Participants: Senez Rodriguez (Host), Tom Shepherd
Series Code: HPOV
Program Code: HPOV000045A
00:16 Welcome to Heaven's Point of View.
00:19 This is a continuation of the Series, 00:21 Love, Marriage, Sex, and Divorce according to the New Testament. 00:25 Our special guest and host this morning is Dr. Tom Sheperd 00:31 who is Professor of New Testament interpretation 00:34 at Andrews University. 00:35 My name is Dr. Senez Rodriguez and I am glad to be his Co-host. 00:39 Tom: Okay. 00:40 So, a question for you, Dr. Sheperd. 00:43 Tom: Hmmm... hmmm... 00:45 We have seen so far what Jesus teaches about divorce 00:49 the question is, does Paul agree with those teachings? 00:54 All right, good question, we studied Matthew 19 00:59 verses 3 to 12, we were talking about 01:03 what the Lord answered Pharisees when they came to ask him, 01:08 and now we want to turn to the book of 1st Corinthians 01:11 where the Apostle Paul also discusses 01:14 the question of divorce, we've already studied some about 01:19 this church of Corinth, 01:21 they were people with lots of troubles 01:24 they had doctrinal problems 01:28 but not only doctrinal problems but practice problems. 01:30 They had people involved in incest 01:33 and people involved in going to prostitutes 01:36 and people who didn't think 01:38 marriage should have sex in it at all 01:41 and then there were people who were considering divorce 01:45 or maybe... who had been divorced 01:48 so there were all kinds of issues 01:51 so, Paul worked with these churches... 01:53 not just Corinth but other places 01:56 to have stable, happy homes 01:58 and some of their settings as we will see 02:02 differed somewhat from what the gospels talked about 02:05 and this is what brings about 02:07 some of what the Apostle Paul has to say. 02:09 So we want to read the passage, it's 1st Corinthians chapter 7 02:13 verses 10 through 16, 02:16 1st Corinthians 7 verses 10 through 16. 02:23 Why don't you read that for us. 02:24 Sure... "And unto the married I command, 02:28 yet not I, but the Lord, 02:31 Let not the wife depart from her husband: 02:36 But if she depart, let her remain unmarried, 02:41 or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband 02:46 put away his wife. 02:48 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: 02:52 If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, 02:56 and she be pleased to dwell with him 03:00 let him not put her away. 03:02 And the woman which hath an husband that believe not, 03:08 and if he be pleased to dwell with her, 03:12 let her not leave him. 03:15 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, 03:20 and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: 03:26 else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. 03:32 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. 03:36 A brother or a sister is not under bondage 03:41 in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. 03:46 For what knowest thou, 03:48 O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? 03:54 or how knowest thou, 03:57 O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" 04:00 Hmmm... hmmm... all right, very interesting passage. 04:04 Talking about several different scenarios... 04:07 we're going to walk slowly through this passage 04:10 and take a look at it. 04:11 It's helpful to outline 1st Corinthians 7 04:15 to get an idea of how Paul puts his arguments together. 04:20 We remember that this is a transition point 04:23 in the book, we studied 1st Corinthians 6 04:26 verses 12 to 20, 04:28 and we saw how Paul brought all kinds of theology 04:31 together to fight the problem of promiscuity 04:34 and then... in the beginning of chapter 7, 04:37 he begins by saying, "Now concerning the matters 04:40 about which you wrote. " 04:41 They wrote him a letter asking him a variety of questions 04:46 and he responds to those questions here and elsewhere 04:50 so the chapter... chapter 7 seems to break down 04:56 into three parts as it seems... because 04:59 it's disputed so I'm not sure exactly how 05:01 the chapters should be broken down. 05:03 But it goes like this... 05:05 the first section is to those who are married 05:08 or who have been married, all right... 05:10 and that goes from verse 1 through verse 16 05:14 so the first part is about: 1. Sex for husbands and wives, 05:19 another passage that we have looked at, 05:22 2. Marriage and the formerly married... is in verses 8 and 9, 05:25 3. And divorce and believers is in verses 10 to 16. 05:29 So that's the first section focused around people 05:32 who are married or who have been married. 05:34 Then there is... what we might call... 05:37 a Transition Section talking about God's call 05:42 in their life setting, 05:43 that goes from verse 17 through verse 24, 05:47 and he starts off with the thesis 05:50 that the person should remain in the state 05:53 that God has called them in and he unpacks this 05:58 with an expression talking about 05:59 the circumcised and the uncircumcised, 06:01 the slave and the free, 06:03 then he comes to the last section of the chapter, 06:06 to those who are unmarried, he starts... 