Do we marry? Do we remain unmarried? Paul discusses these ideas in the second half of 1 Corinthians 7. I have heard many people say that Paul here essentially says we should desire not to marry, that marriage is God's second best situation. But that is not what Paul is saying at all. He is saying that marriage adds a layer of concern, a covenantal obligation into our lives. If we wish to be relatively free from care, particularly in a society where persecution is rampant, we may wish to avoid that layer of concern. Yet marriage is a good thing. It is blessed of God. In marriage we have a picture of Christ and the Church. We are uniquely able to do some of what God commands of humanity within the bonds of marriage. What Paul is saying is that we want to consider the nature of the covenants we enter into. We do not want to look for marriage, singleness, freedom from slavery, or anything but Christ to be that which fulfills us and allows us to live as the people God has made us to be.
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