1 CORINTHIANS 7 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 65] 1 CORINTHIANS 7 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC All these instructions are most important, and never more so than in the present day when lawlessness abounds, even in the christian profession. But christian liberty is preserved as we submit ourselves to divine instruction.
Rem The apostle handles things with great delicacy of touch, not to bring the saints into bondage (see verse 25). He says, “I think” twice over.
CAC No, it is not laid down exactly in an authoritative manner. It is in divine wisdom that most of the subjects should be presented to us as the products of a spiritual man, who could say he had God’s Spirit. And it was true, and all is by the inspiration of the Spirit; it is not that it has not authority. Christianity is a spiritual system, and matters have to be decided spiritually. Almost the only thing in the chapter that is said to be a definite command of the Lord is that the wife should not leave her husband, nor the husband his wife. That is the Lord’s authority, there is no appeal against that! There was great disorder and looseness of morals at Corinth, and all is corrected with exquisite delicacy of touch. It is all in view that the saints should be in liberty and without distraction. On the other hand, some were underrating marriage. There was a line of ascetic teaching, forbidding to marry, which is a doctrine of demons. An earthly people would regard, I suppose, that not to marry would be to suffer disability, but Paul shows that such do not suffer any disability — that is a comfort! He leaves the whole thing in liberty, he puts no one in bondage, what is done is done in liberty. So that a Christian can be perfectly happy and perfectly free with the Lord without the marriage tie. The apostle was not married, and I think he was perfectly happy, indeed in this chapter he [p. 66] rather hints that it is good. He is careful to show that there is no disability with it. He was superior in spiritual power to what was right naturally. It was quite right, but there was a possibility of being superior to it in devotion to the Lord.
So that if marriage is not granted to every one of us, we need not regard it as any drawback, and there have been many thousands with whom this has been so. It is a great comfort to see there need be no spiritual loss; it may be a gain. To be entirely freed for the Lord and untrammelled by any natural relationship is really a better way of spending one’s life.
Ques “On account of the present necessity” — what does that mean?
CAC I think it is of general bearing. It is the time of Christ’s rejection and reproach, when Christians do not look to have the best of both worlds. We have an extraordinary freedom at present, and marriage is God’s ordering. There is a providential ordering in all these things, and it is not wise to set aside any of these things. If a brother or sister marry, we recognise the ordering of God in it and give them our fellowship. We should not like to think they were going to be worse Christians for that! He puts these verses in as a warning, not as a consequence.
Rem Let “the younger (women) marry”, he says (1 Timothy 5: 14), in view of departure of the last days I suppose. To have mercy to be faithful seems the balancing point.
CAC This chapter views the saints in the wilderness. This is not Colossians or Ephesians, where a greater dignity is given to the thought of marriage, and where the whole thing is carried on to a higher platform — that of Christ and the assembly. Marriage belongs to the period before sin came in, and was purely the thought of God, and there was no thought of creature imperfections at all.
Then a woman who has an unconverted husband is not to be cast down, is she? There might have been many such;
[p. 67] but then he shows that the unconverted partner derives an advantage from it.
Rem It seems difficult to understand that the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife etc., and the children holy.
CAC That is why we have come here tonight. I think it gives us an insight into the mind of God. In such a case there is a certain advantage conferred on the unconverted partner; so he is not quite on the same footing as a man that is in the world. It is looked at much on the line of privilege. It is put in a remarkable way — his conversion is to be looked for — that she can save him. “For what knowest thou, O wife, if thou shalt save thy husband? or what knowest thou, O husband, if thou shalt save thy wife?” (verse 16). He does not say ‘woman’; it shows God recognises the relationship. It is intended to encourage people in the possibility, and to let the unbeliever know that he is advantaged before God in having a believing partner. It is a special privilege connected with the marriage relationship — he is sanctified in his wife.
And it says, “God has called us in peace” (verse 15); that is, the unconverted husband is to be thought of specially, and the wife is not to bring in anything to disturb the peace of the marriage relationship.
Rem Peter speaks of husbands being gained by the conversation of the wives.
CAC I have remarked all my life that when God converts one partner He almost invariably converts the other in time. The very ordering is God’s, and this is specially so if they are God’s elect, for every circumstance of their lives is ordered, and this is the greatest circumstance perhaps in any one’s life. The whole chapter to my mind is full of spiritual encouragement. If the unbeliever, in spite of all the grace, departs, he says, “Let them go away”, which is a very solemn thing. Marriage here is viewed on the lower plane — on the natural plane.
[p. 68] In verses 17 - 24 the ordering of God is recognised in one’s position as Jew or Gentile, or even as to one’s occupation in life. One has to recognise the ordering of God in all these things. Take a man who is converted and his wife is not — well, he has to recognise the ordering of God in it. So, if a slave, he is not to desire to alter it. If he has the opportunity to be free, he is at liberty to be free. But it does not matter very much, because the slave is the Lord’s freedman, and the freeman is Christ’s bondman. The thing that comes about in the ordering of God is the important thing. What we are occupied with (provided, of course, it is not in itself contrary to God), we are to continue in as the providential ordering of God. All is to make us content with where we are thus placed. We are not to want to change our occupation, as if we might be better Christians, or serve God better elsewhere. I am put in the circumstances in which I can best be a Christian, and if I cannot be a Christian there, I cannot be anywhere! If things bear a little hardly on me, well, that is not bad for me, indeed it may be a good thing, they may just touch me at the very spot where the Father sees there is need.