06:10 and that goes from verses 24 through 40: 06:13 1. He begins with the discussion of virgins 06:16 and then he turns to: 06:19 2. Relating to the distressful times. 06:21 so the virgins were from verses 24 to 28, 06:24 the distressful times, verses 29 to 35, 06:26 3. then staying single or getting married 06:29 is a topic he talks about in verses 36 to 38, 06:31 4. and finally he talks about widows... 06:33 at the very end, verses 39 to 40. 06:36 Okay, so this is the breakdown of the chapter, 06:40 now, Paul addresses in chapter 7 06:43 particular questions that the Corinthians had raised 06:46 and he introduces these questions 06:49 with the word, "about," in Greek it's, "peri" 06:54 that word appears in verse 1 and again in verse 25 07:01 so the things you wrote about, if you look at verse 25, 07:05 it says, "Now concerning the betrothed... " 07:08 so "concerning... " see about the betrothed 07:11 "I have no command from the Lord but I give my judgment, 07:13 as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. " 07:16 It seems, however, that he... 07:20 either he answers other questions that they didn't raise 07:24 or he expands on the topics 07:28 in the areas that he wants to address with the people 07:30 because he seems to go a little off-field 07:33 from just the particular questions perhaps 07:35 that they raised, the outline that I've just... 07:38 you've seen, perhaps, on the screen there 07:40 and I've read through it, the outline divides the chapter 07:44 into these three main sections 07:46 focusing mainly on the married in the first part 07:49 and mainly on the unmarried in the last part, 07:52 but this outline can be challenged a bit 07:56 because he refers back to married people 07:59 at different times in his presentation. 08:02 The passage we're looking at today though 08:05 is a section for married people, Paul uses the verb, 08:10 "to be married" or "to marry" 08:11 and he puts it in what's called "the perfect tense," 08:15 now in Greek, 08:16 the perfect tense had two ideas within it, 08:20 one was, "an action in the past that came to completion," 08:26 right, and then there were ongoing results 08:30 that continue up to the present, 08:32 so we're in the ongoing results of that experience, 08:36 so, both of these ideas were in the present tense 08:39 and it depends on the context as to whether it said, 08:42 "consummated perfect" 08:44 the one that focuses on the completion of the action 08:47 or an "Intensive Perfect," 08:49 that focuses on the ongoing action 08:51 probably here it's "Intensive Perfect" 08:53 he's saying, he's speaking to the married, 08:56 so, they were married, that happened sometime back 09:01 and they're still married, 09:02 so they're in the state of marriage 09:05 and so he writes to them, 09:06 there are a number of misunderstandings 09:08 about this passage, 09:09 just as we saw that there are misunderstandings 09:12 about verses 1 to 6, we already studied that, 09:16 but we'll see that there are misunderstandings here too 09:19 so it's good that we have an opportunity 09:21 to talk about this and talk them through. 09:23 Now, sometimes the idea of such misunderstandings 09:27 are troubling to some people in today's church, 09:32 they think, "Well, if this is the Word of God, 09:36 shouldn't the meaning be crystal clear to everyone 09:40 so that no one is lost?" 09:44 Yeah, it's a good question, there are truths in the Bible 09:50 that are impossible to miss 09:52 if one is reading with an open mind 09:55 and a willingness to do what is right, 09:58 Jesus said in John 7:17, 10:02 "If any man wills to do His will, 10:04 he will know the doctrine, 10:05 whether it's of God, or I speak of myself," 10:07 so, Jesus there... expresses the concept that, you know, 10:12 it doesn't matter how much you know, 10:13 you can have a PhD in all kinds of things 10:15 and everything, but if you're unwilling to do 10:19 what God requires, you will likely find some way 10:22 to escape and get away from what He has said. 10:26 All right, so, there are certain truths in the Bible 10:29 that are just impossible to miss, 10:30 these include things like the doctrine of sin, 10:33 the teaching about salvation, the gift of salvation, 10:37 forgiveness, our responsibility to love other people, 10:40 these are written large in the Bible 10:44 and it would take... 10:45 you would have to be really resistant 10:47 to not be able to see those, okay, 10:49 but some teachings of the Bible, 10:53 require deeper study, a closer look, 10:56 a careful look at the meanings of the words. 