1Cor 7:36-40 - Freedom to be a Slave

36-40 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. 38 So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better. 39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.


And here again is the key to it all again. Note verse 37; it is a heart matter and not a question of law. And heart matters are based upon love, not compulsion. Not very Calvinistic, I know - but there you are. It’s the gospel again in a slightly different guise. Same gospel - seen in application. A saved person, through faith, acts in response to the love of God towards him in Christ Jesus, and not in order to merit, cause, engender or even to repay it. To do the latter would be to subscribe to another gospel and to become anathema.

What a great breadth and scope of freedom belongs to the Christian! And yet, though we are not constrained by law we are nevertheless constrained by love. See - there is still constraint but, Oh, what a difference! This enables the issues of life to be worked out, for progress to be made, for failure to be taken into account, for the believer to seek after God with what he may sometimes believe is a whole heart, but which always, in retrospect, is seen to be imperfect. Accepted the way we are, but not left that way.

The Christian is free, but he is not free to do as he pleases. That was the way he once lived, obeying the passions of his flesh and being taken captive by them. No, the Christian is free to seek after God, to follow, to obey - even to fear God. He has a new heart and a new principle at work in him. It must be fed, it must grow, and it must produce the fruit of righteousness - and it will, if it is truly a work of God and not something born of, and sustained by, man.

This is why Paul can seem to be so ambivalent. It’s not ambivalence, of course. It’s an explanation of the freedom that is in Christ. It’s an illustration of how grace, faith, the Holy Spirit and the will of the believer are all involved in the directions we take in life. And it shows that there may be so-called "wrong" decisions, but that decisions made as unto the Lord - even if they are not "right" - are born of a good conscience in faith - and will nevertheless bear fruit.

Marry, don’t marry; re-marry, don’t remarry - only in all things seek the Lord. And this is illustrated by the constraints mentioned. A spouse is married only so long as the other party lives, and may marry another upon the death of the partner. But that widowed Christian must marry a believer. Marriage or not is a matter indifferent, but joining together with an unbeliever is not. Let those who think law passed away with the gospel come to grips with this admonition. It is a matter of something forbidden - and if that’s not law then I don’t know what is. And here it is right slap dab in the Apostolic teaching in the gospel age.

It is law, but it is not legalism. Legalism is the attempt to justify oneself to God and/or before others through the performance of acts of piety. The Christian is already justified through faith in Christ.