1 Corinthians 7:26

7:25-35 Considering the distress of those times, the unmarried state was best. Notwithstanding, the apostle does not condemn marriage. How opposite are those to the apostle Paul who forbid many to marry, and entangle them with vows to remain single, whether they ought to do so or not! He exhorts all Christians to holy indifference toward the world. As to relations; they must not set their hearts on the comforts of the state. As to afflictions; they must not indulge the sorrow of the world: even in sorrow the heart may be joyful. As to worldly enjoyments; here is not their rest. As to worldly employment; those that prosper in trade, and increase in wealth, should hold their possessions as though they held them not. As to all worldly concerns; they must keep the world out of their hearts, that they may not abuse it when they have it in their hands. All worldly things are show; nothing solid. All will be quickly gone. Wise concern about worldly interests is a duty; but to be full of care, to have anxious and perplexing care, is a sin. By this maxim the apostle solves the case whether it were advisable to marry. That condition of life is best for every man, which is best for his soul, and keeps him most clear of the cares and snares of the world. Let us reflect on the advantages and snares of our own condition in life; that we may improve the one, and escape as far as possible all injury from the other.

The present distress (τὴν ἐνεστῶσαν ἀνάγκην) Ἑνεστῶσαν present may also express something which is not simply present, but the presence of which foreshadows and inaugurates something to come. Hence it may be rendered impending or setting in. See on Romans 8:38. Ἁνάγκη means originally force, constraint, necessity, and this is its usual meaning in classical Greek; though in the poets it sometimes has the meaning of distress, anguish, which is very common in Hellenistic Greek. Thus Sophocles, of the approach of the crippled Philoctetes: "There falls on my ears the sound of one who creeps slow and painfully (κατ' ἀνάγκην." "Philoctetes," 206); and again, of the same: "Stumbling he cries for pain (ὑπ' ἀνάγκας," 215). In the Attic orators it occurs in the sense of blood-relationship, like the Latin necessitudo a binding tie. In this sense never in the New Testament. For the original sense of necessity, see Matthew 18:7; Luke 14:18; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Hebrews 9:16. For distress, Luke 21:23; 1 Thessalonians 3:7. The distress is that which should precede Christ's second coming, and which was predicted by the Lord himself, Matthew 24:8 sqq. Compare Luke 21:23-28.

I suppose therefore that {u} this is good for the {x} present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. (u) To remain a virgin. (x) For the necessity which the saints are daily subject to, who are continually tossed up and down, so that their estate may seem most unfit for marriage, were it not that the weakness of the flesh forced them to it.

26 . the present distress ] The literal rendering of the word here translated distress is necessity , and it is so translated in 1 Corinthians 7:37 . But it frequently in the New Testament, as in the Septuagint, has the sense of distress, as in St Luke 21:23 ; 2 Corinthians 6:4 ; 2 Corinthians 12:10 ; 1 Thessalonians 3:7 . Here it means either (1) ‘the great tribulation’ which was to precede our Lord’s coming (see St Matthew 24.; St Mark 13.; St Luke 21.; Revelation 7:14 ), or (2) the general distress and anxiety which attended the profession of Christianity in those times. so to be ] “ thus to be,” as explained in the next verse.

(26) I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress. —Better, I think then that it is good because of the impending distress — that it is good for a person to be so — i.e., to continue in the state in which he is, married or unmarried, as the case may be. The construction of this sentence is strikingly characteristic of a writing which has been taken down from dictation. The speaker commences the sentence, and afterwards commences it over again: “I think it is good,” &c., and then, “I say I think it is good.” From this verse to the end of 1Corinthians 7:35 the Apostle deals again with the general question of marriage, introducing a new element of consideration—“the impending distress”; and at 1Corinthians 7:36 he returns to the immediate subject with which he had started in 1Corinthians 7:25, viz., duty of parents regarding their young unmarried daughters. The “impending distress” is that foretold by Christ, Matthew 24:8 et seq. The Apostle regarded the coming of Christ as no distant event, and in the calamities already threatening the Church, such as the famine in the time of Claudius (Acts 11:28), and in the gathering persecutions, he heard the first mutterings of the storm which should burst upon the world before the sign of the Son of Man should appear in the heavens. It is good for a man.—It is most important to remember how much stress St. Paul lays upon this point as the ground of his preference for celibacy.

