Friday, January 31, 2025
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
The church at Corinth had written to Paul with questions, and chapter seven is his careful, pastoral reply. These are not abstract theological musings; they are answers to real people in a real city—Corinth, a port town notorious for its sexual license—who wanted to know how to live faithfully in bodies, marriages, and callings. Paul begins with singleness and marriage, insisting that the marriage bed is honorable and that husbands and wives hold a mutual claim over one another’s bodies. He refuses both the ascetic who despises marriage and the libertine who despises restraint. Then he turns to the married, the widowed, the virgin, and even the slave, and his refrain becomes clear: “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called” (v. 20).
What strikes me is how unhurried Paul is. He distinguishes between what the Lord commands and what he offers as his own judgment (v. 25). He acknowledges that a believer married to an unbeliever should stay if the unbeliever is willing, for “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife” (v. 14). He does not pretend that marriage is easy—”such shall have trouble in the flesh” (v. 28)—nor that singleness is a superior state for everyone. Each person has “his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that” (v. 7). The pastoral heart here is not to burden consciences but to help people “attend upon the Lord without distraction” (v. 35).
And then comes that arresting word: “the time is short” (v. 29). Paul is not counseling coldness toward spouse or sorrow or joy, but a holy detachment from them. Those who weep should weep as though they wept not; those who rejoice as though they rejoiced not. The fashion of this world is passing away. This is the posture of a pilgrim, holding gifts loosely because the Giver is coming.
It is January 31—the last day of the first month. Many of us began the year with resolutions, and some have already slipped. Here is Paul’s word for that: abide. Do not flee your calling. Do not despise the ordinary. If you are married, love your spouse with due benevolence. If you are single, serve the Lord without distraction. If you are a servant, remember you are Christ’s freeman. You were bought with a price. Whatever your lot, “therein abide with God” (v. 24). The month ends; the Lord does not.
Reflection
- Paul says each person has “his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that” (v. 7). Do you find yourself comparing your calling—married or single, free or bound—with someone else’s, rather than receiving it as a gift?
- If “the time is short” (v. 29), what would it look like this week to hold your joys and sorrows, your possessions and plans, more loosely before the Lord?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for the clarity and tenderness of Your Word. You know the lot You have assigned to each of us, and You call us to abide in it with You. Forgive us for the restless comparing, the longing to be somewhere other than where You have placed us. Teach us to love our spouses with due benevolence, to serve You without distraction in singleness, and to hold the things of this passing world with open hands. Remind us that we were bought with a price, and that we belong to Christ. Keep us faithful in the calling wherein we were called, until the day when the fashion of this world gives way to Your unshakable kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.