mind. These are young people. I mean, if you live to be 40 years old, that was pretty good. So these are young people.

So how do you honor God in your marriage when you've got all of this going on? What grounds are there for divorce? What grounds are there for remarriage? You know what if you're stuck with some loser and you can't get out and you live in perpetual fear and bondage and turmoil and regret? Well, the answer for some in the church was celibacy; celibacy-even if you're married; no more sexual involvement, we're done with that; truly spiritual people are devoted solely to God, and they will deny their sexual desires, and they will never get married. That's what was going on in the church.

By the way, Roman Catholicism really picked up on this, and that's where you get celibacy in the Roman Catholic priesthood; many of them wear a wedding ring symbolizing their marriage to Christ. Well, that's turned out real well, hasn't it? Roman Catholic priesthood, including many of the popes, have a well-documented legacy of every imaginable form of sexual deviancy. Even...you just even read what the Vatican reports, which is only a fraction, they say, of the truth. And what you see there are 1000s of cases of sexual abuse among their priests, especially with children. First Timothy four Paul talks about how that in the latter times, there's going to be hypocrites who pay attention to the doctrines of demons. And in verse two, it says, "liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage."

So anyway, this is what was going on, and Paul is going to blow a hole in this whole idea of celibacy is the only way to go, because some were looking down upon those people who wanted to get married. No, you shouldn't do that. And they were even looking down on some of those who were still being involved sexually in their marriage. They're saying Christians aren't supposed to have anything to do with those types of things. So you've got this anti-marriage, pro-celibacy crowd in the church. All right, I'm trying to give you a background here, otherwise the text won't make that much sense to you.

Well, folks, if that wasn't bad enough, you've also got Jewish believers in the church who had come to saving faith in Christ. And guess what? For them to remain unmarried was a sin, because God commands us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, Genesis 1:28. So with all these varied backgrounds and cultural traditions and personal preferences that everyone's bringing into the church, I mean it's like taking a coon and a possum and a skunk and a, I don't know, a bobcat, throwing them all in a barrel, and tell them to work it out. I mean, it's just not going to work out well, unless God does something. Unless God comes along and by the power of his Spirit, through his word, says, let me explain to you how all of this needs to work.

As a footnote, folks, this is why, according to Ephesians 4:11 God has given the church pastors and teachers all right? "For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." And as a result, "we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love."

So on top of all of the other issues that we've seen thus far in our study of what was going on in the church at Corinth; given all the chaos surrounding now celibacy and marriage and even divorce and remarriages we're going to see, the Corinthians themselves write to the apostle Paul, and they want help. They want answers; and that letter was delivered to him by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, according to First Corinthians 16, verse 17. So they got all this chaos... like we need help. Let's write a letter to Paul. These three guys take it to him, and Paul answers them with some general guidelines now, about celibacy, about marriage and so forth. And I'm going to break down just the first seven verses for you this morning, very practical, very down to earth. We're going to see that he addresses, number one, the appropriateness and cautions of celibacy; and secondly, the inappropriateness of celibacy in marriage. And finally, the gift of celibacy. So let's look first at what he has to say about the appropriateness and the cautions of celibacy. Notice chapter seven, First Corinthians, seven, beginning in verse one,

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote," in other words, these questions that you've sent to me, he begins by saying, "it is good for a man not to touch a woman." Now this, you must understand, is a Jewish euphemism for sexual intimacy between a husband and a wife. It doesn't mean you're never to touch a woman, so to speak, and in the literal sense, as some people have made that out to mean, I mean it's a good thing if, if that were the case, it's a good thing Adam and Eve didn't obey that command, or none of us would be here, right? And so that’s not what it's talking about. I remember when I was a young man in youth camp, I remember there was this, this one lady who was quite loud, and she kept saying, "no touching, no touching." It says in the Bible, "it's good for a man not to touch a woman." And of course, when you do that, especially with kids, what does it do? It just inflames the whole thing. I mean, you're throwing gas on the fire you're trying to put out. But and I remember, even when I was at Moody Bible Institute, there was a lady dean who would tell the girls, when you go on to a date, maintain a Bible's width. Always keep a Bible's width. Of course, the joke was getskinny Bibles, you know. And so all of this is based on really bad theology. So let the Bible interpret itself when you come to these passages. You will recall, for example, in Genesis 20, when Abraham lied to King Abimelech, saying that his wife, Sarah, was his sister. We read how that God comes to Abimelech and reveals the truth. And in verse six of Genesis 20, we read, "Then God said to him in the dream, yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart, you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her." Sexual intimacy, that's the point. Ruth, chapter two and verse nine, we read how Boaz told Ruth, "I have commanded the servants not to touch you." Proverbs 6:29, "So is the one who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not go unpunished."