1 Corinthians 7:26 . Διὰ τὴν ἐνεστῶσαν ἀνάγκην , for the present distress ) The famine in the time of Claudius, Acts 11:28 . It was very long and severe, especially in Greece. Therefore this counsel of Paul was, partly at least, suited to the time.— ἀνθρώπῳ , for a man ) This term is intended to apply to both sexes.— οὓτως , so ) as he is [in the same state in which he is]: comp. 1 Corinthians 7:27 .

Verse 26. - I suppose. St. Paul only states this modestly, and somewhat hesitatingly, as his personal opinion. For the present distress; rather, on account of the pressing necessity ; in the urgent and trying conditions which at the present moment surround the Christian's life, and which were the prophesied "woes of the Messiah" ( Matthew 24:3 , etc.). For a man; rather, for a person - whether man or woman. Be to be; that is, unmarried. The words are not improbably a quotation from the Corinthian letter. Otherwise we might explain the "so" to mean " as he is - whether married or unmarried." 1 Corinthians 7:26

26. I suppose—"I consider." this—namely, "for a man so to be," that is, in the same state in which he is (1Co 7:27). for—by reason of. the present distress—the distresses to which believers were then beginning to be subjected, making the married state less desirable than the single; and which would prevail throughout the world before the destruction of Jerusalem, according to Christ's prophecy (Mt 24:8-21; compare Ac 11:28).

Good here signifieth convenient, (as before), if other circumstances of particular persons make it not sinful; or better with respect to the present distress or necessity: by which, without doubt, the apostle meaneth, not the common necessities of all men that are born once to die, (which is the more easy the fewer relations we have to part from), nor yet of family troubles and concerns, for there is none who hath a family in this world to look after, but will have trouble in the flesh; but the continual troubles with which the church of God was disquieted, as the ark upon the waters, and the more special troubles of the primitive church; for though their great persecutions from the heathen were not, possibly, at that time begun, yet Christ had foretold them, and the apostles had them in a very near prospect (Paul is thought to have died the tenth or eleventh year of Nero). For this present necessity or distress, the apostle gives his opinion, that it was convenient and better, for those that could honestly abstain from marriage, to keep themselves in their single and unmarried condition.

1 Corinthians 7:26 . νομίζω οὖν τοῦτο κ . τ . λ .: “I consider therefore”—the formula by which one gives a γνώμη (contrast the παραγγέλλω , διατάσσομαι of 1 Corinthians 7:10; 1Co 7:17 )—“this to be good because of the present straits”: καλὸν ὑπάρχειν , “good in principle” or “in nature” ( cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7 , 1 Corinthians 12:22 ); the existing situation is such as to make the course recommended entirely right and honourable (see note on καλόν , 1, also 1 Corinthians 7:8; 1Co 7:38 ).—The ἀνάγκη —narrowness, “pinching stress” (Ev[1111])—belongs to the καιρὸς συνεσταλμένος ( 1 Corinthians 7:29 ), the brief earthly continuance visible for the Church, a period exposed to persecution ( 1 Corinthians 7:28 ) with its hardships and perils; this “might or might not be the beginning of the ἀνάγκη μεγάλη predicted by Jesus” in Luke 21:23 (Lt[1112]). ἐνεστῶσαν signifies “present” rather than “impending” (see 1 Corinthians 3:22 , Galatians 1:4 ); the distress of the time, which P. was feeling keenly at Ephesus ( 1 Corinthians 4:9 ff., 1 Corinthians 15:32 ), portended a speedy crisis.— ὅτι καλὸν ἀνθρώπῳ τὸ οὔτως εἶναι is open to three constructions, as ὅτι is rendered that, because , or which ( ὅ , τι ): ( a ) makes the clause an expanded restatement of τοῦτο καλὸν ὑπάρχειν —“I think then this to be good … that it is good (I say) for a man to remain as he is” (so Mr[1113], Ed[1114], El[1115], and most); ( b ) makes it the ground , lying in the principle stated in 1 Corinthians 7:1 , fo