Paul and his team had led people in Corinth to Jesus - and people had responded from their diverse and (likely) morally dubious backgrounds. Paul acted as a single man - maybe he was separated or divorced, but he certainly travelled without a wife and under contract to no-one other than Jesus: he exemplified a life given to Jesus, free to travel on mission. He also lived his life as if Jesus' return was imminent, literally 'any day now'. In discipling new Christians Paul and the team would have modelled and encouraged new believers to 'copy' them (that is discipleship, after all). So naturally those new Christians would have asked questions: "Should we be single too?", "Do all of us have to start travelling in mission?", and "If Jesus' return is imminent, should I go through with my plans to marry?". This leads to the generic question: "In becoming a Christian, how much of my 'before Jesus' situation must be changed?".
In the chapter Paul bigs up singleness, suggesting it is a 'high calling'. Singles don't have the ties or commitments that those in marriage do. They can devote their priorities to serving Jesus without complications. It is important that we big up singleness too: our society (and often churches) can too easily project a norm that everyone should be paired off, and imply that there is something wrong if someone isn't. Let's remember that Jesus didn't just settle for singleness, he flourished in it. Paul did too ... and so can some of us today. We should encourage and celebrate those who do.
At the same time, many are wired to have companionship and would struggle without it: Paul affirms this too. In fact he acknowledges our sexuality and the urges that go with it: he doesn't deny this, he doesn't call for it to be suppressed. He simply says that for those in Christ there is a proper place for it - in fact for husbands and wives he effectively says 'get on with it!'. Through it all he sees that different people are wired different: in verse 7 he says 'each has their own gift', so we should be wary of forcing or implying a need for conformity.
But inevitably questions arise as people find Jesus in all sorts of combinations and circumstances: "What if I'm married - should I become single to better serve Jesus?", "What if my partner doesn't turn to Jesus?", What if I'm engaged - should I break that off?", or "I'm young & single, but was expecting to find a partner - should I now drop that thinking?". All these questions become more acute if the expectation of Jesus returning is very soon - timescales change your perspective!
Through this chapter Paul gives his answers. In doing so he distinguishes between commands of Jesus (e.g. on the sanctity of marriage) and his own directives. In navigating the maze of possibilities we see this principle: that Paul believes God can redeem (i.e. be at work) in the circumstances that the new believers find themselves in. So the new believer turns from death to life, from old to new in their behaviour and who they are, but that doesn't mean that everything about their circumstances always has to change. In fact verses 17 to 24 has a couple of surprising examples of this concept. He says that the Greek do not need to become Jewish (nor the other way round). Given Paul's own rich Jewish heritage, and the strong sense of Jewish covenant identity (that following Jesus is linked to), this is a radical statement for Paul to make. The second example is slavery: slaves do not have to become free - though he says it is of course good if they can (and not good the other way round!).
In both of these cases it is being in Christ that is the important thing: circumstance is a distant 2nd place! In both examples God can redeem in that situation. Paul then works this principle out in practice with, for example, a new believer with an unbelieving spouse: God can redeem in that situation too - so honour the command of Jesus to stay married. Note though Paul's caveat - the unbelieving spouse may find the change in their partner too great and walk away themselves, in which case the believer can accept this outcome and move on.
We may then ask does Paul mean stay in any situation whatsoever? Presumably not: if the situation is dangerous, harmful, or too high risk of the believer being tugged backwards then it would be better for the believer to intentionally remove themselves. An example today would be an addict discovering faith while living in a drug den - we would advise them to move out!
But the principle of redeeming in the circumstances means things will look messy: we won't have a church where every believer is in a nice clear cut situation, with all looking the same. Yet knowing that should help us as we point people to Jesus. Consider our new key question:
[OUT] Where is God training you to be clearer and more direct in reaching out to others?
Challenge: Offer to pray for someone - because you believe in Jesus who changes lives
The question is about learning to more directly invite people to Jesus - it is not about you needing to fix their circumstances first! Remember it is the Spirit's job in the person as they respond to Jesus to sort out the circumstances. Your job is to invite! Consider Jesus seeing Zachaeus, who was a tax collector and a swindler. Jesus sees him and says "I'm coming to dinner", in other words 'you get to host me, the Son of God, the presence of God in your house!'. Jesus didn't say "Zachaeus, you need to sort out your swindling!". Zachaeus responded to the invite and indeed recognised his need, and pledged to change. We don't know whether he stayed as a tax collector: as a new believer in Jesus the swindling had to change, being a tax collector didn't!
If people genuinely meet Jesus, things in their life will start to change - hence the challenge above. Be willing to pray with people because Jesus changes lives! Our job is to point people to Jesus, to invite people to Jesus, and to even host His presence. We can do that invite whatever their circumstances ... but that means it is going to be really messy. There will be lots of ambiguity, lots of questions ... but that is the deal. Our job from that as church - a collection of believers - is to seek the Spirit and navigate a way through.
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