So what is Paul saying? He's saying, hey, come on, it's good to be single. There's nothing wrong with that. It's okay not to have a desire for sexual intimacy and to remain unmarried. There's nothing wrong with being single. Put that out of your head, as long as you remain celibate. In other words, to not have that desire for sexual involvement. And he's going to go on to say in verse seven that that's a gift from God for some people.

Now, the obvious issue here is that there were some within the church that were looking down on people who wanted to remain single and there are some that wanted to be married, and so we can't have that and, especially the Jewish believers, say no, no, no, you got to get married. No, no, no, you got to stay celibate. Well, he's, he's blowing a hole in all of that. By the way, wetend to do that even in our culture, don't we? When someone is single, you know, we tend to say, wonder what's wrong with her, you know? Why does anybody want her? Or nobody wants him, or, you know, he's still not married, you know what's wrong? And we don't need to do that, you know, stop pressuring folks to get married. That's what Paul is saying along with all of this; hang up your cupid bow and arrow, you know, leave that alone.

So it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Verse two. "But..."  obviously, there's going to be a downside here, and he goes on to address it, "But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband." Immoralities is plural. The point is that there are multiple devious sexual vices that are prevalent here in Corinth. By the way, it's prevalent here, especially with the internet and television. And no doubt, he's responding to some of the Gentiles who, because of their past immoralities, thought celibacy was the only proper spiritual alternative. So Paul was saying, it is certainly an appropriate alternative. It is good, as he says here, but marriage is also good, and for good reason, because of immoralities. And those temptations were everywhere in that society and many of these people that had come to saving faith in Christ were now in the church, but they had been involved sexually with multiple people. I mean, that was just part of their culture, and some of those people may even have been in the church.

Now, I believe there are two important considerations that Paul is addressing here. I want to just touch on it briefly. The most obvious is, because of the strong sexual drive in most men and women, the temptation to fornication can be overwhelming, and so marriage is a legitimate outlet for that. But he's also prescribing, secondly, I believe what you might say, the proper sphere where the legitimate passion of pure love that binds the hearts of a husband and a wife together in a lifelong union can be experienced, it can be enjoyed, it can be elevated to its highest and most noble ends - the sexual intimacy of two believers in love with each other, and in love with Christ is radically different than the evil passion that some people have. They're just looking for an outlet for indulgence. So because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

Now again, please, Paul is not just saying that the only reason for marriage is to avoid immorality and to have a legitimate outlet for sexual fulfillment. Marriage encompasses so much more than that. I remember in seminary, I pulled out some of my old notes on this, I learned about the six P's of marriage, and I remember I came up with the seventh one. You know, seven is always kind of the more spiritual number, right? I remember the professors, yeah, we're not going to, let's stick with the six. But the first reason for marriage is procreation, be fruitful and multiply; Genesis 1:28. A second reason is for pleasure; Proverbs five, verse, 18 and following, "Rejoice in the rife the wife of your youth, let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love." I mean, just read the Song of Solomon. It's a true life, dramatic love song that's describing in very graphic terms, the intimacy of the sexual union between a husband and a wife. We believe, by the way, that was probably Solomon's first wife before he turned from the Lord. And then remember, he added 699 other wives and 300 concubines; First Kings 11 and verse three, obviously a lapse in judgment, you know, so much for being a wise man. But the point is, God has also designed marriage, not just for procreation, but for pleasure - physical pleasure - the ultimate expression, the ultimate enjoyment of oneness. Hebrews 13 four, "Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled."

