https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1828/to-marry-or-not-to-marry

To Marry or Not to Marry


1 Corinthians 7:1–7

Nov 30, 1975

We start this morning our study of this seventh chapter in our continuing look at 1 Corinthians, and we are coming to a very important and controversial chapter. We’re going to be in it for a few weeks, because there is much to discuss and much to learn.

And as we begin this morning, we’re going to find some very practical information. The book of 1 Corinthians, as you already know by now, is intensely practical. It doesn’t get into a whole lot of theology, it sort of hits it lightly, and then it dives deeply into the practical application, and this chapter is no exception.

It deals basically with the subject of marriage, and marriage is, let’s face it, a very hot item today. There are more books being written on that subject, I think, than any other one subject. It’s a discussion topic constantly. And the Bible has a lot to say about marriage. There is much in the New Testament about marriage.

Our Lord Jesus taught much about marriage. He referred to marriage many times in the Gospel records. He stated in Matthew 19 that man and woman were made for each other. God made them for each other. He states that they should join themselves together and become one flesh, and that this was marriage, and this was actually a joining together by God himself.

Jesus also emphasized that marriage was to be monogamous; that it was to be two becoming one flesh, something that was first stated by God in Genesis chapter 2. Jesus also taught, in Matthew 19, that marriage was to be unbroken. God hadn’t changed his attitude at all about divorce.

Jesus also taught not only that it was designed by God to be monogamous, to be unbroken, but that it was only for this life. Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:35, all of those indicate that marriage is only for this earth, not for heaven. The Lord had a lot to say about marriage. But all that He said was pretty much theology, pretty much the basic identification of marriage. And He didn’t really get into the practical application of that; that He left for His later Word through His apostles so that when we read the epistles, we find much more information about marriage, particularly, of course, the apostle Paul, who has much to say about the subject of marriage, and says it repeatedly throughout his epistles from various and sundry angles.