10:59 You notice as we talk here, 11:00 we talk, many times, about the meanings of the words, 11:03 we not only talk about the meanings of the words 11:05 but we talk about how they're related to one another, 11:07 how the different terms relate to each other, 11:10 the background story, the history, the culture, 11:12 it's not a denial of our faith 11:15 for us to study and read 11:18 and look for information that fills in the background. 11:20 We have to remember that Paul... 11:22 these books were written 2000 years ago, 11:25 Paul was writing to a particular church in a particular setting 11:29 with particular problems, he wrote to them 11:34 with instruction from the Lord that met their needs 11:38 responding to the questions that they had, 11:40 but his writings contained principles... 11:43 principles and teachings that apply to us today 11:47 giving us what God's will is for us in these matters 11:52 so, yeah, some passages are just a little more obscure 11:57 we have to search at them, 11:59 and that's why we have a program like this 12:01 in looking carefully at the Bible. 12:03 Now I noticed that in the outline 12:06 that verses 8 and 9 are words to the unmarried 12:11 do you think that Paul was in favor of celibacy? 12:16 Let's take a look... let's read those two verses again, 12:18 verses 8 and 9... I don't think we read them before, 12:21 "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows: 12:27 It is good for them if they abide even as I. 12:32 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: 12:37 for it is better to marry than to burn. " 12:42 Yeah, probably the last part is to "burn with passion. " 12:45 Senez: Right. Tom: To be consumed by 12:48 by the passion, so, Paul recommends to the 12:52 unmarried, that they stay single, 12:55 he does not explain much here, why? 12:57 But in verses 17 to 35, 13:01 he presents four different reasons for staying single. 13:06 Let's just read a little bit of that. 13:09 Let's read verses 17 to 24. 13:11 Okay, 17 through 24. 13:14 And we're listening particularly 13:16 for the question of, "Why should they remain single?" 13:19 Okay, "But as God hath distributed 13:24 to every man, as the Lord hath called every one 13:28 so let him walk. 13:30 And so ordain I in all churches. 13:34 Is any man called being circumcised? 13:37 let him not become uncircumcised. 13:42 Is any called in uncircumcision? 13:46 let him not be circumcised. 13:48 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, 13:52 but the keeping of the commandments of God. 13:57 Let every man abide in the same calling 14:01 wherein he was called. 14:04 Art thou called being a servant? 14:07 care not for it: 14:08 but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. 14:14 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, 14:19 is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, 14:25 being free, is Christ's servant. 14:27 Ye are bought with a price: be not ye the servants of men. 14:35 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, 14:40 therein abide with God. " 14:42 Okay, so, here is his first reason that he gives 14:46 and it's basically wrapped up in the idea: 14:50 remain in the state in which God called you. 14:54 But while he says that, almost immediately, 14:59 he modifies that a bit because he talks about the slaves. 15:02 Right. 15:03 And he says, "Well, no... you don't have to stay inside," 15:05 he says, "If you can begat freedom," he says, "go for it. " 15:08 You know, that's a good idea, 15:10 and then he gives one of his typical kinds of things 15:13 where, you know, "the person who is the slave 15:17 is the Lord's freeman 15:18 and the man who is free is the Lord's slave... Christ's slave," 15:21 so, he puts in instruction here 15:25 as he goes along but that's one of the reasons 15:27 he is suggesting the idea of staying in the same state. 15:31 Now, the next one is found in verse 26, 15:32 why don't you read verse 26 for us? 15:34 Verse 26, "I suppose therefore 15:39 that this is good for the present distress, 15:44 I say, that it is good for a man so to be. " 15:48 Yes, to remain... because of the "present distress" 15:52 that the person should stay in the state that they're in. 15:56 There was a famine n the area in 51 AD, 15:59 and Paul may have written this just a few years later 16:02 there were famines in the area 16:03 and we know that distress like this makes it difficult 16:08 to form relationships and to have a marriage 16:13 because you have to plan in advance for proper care. 16:17 Then verse 29, why don't you read that? 16:20 That gives another reason. 16:21 "But this I say, brethren, the time is short: 16:26 it remaineth, that both they that have wives 16:32 be as though they had none... " 16:35 Yes, now so this is... now this seems to be 16:38 like an eschatological kind of a context 16:41 looking towards Jesus' return, 16:44 we might wonder... "Well, wait a minute... " 16:46 Jesus didn't come at that time did He? 16:49 Did Paul expect Him to come right then? 16:51 Actually in one of his other letters, 16:53 Paul says that that there has to be... 16:55 "the man of sin has to show himself first" 16:58 and so he looked for a latter time, 17:00 but perhaps he's thinking in terms of people's life 17:03 of where it was and we all know that 17:05 when our life comes to an end, 17:07 that's when... the next thing we'll know 17:09 is Jesus' return. Hmmm... hmmm... 17:11 So, he puts in here... as "the shortness of time," 17:15 he says, another reason he's suggesting 17:17 then the last one down in verse 32 and 33, 17:20 32 and 33... read those verses. 