Verse 2
‘For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.’
He stresses that he is concerned for them like a father for his virgin daughter. Just as Yahweh was jealous over Israel (Hosea 1-3; Ezekiel 16:0; Isaiah 50:1-2; Isaiah 54:1-8; Isaiah 62:5), so is he jealous over them, lest someone come and spoil their relationship with Christ. He has espoused them to Christ so that they may be kept pure, so as to have Him as their one husband. He does not want anything interfering with the purity of their relationship with Him, or to interfere with their purity. The Husband will expect to receive His bride in a state of faithfulness and obedience, as untarnished. He will not want her to have been dallying with others. And it is Paul’s responsibility as her ‘father’, the one who brought her to birth, and has espoused her to Christ, to ensure that she is kept in such purity.
In the ancient Near East, parents typically chose a wife for their son, often early in life, and arranged for the marriage by a legal contract, a betrothal. It was then the responsibility of the father of the bride-to-be to ensure his daughter's virginity during that betrothal period. Betrothal was considered almost as binding as marriage itself. The betrothed couple addressed each other as “wife" and "husband” (Deuteronomy 22:23-24; Joel 1:8), and sexual faithfulness was considered vital. As a guarantee of this a bloodstained cloth was exhibited as proof of virginity on the wedding night.
So he again stresses that the Corinthian church owes its very existence to him. He is their only ‘father’.
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