Rem ‘Do not change your location, or your vocation’, J.B.S. said.
CAC I suppose that is a large part of piety. Such saints are happy and more at liberty in their pathway, and get the advantage of it. We should so act in the natural sphere that we pass happily and freely into the spiritual sphere. Even a husband and wife leave the relationship behind them, and are as brother and sister in the spiritual sphere. This is the way a spiritual man takes account of the natural sphere, but he has in mind that we shall be at liberty for the spiritual sphere.
Ques Is verse 32 what the Lord would love?
CAC Yes, indeed! The Lord’s word is, “Be careful about nothing”. We need to be careful about nothing, “but in everything, by prayer and supplication with [p. 69] thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4: 6). Why should we carry any care? I often say to myself, how foolish I am to worry about something that only God can manage, and I have the liberty of taking it to Him! How this sphere of natural things tests us! We are always coming up against things that are difficult to us; but then it is the discipline of the Father’s love, the very thing that is going to lift me up. He brings me down to the very thing that will lift me up. It makes more room for God. We want more room for God in our natural lives, and if this is brought about the assembly will gain. It is better to be with God in the greatest trial than to be in the greatest comfort without Him.
Ques To depart and to be with Christ has its bearing today on us?
CAC Yes. The enjoyment of the love of divine Persons is sweeter and greater than anything we could enjoy naturally. We should all sign our names to that.
Rem David’s knowledge of God enabled him to meet the Philistine.
CAC It is beautiful to see in the Old Testament that God could make Himself such a reality to a young brother.
Ques Was David the young brother?
CAC [p. 70] Yes.
NOTES OF A READING 1 Corinthians 8: 1 - 13 Is this one of the matters they had written to the apostle about?
CAC It appears to be so. The Spirit of God seems to take advantage of imperfect conditions to bring out very high and exalted truths. The very degraded habits of the Corinthians, into which even believers are likely to fall, were the means of bringing out the truth that they were the holy temple of the Spirit, and members of the body of Christ.
Ques Why does it say, “Knowledge puffs up”?
CAC It is a case where knowledge might even make people careless of their associations. There was a danger of knowledge and personal right to do things turning to a snare — that is, the very knowledge that an idol was nothing might make a man say, ‘It does not matter if I go and eat meat in an idol’s temple; it means nothing’. But the apostle brings out that it may mean a weak brother is stumbled. If my liberty is injurious to another, it is a good opportunity for me to use self-restraint. “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies”.
This very question leads the apostle to develop in a very remarkable way the truth in relation to God, the truth of the economy of revelation (verse 6). It is one of the most comprehensive verses of the Bible.
I suppose these verses show a danger of the Corinthians, and of us all, of putting too much value on knowledge in contrast to formation in the divine nature. I may know a great deal more than some believer in Teignmouth, yet he may be more formed in the divine nature, and he is the better man of the two! Paul says, for instance, we all know that an idol is nothing, and so a christian might use that knowledge to go and have a meal in an idol temple. Love is [p. 71] the great building power. A man full of divine love would edify those he comes in contact with more than a man full of knowledge.
Ques Why does it say, “If any one love God, he is known of him”?
CAC The knowledge of God — that is what God cares about. Not knowledge about Him from the Scriptures, that does not call forth God’s recognition. That is, He takes account of where people’s affections really are towards Him. God is not occupied at all with the amount of knowledge we have. Such are known of Him. He speaks in the Old Testament of “thousands of them that love me”, even in Israel, and in Elijah’s time He had seven thousand. Those are the people God takes account of — He knows them.
Ques Can we be conscious of it?
CAC Oh yes, every one that loves God is conscious of it.
Rem David said, “Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off” (Psalm 139: 2).
CAC That was the divine searching; in that sense He searches every one, nothing is hidden from Him. David knew God, and did not shrink from divine searching. He was afraid of himself, and so he asked God at the end of the psalm, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting” (verses 23, 24).
Here it is that the revelation has had its proper effect upon man. God has loved man that He should be loved by man, and where the revelation is received, that is the result. It is a very precious thought that God has come out in His beloved Son; and we are so affected by it that we respond to Him and we love Him.
Later on in this epistle he could tell us that what is offered to idols is offered to demons. It applies in principle [p. 72] now to any place that represents a system that is not according to divine truth. We see great buildings, and these buildings represent certain systems of things that are not according to the truth. We do not want to mislead other people. I would not like to go anywhere where it would not be good for another to go.
Ques Would you say more about verse 6?
CAC That brings in what would effectually set aside idolatry. If God and the Lord Jesus Christ have Their place with us, we have done with idolatry, and really with everything that is not in accord with the revelation, because that is how it stands today.