17:25 Okay, "But I would have you without carefulness. 17:28 He that is unmarried 17:31 careth for the things that belong to the Lord: 17:34 how he may please the Lord: 17:37 But he that is married 17:39 careth for the things that are of the world, 17:43 how he may please his wife. " 17:45 Yeah, okay, now, he's talking about earthly anxieties. 17:52 You know, when you get married, 17:54 you have to think about the family, 17:57 and the care of them, 17:58 when you're single, you pretty much... 18:01 are much freer to do a variety of things, 18:04 so for these four reasons remaining with God and the State 18:07 where you were called, the present distress, 18:10 the shortness of time and be without earthly anxieties. 18:14 Some people get the idea that Paul was down on marriage, 18:19 but these arguments and the verses around them 18:23 don't suggest that, he was... 18:24 Paul was a missionary, he was a pioneer 18:28 and big in his eyesight, big in his view 18:31 was the ability to move quickly 18:33 from place to place and do the work of God. 18:36 We read this man's life story and where he went 18:39 it would have been extremely hard to do with a family 18:42 and to travel around with them and so he was... 18:45 he was a little freer in that sense... being single... 18:49 Now he doesn't say that a person has to be single, 18:53 he says that there's no sin in getting married, 18:56 you should get married as a Christian, 18:59 you should marry a Christian, 19:00 you should get married, he says, "in the Lord" 19:02 but he doesn't say that marriage is wrong somehow. 19:05 Now, I noticed that Paul uses the phrase, "not I but the Lord" 19:11 in verse 10, and then he says, 19:14 "Not the Lord but I" in verse 12, 19:17 what does that mean? 19:19 Yeah, let's read those verses again 19:21 so that people get the whole context 19:24 let's read verses... well... start with verse... 19:31 hmmm... I was on the wrong page, that helps... 19:35 Senez: Ten? Tom: Yeah, verse 10. 19:37 Senez: Okay. 19:38 Read verse 10 and then read verse 12. 19:41 "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, 19:47 Let not the wife depart from her husband... " 19:51 All Right, and then verse 12... 19:52 "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord, 19:57 If any brother hath a wife that believe not, 20:01 and she be pleased to dwell with him 20:04 let him not put her away. " 20:06 Yes, now, this is really interesting, 20:11 I mean, it almost sounds like... 20:12 like two levels of inspiration or something, you know, 20:15 there's a Lord's command and then well... 20:18 I'll just get my opinion, you know, 20:20 but what we should do first, is ask the question, 20:25 "Who is the Lord that he's talking about here?" 20:29 In another place, the Apostle uses this term 20:33 "The Lord" and refers to a command from the Lord 20:37 and refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, 20:39 turn over to 1st Corinthians 9:14, 20:42 1st Corinthians 9 and verse 14, 20:46 "Even so hath the Lord ordained 20:50 that they which preach the gospel 20:53 should live of the gospel. " 20:56 Okay, so the Lord commanded 20:59 that those who proclaim the gospel 21:01 should get their living by the gospel. 21:05 So, is there some command of Jesus 21:09 that parallels that? 21:10 Well, there seems there is, over in Luke 10 verse 7 21:14 so turn to Luke 10 verse 7 and read that verse. 21:17 So, notice that Paul is saying 21:21 that those who work in the gospels 21:24 should get their living from the gospel. 21:26 Now what did Jesus say in Luke 10 verse 7? 21:31 He says, "And in the same house remain, 21:32 eating and drinking such things as they give: 21:36 for the labourer is worthy of his hire. 21:40 Go not from house to house. " 21:44 Hmmm... hmmm... yeah, so this principle of the 21:47 "labourer is worthy of his hire" 21:50 and that the people... where you go 21:52 as a gospel minister 21:54 and you're serving their spiritual needs, 21:56 they should help you with your physical needs 21:59 and that's in Jesus' missionary discourse 22:02 here to the 72 that he sent out 22:04 besides the 12 that he had sent out earlier 22:08 and that is so parallel to what the apostle has said 22:12 in our passage in 1st Corinthians 9 22:16 that it seems that in the background 22:20 is this very saying of Jesus, 22:24 now, most scholars maintain that Paul wrote 1st Corinthians, 22:30 before Luke was written, but there were oral traditions 22:33 and the teachings of Jesus in the minds of the apostles, 22:36 and they were teaching these things, 22:38 and so, it's quite interesting 22:39 that even before a written gospel, 22:41 the Apostle Paul has some kind of understanding 22:45 of the Lord's message, so, then the question becomes, 22:48 "Okay, if this is the Lord Jesus, 22:51 that he is referring to in 1st Corinthians 7, 22:57 if this is the same person as the Lord's... as Christ... 