This Sunday we’ll be continuing our study in 1 Corinthians, wrapping up our examination of chapter 7. We’ll be reading 1 Cor 7:25-40.

As we’ve stated multiple times, we have to always take care in reading an ancient text like this – ancient Corinth was very different, civilly as well as culturally, from our modern American experience. We’ll do our best to unpack what Paul writes and see how the principles Paul provided can direct us in our modern world.

His primary audience is single people. Paul clearly is stoked on the single life. How does that compare to the way the church has presented family values over the last 100 years? Does Paul sound the least bit disparaging of single people?

We don’t know what “crisis” Paul was referring to, but it is likely the growing hostility and outright persecution of Christians throughout the Roman empire. He wrote this about 10 years before Nero burned Rome and blamed Christians for it. That prejudice would already have been at work before Nero capitalized on it. How is being single an advantage in that sort of scenario?

The overall principle that Paul seems to lay out is that “serving the Lord” is our highest priority, and no matter our relational status, we want to pursue an undistracted service to God’s purposes. How might we do that both as married and as single people?

I think this will be an interesting study to ponder – hope you can join us!

Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.