God has come out as the Source of everything that is good and blessed. He has come out in that character, and in relation to a world of evil, and where men’s hearts are full of distrust of Him. He has come out as the Source of every good; that is, God the Father is the Source of everything.
Rem “Now they have known that all things that thou hast given me are of thee” (John 17: 7).
CAC I think some have a kind of undefined feeling that the Lord Jesus is the Source of everything, but the distinction is clearly made in these verses that God the Father is the Source, and the Lord Jesus the Channel, and the One through whom we derive everything, so that we may be in the happiest relations with God, “of whom are all things, and we for him”. And when we speak of God we refer to the Father.
Ques Knowledge will not bring me there, but love will.
CAC Yes, the Lord Jesus is a divine Person and in that sense equal with the Father as to His deity, but He has taken up a certain position as the Mediator, so that all that is in the heart of God might be carried into effect, and that through Him we might have a most blessed place with God.
Ques What are the “all things”?
CAC The “all things” are the “all things” [p. 73] known in the present economy. I think it refers to what is known in the economy of grace. It supposes that the Lord Jesus Christ is a glorious Man at the right hand of God. We have to do with these two blessed divine Persons. God the Father is the Source of everything — every blessing that has come to us. It all comes from Him in love and goes back to Him in love, but it is through the Lord Jesus that it comes to us. We see that everything that has come out in the Lord Jesus is the expression of the Father — the words He spoke and the works He did too. He could say, “He that has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14: 9).
Ques How far does the thought of Mediator come into this?
CAC That is just what enters into the whole thought of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one God; that is, the Father — the Father is the Source of everything. It was the Father who sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. The fact that the Lord was here in holy manhood was wholly of the Father — that He should send the Son to be the Saviour of the world. That is very important, because of the worship in the assembly of the Father and the Son too, but there is also the peculiar glory that attaches to Him as the Mediator.
Ques Why is the Mediator necessary for the revelation of the Father?
CAC Well, the revelation of the Father is clearly mediatorial. Christ has come into the place of manhood that He might mediate to men all the grace and love of God, and that He might be the Revealer of the Father.
Rem In Hebrews He is “mediator of a new covenant” (chapter 12: 24).
CAC The mediatorship of the covenant is a special part of His mediatorial service. When He presents to us the cup of the new covenant He is taking a mediatorial place. “This cup is the new covenant”; it is as Mediator He says that.
Here what He has in mind is those who have come into [p. 74] the light of the revelation. In Corinth there was the assembly of God. They had received Christ and the Spirit, and they were in the light of the revelation of God.
Rem “And we for him”, it says (verse 6).
CAC And that will be the ultimate result, that the saints will be entirely for the pleasure of God. If He sets the home ringing with merriment because of one returning son, what will it be with many? The returned son would have had a very blessed sense that he was for the father. All that was in the Father’s heart has come out to us by the Son, and believers are presented before God according to the value of His Person, His redemptive work, and His place on high. All that we have by Christ; we bring nothing to God but what we have derived from Christ. And He has come into a place in the presence of God in which He can have the saints along with Him.
I was thinking only yesterday that in one sense there is nothing higher than the attitude of subjection. We are learning it under the Father’s discipline. All the terrible pressure coming upon the children of God in the world is teaching this, because subjection is going to be our place eternally. The Son is going to be in subjection eternally, and the saints are going to be with Him in that place eternally. The Father’s chastening in Hebrews 12 is to bring us to the place of subjection, and we only acquire it in that way. And we are acquiring it to be suited companions of the Son throughout eternity. God’s chastening always touches the will; we should have none if we had no will. J.B.S. said that we could easily discern what part of our nature was most likely to be active, for the Father is always touching that part. But if we take up the attitude of subjection the difficulty is gone, and we have acquired something for eternity.
God was revealed in One who never did His own will, never spoke His own words. It is a wonderful thing that God is going to have many sons patterned after Christ, is it [p. 75] not? So that we have constantly to consider what has come to us from God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and all He has brought to pass. We shall see that we have come into a system where there is no flaw, and full of divine glory. His work is without a flaw, and the place we have with Him before God is divinely perfect.
“One God, the Father ... . and one Lord, Jesus Christ” is exclusive of all idolatry, the contrast to “gods many, and lords many”. You see, these divine Persons are so great, that if They really get possession of the heart, They shut out everything else.
Rem It is God and the Lamb in Revelation.
CAC The distinction between divine Persons will be maintained eternally. Everything for us depends on the distinction, because it needed that a divine Person should come in to undertake for us, and He had set us in the highest and most blessed place in the family that a creature could possibly be in with God.
I do not know any scripture that is more comprehensive than this one. The greatest things possible in relation to God and Christ are brought in to counteract the action of one going into an idol house to eat meat. So it is all along in this epistle; he brings in the whole universe of God, and the principle of headship in the whole universe of God, to settle the question as to whether a woman should have her head covered. But if we want really to be happy, we must have divine Persons before us, and the way that divine Persons have moved in relation to us.
The weak brother comes entirely under the system of idolatry, and he will perish as going back to the very system he has come from. See what he says in verse 11. It is very touching, that. I would not like to do anything to stumble a person “for whose sake Christ died”.