“What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that time is short. From now on, those who have wives must live as if they do not have one, those who cry as if they do not have one not, those who are happy as if they had none. no, those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if they were not absorbed in them. For this world, in its present form, is passing away” (1 Cor 7:29-31).
These verses come from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, a letter sent by Saint Paul to the church in Corinth, a city in present-day Greece. The letter was written around A.D. 53, the Bible Study Tools website says.
The First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians “revolves around the theme of problems in Christian conduct in the church”, according to the same source.
Paul had lived in Corinth for three years and “was personally concerned about the problems of the Corinthians, revealing a true pastor’s (shepherd’s) heart,” the same website states.
“At first glance and in isolation, the commands in this passage may seem counterintuitive,” Joshua Smith, PhD, associate professor in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, told Fox News Digital.
Joshua Smith of Biola University in California reflects on 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, revealing what this seemingly “counterintuitive” verse means. (iStock/Courtesy Biola University)
Biola University is a Christian university in Southern California.
“Without careful reflection, one would tend to think that Paul was asking people to abandon marital fidelity and suppress their emotions,” he said.
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Although this is consistent with The teachings of Jesus not to place great esteem on possessions, “the idea that one could take the bond of marriage lightly is contradictory and the idea that one could not express the sorrows and joys of life is to the both inhumane and impractical,” Smith said.
Verse 31, Smith says, is the key to understanding the passage: “The form of this world is passing away. »
“Paul invites us to view life with a clear sense of the fundamental imperative of the physical world, that everything we experience there is fleeting.”
“In other words, Paul invites us to view life with a clear sense of the fundamental imperative of the physical world, that everything we experience in it is fleeting, even something as sanctimonious as marriage.” , did he declare.
Furthermore, “Paul also asks us to view life from the perspective of the fundamental imperative of the spiritual world, namely the return of Jesus.”
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“When Paul says that ‘the time is short,’ he is referring as much to the imminence of second coming of Christ as he is in the face of the possibility of the world disappearing,” Smith said.
Thus, Christians, Smith said, should interpret these verses as “less about the despair and futility of earthly life than about the security we have in an eternal life.”
The verses in 1 Corinthians are actually meant to inspire people to focus on eternity rather than the present, said Joshua Smith of California. (iStock)
“We are able to let go of our possessions – whether literal or figurative – because we cling tightly to the One who owns us,” he said.
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And if “the idea of being possessed or possessed by someone seems offensive to the ear of the contemporary Western thinker”, it is different when the “possessor” is JesusSmith said.
Saint Paul is the author of much of the New Testament. “We are able to let go of our possessions – whether literal or figurative – because we cling tightly to the One who owns us,” Biola University’s Smith said of a specific Bible verse from St. Paul . (iStock)
“We are freer than ever,” he said.
“There is a freedom granted to us when the roots of our joy and our peace rest in something that cannot be shaken,” Smith said.
“The happiness of this life is but a feeble call to secure the joys of the next.”
This also applies “even to things which are temporal.”
“It’s because we can then accept the temporary for what it is: the opportunity to rehearse for a life to come,” he said.
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“The best this world can offer is to remind us that the happiness of this life is but a feeble calling to secure the joys of the next.”
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