Thirdly, it's for provision. I also came up with protection, but I got wiped out on that one. But it's for provision, which includes protection - the husband is to provide for the unique needs of the woman who is, as Peter says, "the weaker vessel" or someone who is weaker, physically weaker. You take the same size of muscle of a man and a woman, and the man, because of testosterone, is 50% stronger the New American Standard Version says First Peter 3:7, "You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow wearer of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered." You know, I don't come to my wife and say, Honey, can you open this jar, right? It's the other way around. I don't come to my wife and say, Honey, I'm going to Walmart tonight, and I'm a little bit nervous, will you please come with me to protect me? I mean, that's not how it works. By the way, if you're doing that, guys, we need to talk.

It's also for partnership, partnership; Genesis 2:18, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him." And as a male and female, you know, God has created each of us to be very different. We were designed to complement and complete each other, not duplicate each other. Fifthly, it was marriages for purity, as we read here in First Corinthians 7:2, it protects us from fornication, from adultery.

And then number six, it's a picture. It's a picture of Christ's sacrificial covenantal love for his bridal church, and an amazing concept. Ephesians five verses 23 and following.

Now back to our text. Let's recap what Paul is saying. Hey, it's good for a man not to touch woman. Celibacy is okay, has its benefits, but because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. By the way, not multiple wives or husband. The word "own" is clearly a reference to one, not many, which rules out polygamy. So he begins with the appropriateness and the cautions of celibacy, and then secondly, he talks about the inappropriateness of celibacy in marriage. Notice, verse three, "The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband." Now, it's always interesting, when you think about this, immature and poorly trained believers, as these people were, are prone to extremes in doctrine and in practice, and that's what was going on here, and they tend to force their ideas and their positions on others and then look down on people who don't agree with them. And some of these baby Christians had decided that total abstinence, even in marriage, was truly the spiritual option, that that's the way to go. And imagine how that would, how that would play out in a marriage, you know, you're maybe a man that comes to saving faith in Christ, and your wife's not a believer. And you say, you know, honey, I'm sorry, but because my faith in Christ, we can no longer be, you know, intimate together. Boy. I mean, that's, that's not good for evangelism and church growth, is it? I mean, it's, it's not like people want to come to your church, you know, Celibacy Bible Church, or whatever. So Paul is trying to deal with this stuff. I mean, this is practical, is it? I mean, this is where these people were living. No more sexual intimacy, not even with your wife. No, no. And Paul is saying, no way. Verse three, "The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife." By the way, it's present, continuous tense, its a habitual duty to his wife, and likewise, also the wife to her husband.

By the way, according to verses 10 through 17, this command applies to all marriages, whether or not the spouse is a believer or not. There is a responsibility here, a duty. There are no exceptions to this sacred duty that will be the desire of someone that truly loves their spouse and loves the expression and enjoyment of that oneness. Each partner possesses a alegitimate claim upon the body of the other, and each one has the right to enjoy the pleasures of that physical union. And of course, this is also crucial for sexual purity. You know, especially in that culture with the abundant availability of prostitutes and mistresses; the temptation forsexual intimacy would just be overwhelming.

And I would add that it's no different in our culture, especially with the option of internet pornography. But to express this in an appropriate way is what Paul is saying, and obviously husbands and wives need to be sensitive to this issue, each other's needs, and they need to understand that this is not merely to satisfy sexual urges, but it is to express to one another the fullness of their love and their devotion, their unequivocal devotion to marital oneness. Because you see folk, sexual intimacy with one's spouse provides the ultimate joy of covenantal faithfulness; that great joy that we can experience this side of heaven. It is a gift from God. It is a foretaste of heaven, and so therefore, it is a sacred and proper obligation. It is a reciprocal expression of self-sacrificing love in the enjoyments of those blessings.

