The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 233

God to control them. Proceeding to discuss the questions submitted to him by the Corinthians, he be;1;ins this chapter by considering marriage in that aspect which was under debate just then at Corinth. Marriage in the abstract is only in view so far as recurrence is necessary, in the conduct of the argument, to the fundamental principles inseparable from the relation. He treats it, in view of existini circumstances, as a matter to be decided by expediency, each one judging what is best. Whether the- unmarried shall be married or not must be determined by themselves in the !io-ht of their 11erso~al_ organization, and by_ the indications of Providence and the Spirit. Freedom w1tbm the bounds of law 1s freedom to deny the use of lawful rights and privileges-so St. Paul bad just argued-and marriage comes under this provision. But here as everywhere, "let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind," and so- reverential is be in his attitude towards humanity, that in the application of expediency to marriage, he will go no further than offer advice. Under the circum- stances, it was the only proper course for him to adopt. No sympathy could he feel with the reaction against marriage in itself, which had set in more than a century before amoi:ig the Romans, and, while an effect, was also a cause of the widespread demorahzat1on of the age. Doubtless the cares of a family in that troubled period, and the supposed nearness of Christ's advent, had their influence on his mind, and yet he is well aware-that, in the lowest view of marriage, it was a protection against vice. Too well he knew the evils which were cursing society because of the popular free- thinking on this subject. For five hundred and twenty years not a divorce had been known in Rome, but we may form some idea of the effect of class wealth and debauching leisure if we recall the facts that in the last days of the republic, Cato of Utica, a religious fanatic in his way, had separated from his wife because a friend wished to marry her and, after his friend's death, had made her his wife again. "On the whole," says Mr. Lecky, '' it is probable that the Roman matron was from the earliest period a name of honour; that the beautiful sentence of a jurisconsult of the empire, who defined marriage as a lifelong fellowship of all Divine and human rights, -expressed most faithfully-the feelings of the people; and that female virtue shone in, every age conspicuously in Roman biographies." But a deplorable change had set in, such a change that Augustus had found it necessary to take measures for the encouragement of marriage. Now here was this corruption more rife than in Corinth, that only repeated on a larger scale the social enormities daily witnessed at Baire, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. Now, in this state of free-thinking, with its attendant ,vickedness, St. Paul's duty was not without embarrassment. Towards the evil itself and its utter grossness his course was plain enough. On the other hand, there were questions of casuistry to be considered. Marriage as a safeguard of virtue, marriage as a union of hea.rt.s, marriage as the highest type of human oneness, marriage in its spiritual import-all involved in it as a Divine institution and as the basis, vitality, security, of all other institutions-this was realized then and always in his apostleship. But there were pure and honest-minded persons among his Corinthian converts, who were troubled by doubts and misgivings, and to whom duty was by no means clear. The instincts of nature had something to say, ond their voice was entitled to a hearing. And at the same time prudence and conscience were not to be dogmatically silenced. St. Paul saw what to do, and he did it. He was profoundly sensitive to principles, he was thoroughly sympathetic with persons, and his jud~ment _was th? product of a 'Yise consideration of gospel truth and of the facts at Co~mth with wh1?h he was dealmg. There is an ideal view to which he refera in the openmg verse of this chapter, but the practical view in contrast with it is that, in order to be guarded against temptation and escape fallino- into the worst of social sins, "Let every man have his own wife, and let every wo~an have her own husband." For, as Neander says, "we must not overlook the fact that Paul is here, not treating of marriage in general, but only in its relation to the condition of things at Corinth, where he feared the effect of moral prejudices concerning celibacy." Nor does he hesitate to say, "I would that all me_11 were even as myself," and yet he qualifies this by stating that "every man hath his proper gift of God," a gift of grace, "one after this manner, and another_ after _that;" so that whether married or sino-le, the '' gift of God" must be recognized, smce, as Bengel ~emarks, "that which in °the natural man is a natural habit, becomes in the: saints a gift of grace."-L.  cu. vn. 1-40.J THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 235