23:04 then well, what's he referring to?" 23:09 All right, so we go back to look at Paul's words here, 23:15 and he says, "to the married... " 23:18 and... sorry... verse 10... 23:21 "And unto the married I give this charge 23:22 not I, but the Lord. 23:24 The wife should not separate from her husband... " 23:26 now, actually we'll... a little later we'll take a look 23:29 and see exactly what teaching of Jesus... 23:32 it's in our next program, I believe, 23:34 we'll take a look and see what teaching of Jesus it is 23:39 that this links up to, but if he's talking about 23:43 the Lord here, it's indicative that he's giving 23:47 precedence to the words of Jesus. 23:50 I like that. He's giving precedence 23:53 to the words of Jesus, 23:55 but he knows that his own words... 23:58 his own words also have a certain weight to them. 24:03 Hmmm... hmmm... okay. 24:04 So, there are two verses where he helps to show 24:09 what he thinks of his own sayings or his own words, 24:14 and that's in 1st Corinthians 7 and verse 25. 24:19 "Now concerning virgins 24:22 I have no commandment of the Lord: 24:26 yet I give my judgment, 24:29 as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. " 24:34 Yeah, mine reads a little differently, it says, 24:37 about the same... it says... "Now concerning the betrothed" 24:40 or the virgins, "I have no command from the Lord 24:43 but I give my judgment 24:45 as one, who by the Lord's mercy, is trustworthy" 24:50 okay so, he didn't have a saying from Jesus 24:54 to talk about those who were unmarried 24:58 and in fact, if we look through the gospels, 25:00 we don't find the saying, 25:03 we find Jesus talking about divorce, 25:05 we've already seen that, he discusses that, 25:08 but we don't find a saying where he's says, 25:11 "Now, so, what should unmarried people do?" 25:13 And so, Paul says, 25:16 "I don't have a command from Jesus, 25:18 if I did, I'd give it to you. " 25:20 He says, "But I give my own judgment as one who is... 25:26 by the Lord's mercy... is trustworthy. " 25:29 So someone that they can count on. 25:31 Somebody might say, "Wow! well that doesn't sound 25:34 as authoritative... that doesn't sound as inspired," 25:38 you know, so now we go down to the other verse 25:40 and that's verse 40 25:42 and maybe we should get the context here 25:45 starting in verse 39. 25:47 Okay, 39... "The wife is bound by the law 25:51 as long as her husband lives; 25:54 but if her husband be dead, 25:56 she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; 26:00 only in the Lord. 26:02 But she is happier if she so abide, 26:06 after my judgment: and I think also 26:10 that I have the Spirit of God. " 26:13 Okay, so, if you look at verse 39, 26:15 "A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives... " 26:18 that's in accordance with the teaching of Jesus. 26:21 Okay, and he says, "But if her husband dies, 26:23 she is free to be married to whom she wishes 26:25 only in the Lord. " 26:27 That reminds us of Romans chapter 7 26:30 where he talked about two different people 26:33 and one could be married and then that person dies 26:36 and then they can remarry, 26:37 but in verse 40 he says, "Yet in my judgment... " 26:40 now he's going to go beyond what Jesus was talking about 26:44 "Yet in my judgment she is happier 26:46 if she remains as she is. " 26:47 And here he kind of puts tongue-in-cheek a little bit 26:51 and says, "and, I think that I too have the Spirit of God. " 26:56 So, he's an apostle but, you know, 27:00 he struggled with the church in Corinth 27:02 they had issues about his authority. 27:04 Paul knows who he is, he knows he's an apostle, 27:08 he knows he has the Spirit of God, 27:10 there's not two levels of inspiration 27:12 there's one level of inspiration but the difference is 27:17 whether he has this direct saying from Jesus 27:20 and if he does, he focuses on that saying. 27:22 So, next time, actually, 27:25 we're going to notice how Paul ties his teaching 27:28 into the teaching of Jesus. 27:30 Well, friends, we are coming to an end 27:33 to this particular presentation today, 27:36 we thank you for being with us 27:39 and I am sure that if you stay with us 27:42 for the rest of the programs, 27:43 you are certainly going to be spiritually uplifted 27:47 and benefitting from the presentation 27:49 that Dr. Sheperd has for us so, I invite you to stay with us 27:54 and you will enjoy it. 27:56 Thank you for listening 27:58 and I hope that you have a wonderful day today. 28:01 Thank you and may God bless you today. |
Revised 2016-04-21