Now I want to give you a caution here. This command to fulfill this duty must never be used as a weapon, as I know some men in particular have done to somehow force their wife to respond sexually with no consideration for her feelings or for her physical state. I mean, this does not mean you know, you've just got to do what I tell you to do. So you see, the reality is when you're walking with Christ and there is true relational oneness with him and with one another, that relational oneness will spontaneously flow over into physical oneness. That's how that is to work. And the wife is designed to respond to the self-sacrificing love of her husband. And when that's not happening, it tells you that there is something wrong in that relationship, and you must deal with that. There's a heart issue that needs to be addressed. Again, First Peter 3:7, "You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman." In other words, our needs need to be subordinate to hers. That's the point and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. The idea there is marriage, is my, it's the best relationship this side of glory. It's a wonderful gift from God. And he says, "do this so that your prayers will not be hindered," referring especially to the prayers for that wife's salvation. But even beyond that, the prayers for blessing in that marriage and in that family. Bottom line, if a Christian husband fails to respect his wife, fails to honor her and subordinate his needs to hers, God will cut off his blessings in that man's life. He will turn a deaf ear to his prayers. Fellowship will be broken, the Spirit will be quenched, will be grieved, and all manner of difficulty will ensue. Folks, that's how serious God is about this, so please hear me.

So again, sexual intimacy between a husband and a wife is God ordained, it's God honoring, and it will always be the joyful desire of those who truly love one another. Verse four, "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise, also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." Folks, if you want to understand this better, pull out your wedding vows. Maybe that will remind you. There, we committed ourselves to our spouse. We gave up our exclusive right to ourselves. You see in the wedding vows, all math goes out the window, because in the wedding vows, one plus one equals one, right? That's the idea. Genesis 2:24, God says, "'For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.'" Sofolks, marriage is the permanent surrender of all that we are to our spouse. And beloved it is in that oneness of marriage that we enjoy relational oneness that once again, as I said earlier, spontaneously finds expression in the breathtaking, intoxicating pleasure of physical oneness. And for believers, we should be able to honestly say to our spouse, sweetheart, I don't know where I end and you begin. My life is inextricably united to you. Were woven together in this, in this mystical oneness, this mystical union, even as we are one with Christ. I can't explain it, but all of us that know what that is like know what I'm saying, right? Absolutely. And this is expressed and enjoyed most fully in the context of sexual intimacy between a Christian husband and a Christian wife.

Verse five, "Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourself to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self- control." Now again, sex is never to be used as a weapon. I've seen wives do this from time to time. That kind of manipulation betrays selfishness and pride. God will never bless that. Whenever you do this, ladies, if this is you or men, it could be the other way around, all you're going to do is provoke bitterness and resentment and you will become a co-conspirator with Satan, and as together, you cause your spouse to go in silent search of another lover.

By the way, if that is you, please seek help. We can help you with that. There are going to be times when, by mutual consent, you abstain from sexual contact. That's what he says is here, "except by agreement for a time." "Agreement" in and the original language is "symphōnos." We get the word "symphony" from that, you get the idea. "So that you may devote yourself to prayer and come together again." Now we all understand what he's saying here. There are going to be issues in life that demand our undivided attention. There are going to be times of sickness, there's going to be times of heartache, maybe personal repentance, confusion, whatever it is, and those will be times that will drive us to our knees.

So back to the text, spouses must be sensitive to those seasons in life where they abstain from sexual contact, but eventually they come back together in physical oneness. Why? "So that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." In other words, this provides a safeguard against fornication that was so prevalent in their culture.

By the way, as a footnote, couples, let me speak to you for a moment. Do you pray together? You ever set aside time to pray? Is that a habitual part of your life? Oh, I hope it is. And I don't mean just at meals, but I mean when those things come across the internet from the church and somebody's in need. Do you go to your wife or your husband and say, honey, here's this need that has come up. Let's come together. Take her by the hand. Let's sit here on the couch and let's pray together. Let's pray for this person. You come together. Maybe before you go to bed at night, you. Hold each other's hands and just go before the throne of grace and pour out your heart for your children, for your marriage, for your church. I hope you're doing that well. You talk about the joy of oneness. Men, I've never heard of a wife complain about her husband if he is a man that leads her in prayer. Kneel down together. Learn to do that. Not out of duty, but out of desire, out of the oneness of your fellowship with one another. Come together before the Lord. And Paul is using this as an illustration here.

