Again, was Paul serious and sincere about not departing from your spouse? Yes or no? Had he been married, he'd be in violation of his own words.
How long have you been single?
- Thread starter Rainstorm
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Sometimes it is fun to keep talking, just to see how far somebody will go to get the last word.
But I have already had my fun with Lovette in this regard. Now it is Rod's turn.
But I have already had my fun with Lovette in this regard. Now it is Rod's turn.
Lovette, if you personally believe that marriage is "simply a pursuit for the status of being married, that makes this pursuit an idol with no bearing in reality"............well, great! Fortunately, nobody is forcing you to get married. We can choose to pursue that. Or not.
Marriage is a good thing. It is not necessarily a "worldly temptation." God created marriage. Marriage happened in the Garden of Eden. While Adam had a perfect, sinless relationship with God. God looked at Adam and said it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Isn’t that interesting? You mean even when he was totally with God, Adam still needed someone else? Whoops.
"The total futility would be go date a total stranger you know nothing about, wasting your time and money and theirs." Uh, usually when people date, it's people who know each other who are mutually attracted. And when people meet for the first time on a first date, the purpose of the date is to evaluate each other to see if there is mutual attraction there.
Geez. Have you ever even been on a date, Lovette?
Marriage is a good thing. It is not necessarily a "worldly temptation." God created marriage. Marriage happened in the Garden of Eden. While Adam had a perfect, sinless relationship with God. God looked at Adam and said it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Isn’t that interesting? You mean even when he was totally with God, Adam still needed someone else? Whoops.
"The total futility would be go date a total stranger you know nothing about, wasting your time and money and theirs." Uh, usually when people date, it's people who know each other who are mutually attracted. And when people meet for the first time on a first date, the purpose of the date is to evaluate each other to see if there is mutual attraction there.
Geez. Have you ever even been on a date, Lovette?
I'm finding this fascinating, to be honest. At least so far. There's nobody quite like Lovette, is there?
Well that's the sad part. There are quite a few. They come through this forum occasionally.
This one has a distinct red pill flavor. Distinct, but not unique.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," minimizing his teaching as his personal opinion is discrediting him. I ask you again, is apostle Paul a role model to follow, do you trust him with his words?
Yes, I trust Paul when he admits that the has no commandment from God and when he admits that he's simply expressing a personal opinion. I also trust him when he does say that he had revelations from God. Hahaha!
ChristianChat just gave me a "trophy" that's titled "Keeps coming back." Hahaha! That's hilarious!
God did create marriage, but most assuredly he didn't create dating, a modern invention, and there's no way to marriage without dating. "Mutual attraction" or not, it's a waste of time and money, all chasing wind.
As a matter of fact, Adam did NOT complain about being single and asking God for a mate, it was God who determined that it was not good for Adam to be alone. He didn't make another figure out of the dust and hook Adam up with her, he made a woman out of Adam's own body and joined them together, does that sound like dating to you, or an arranged marriage? I don't need to go on a date to know how risky and futile it is, just as I don't need to touch a stove to know it burns or jump off a ledge to know gravity.
"Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife." Arguing in favor of him being married and then single is discreting him as a hypocrite.
I didn't say that the Bible invented dating. But if you want to find romantic love in the modern age without dating, and just wait for God to magically "poof" you a spouse, well, sure I guess you could try that. Or maybe convince all of Western society to go back to betrothals at young ages. or just skip dating altogether and not bother with it.
Hey, we do have the freedom to do those things.
If Paul had divorced his wife and then remarried, sure. The Bible nowhere says that this is what happened. All we know is that when Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church, he was unmarried. The Bible never says whether Paul was ever married. The Bible also never says whether Paul was never married.
Or how about remain where you are? "Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called." "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife." You're baptized single, you stay single for the rest of your life; you're baptized married, you stay married for the rest of your life.
The Bible nowhere says he had divorced because he'd never married in the first place. Had he ever married, how was he unmarried when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church?
Sure, you could do that. But, remember, Paul was writing this epistle to the church in Corinth, a church that was dealing with lots of worldly trouble at the time. He mentions the "present distress" as a good reason to stay single. But nowhere in this chapter does Paul forbid the Corinthian church, or all future Christians, from ever marrying.
And we don't know whether Paul was ever married or not. All we know is that when Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church, he was unmarried. That's it.
This is like watching people argue about whether one must be baptized, because the thief on the cross was never baptized. Whether the thief was baptized or not does not matter. We are not hanging on a cross.
Leave Paul alone. His personal marital status does not affect you one bit.
Personally, I'm finding this fascinating just because I've never really encountered this sort of pushback before. So it's very tempting to keep engaging.
Unfortunately, Paul had words about these sorts of things:
-Titus 3:9: "But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless."
-2 Timothy 2:23: "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife."
- 1 Timothy 2:23: "He is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions..."
Dang it, Paul! Always ruining my fun! Hahaha!
And nowhere did he promote it either. Quite the contrary, he DIScouraged it - "are you loose from a wife? Don't seek one."
Yes we do know, as long as he forbade divorce, the legal path from 'married" to "unmarried."
Paul never promoted marriage?
In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul says he has no "commandment from God" about this. Paul says that he wishes that everyone was single like him ── not that God wishes it. He says that he, personally, is content with being single ── but he admits that not everyone is like that. He says that it's good to stay single, but that it's better to marry if you have strong desires. Paul "supposes" that it's better to stay single because of "the present distress," some crisis that the church in Corinth was dealing with at the time. He says you're not sinning by marrying. Paul says a widow would be happier if she stayed single, but he admits that this is just a personal opinion. Evidently, many people are not happier being single. In 1 Timothy 4:1-3 Paul also condemns people who forbid marriage. And if Paul wrote the Book of Hebrews, then he also said that marriage is a good thing.
Paul's teaching on celibacy is rather nuanced. I think it's helpful to keep that in mind. And again, Paul "supposes" that it's better to stay single because of "the present distress," some crisis that the church in Corinth was dealing with at the time. it also seems like Paul believed the church in his day was living in the End Times, which would explain his caution.
And we don't know whether Paul was ever married or not. The Bible doesn't say.