Saturday, January 31, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 1 Corinthians 7
Key Verse
1 Corinthians 7:21 — “Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.”
Devotional Thought
On this last day of January, when the resolutions of New Year’s have either hardened into habit or quietly dissolved, Paul’s words to the Corinthians ask something of us that our age finds almost unintelligible: contentment in the station where God has placed us. The church at Corinth had written to Paul with questions—about marriage, about singleness, about whether a believer should remain with an unbelieving spouse. Paul answers not with a single rule for all, but with the steady refrain of verse 17: “as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk.” The calling matters more than the circumstance.
Notice how carefully Paul handles the consciences of ordinary people. To the married, he speaks with the Lord’s own authority: let not the wife depart, let not the husband put away. To the unmarried and the widows, he gives his judgment, not a commandment, and admits as much—”I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.” To the man whose wife is an unbeliever, he says: stay, if she is pleased to dwell with you; for the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing one, and your children are holy. And if the unbeliever departs? “Let him depart… God hath called us to peace.” Paul does not pretend that every case is simple. He refuses to make his own counsel a snare (v. 35).
The heart of the chapter beats in verses 29 through 31: “the time is short.” Those who have wives should live as though they had none; those who weep, as though they wept not; those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; those who buy, as though they possessed not. This is not stoic indifference. It is the perspective of people who know that “the fashion of this world passeth away.” Marriage, grief, joy, commerce—all real, all good, all temporary. Paul is not telling the Corinthians to despise these things but to hold them with open hands.
And then the pastoral reason, tender and plain: “I would have you without carefulness” (v. 32). The unmarried man cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; the married man cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. Neither is sin; both are callings. Paul simply wants the Corinthians undistracted, attending upon the Lord, whether they marry or remain as they are. “Ye are bought with a price,” he reminds them—and so, whether servant or free, married or single, they belong to Christ.
So on this Saturday, examine your own station. Are you straining against the very place God has set you, or serving Him faithfully within it?
Reflection
- What circumstance in your life are you most tempted to treat as an obstacle to serving Christ, rather than the very place where He has called you to walk?
- If “the time is short” and “the fashion of this world passeth away,” how would your grip on your possessions, your griefs, and your joys change today?
Prayer
Father, we thank You that You have bought us with a price, and that every station of life—married or single, free or bound—is a place where we may abide with You. Forgive us for straining against Your providence and for letting the cares of this passing world distract us from Your service. Teach us to hold our marriages, our sorrows, our joys, and our possessions with open hands, knowing that the time is short and the fashion of this world passes away. Give us peace in the calling where You have placed us, and let us attend upon You without distraction, until the day when all things are made new. In Christ’s name, Amen.