Verse six, "But this, I say by way of concession, not of command." Concession could be translated even awareness. In other words, all that I've been saying here about marriage and even celibacy shouldn't be interpreted as something that everybody is required to do, especially with marriage. Here, marriage is not a requirement. Celibacy is good. Marriage is good, but I am aware, in other words, I will concede here, as you should, of the goodness of celibacy, as well as the God ordained privilege, and therefore the goodness of marriage. Soyou must decide which one is best for you. You're not more spiritual if you do one or the other. The Jews say you've got to be married to be spiritual. Some of the Gentiles, no, no, no, you've got to be celibate. My goodness, can't we all just get along? So Paul is clarifying this.

Verse seven, "Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that." So we close here. We've seen the appropriateness and cautions of celibacy and the inappropriateness of celibacy in marriage. Now we see the gift of celibacy. "Yet I wish that all men were even as myself." We know that Paul was single at this time. Now, it's possible I know, some are going to say that, well, it wasn't he married at one time? It's very possible that he was and that now he's either divorced or he is a widower. We don't know for sure. We know, according to Philippians three, for example, that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as to the law, he said a Pharisee. Well, Pharisees had to be married. It was sinful not to be married. Now, maybe he was married in his wife left when he came to Christ, which would require him to let her go, First Corinthians 7:15, we don't know. Maybe she died. We don't know. I mean, Philippians 3:7 "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Maybe that included his wife. We don't know, so we can't make an issue of that. But certainly, he was not married during his New Testament ministry here and at the writing of this epistle, as he, by the way, makes clear in verse eight, we'll get to next week.

So why would he wish that all men were single like him? Well, the answer is because of the freedom, the autonomy that that allows in Christ, especially in a hostile environment where people, where people's lives were at risk; persecution, poverty, were the norm; and having the added responsibility of a wife and children can be a great hindrance in dangerous regions where life is always on the line. So celibacy can be a matter of Christian expediency or feasibility or practicality. He's even going to say in First Corinthians seven, beginning in verse 32,

"But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please Lord;

but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

This, I say, for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistraction devotion to the Lord."

Now bear in mind, to be married doesn't mean that you can't serve Christ with full devotion any more than remaining single means that you can or that you will, but singleness does free you up to serve in ways that would otherwise be impossible if you were married. "However," he says, "each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that." In other words, he's saying, hey, if you're married, that's a gift from God. Enjoy it. If you're single and you're not concerned about sexual involvement, celibacy is fine. That's a gift from God as well. Enjoy that. By the way, as a footnote, if you're single and you hate it, and you struggle with temptation, you don't have the gift of celibacy, and you need to get married, which he will address beginning in verse eight.

So, very practical, right? Who says the Bible isn't practical? Very pointed, very clear, down to earth, and as we are going to discover, as we continue in this chapter, he's going to answer more of their questions. I want to close with a word of exhortation and a word of encouragement. As your pastor, this is so important, folks, if you're struggling in some of these areas, and I'm sure some of you are, it's just part of life. If you're struggling, whether you're single, whether you're married, please seek help. We're here to help. I'm here to help. Give me a call. The elders are here to help you. By the way, ladies, if you're having struggles, we have ladies that you can talk with. And remember whether you're married, whether you're single, Satan wants to destroy you, wants to destroy your marriage, wants to destroy your life, wants to destroy your family, and he has 1000 different ways he can do that. And we know that every situation is different. There is no one size fits all answer. But we also know that the principles that God gives us applies to all of the difficulties of life that we have, and we can help you with that. He is granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness. And Paul told Timothy in First Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is inspired. It's breathed out by God and profitable," catch this, "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." Therein is the wonderful answer that we have to the issues of life. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these great truths that that speak so directly to our heart. I pray that whatever the issue is that anyone might be having here in our church, Lord, that you will help them and help us be able to come together and address this so that we can enjoy the full blessings that you have available for those who fear you, who walk faithfully with you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the power of your Spirit. Bless us accordingly, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.