Marriage Mess

I Corinthians 7. Remember in this port city, these Corinthians were surrounded by sexual immorality. They were so confused as to what and how it was supposed to be. So they sat down and wrote Paul a letter to ask him. According to 16:17 three men: Stephanus, Fortunatas, and Achaicus, brought the letter to Paul. Marriage was a mess in Corinth. Adultery was common practice. Slaves could be forced to marry. Daughters could be sold like merchandise. There were common law marriages like we have in our country today, and there was a growing feminist movement, which we shall see in ch.11. So with marriage in a mess, some were saying 'just forget it.' They figured the best way to deal with this problem was just don't marry. People do the same today. They say marriage has so many problems...we'll just live together (or they just have a 'one night stand' when it's convenient). Some began to elevate the idea of celibacy, believing that was the highest form of Christian life. Singles in the Corinthian church even began persuading the married people to divorce their spouses and become celibate. So in this chapter, Paul screams "TIME OUT!" as he addresses all of these issues. Now armed with some background go back and reread the chapter and see how Paul handles all of these issues.