“Brothers and sisters, what I want to say is that time is short. From now on, those who have a wife will be as if they had no wife, those who are sad will be as if they had no wife, and those who are happy will be as if they had no wife. should live as if they had a wife. Instead, people buy things as if they don't belong to them. People who use the things of this world as if they were not crazy about it. This world, in its present form, is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31).
These verses come from St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, which was sent by St. Paul to the church in Corinth, a city in present-day Greece. According to the website Bible Study Tools, the letter was written in about 53 AD.
According to the same source, St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians “revolves around the question of Christian conduct in the church.”
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Paul lived in Corinth for three years and was “personally interested in the problems of the Corinthians, revealing the heart of a true pastor (shepherd),” the same website says.
“At first glance, viewed in isolation, the imperatives of this text may seem counterintuitive,” Dr. Joshua Smith, an associate professor in Biola University's Torrey Honors College, told FOX News Digital.
Joshua Smith of Biola University in California looks back at 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 to clarify what this seemingly “counterintuitive” passage means. (Image provided/Courtesy of Biola University)
Biola University is a Christian university located in Southern California.
“If we don't think about it, it's easy to think that Paul is asking people to abandon marital chastity and suppress their emotions,” he said.
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Although consistent with Jesus' teaching not to cherish possessions, “the idea of despising the bond of marriage is contradictory, and the idea of not expressing life's sorrows and joys is inhuman and inhuman. It's realistic,” he said. Smith.
Smith said verse 31 is the key to understanding the passage, “The form of this world is passing away.”
“Paul invites us to view life with a clear awareness of the fundamental mission of the physical world: that everything we experience in it is fleeting.”
“In other words, Paul invites us to view life with a clear understanding of the fundamental mission of the material world. That is, everything we experience there, even the sacred Even things are fleeting,” he said.
Furthermore, “Paul also asks us to view life in terms of the fundamental command of the spiritual world: Jesus is coming back.”
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“When Paul says 'time is short,' he is referring as much to the impending return of Christ as he is to the possible end of the world,” Smith said. .
Therefore, Christians should interpret these verses “not in terms of the hopelessness and emptiness of earthly life, but in terms of the security available in eternal life,” Smith said.
According to Joshua Smith of California, the scripture in 1 Corinthians is actually meant to teach people to focus on eternity rather than the present. (St. Petersburg)
“We are able to let go of our possessions, whether literal or figurative, because we hold fast to the One who owns us,” he said. Told.
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And while “the idea of being possessed or possessed by someone sounds unpleasant to the ears of modern Western thinkers,” Smith says, it's a different story when the “owner” is Jesus. Stated.
St. Paul wrote much of the New Testament. Biola University's Smith said of a specific Bible passage from St. Paul: “We can give up possessions, whether literal or figurative, because they possess us. Because I have a firm grip on the One who will take care of me.” (St. Petersburg)
“We are freer than ever before,” he said.
“There is a freedom that comes to us when our joy and peace are rooted in something solid,” Smith said.
“Happiness in this world is but a faint call to secure joy in the next life.”
This is true even if it is temporary.
“This is because we can accept the temporary as the status quo. It's an opportunity to rehearse for the life to come,” he says.
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“The best this world can offer is to remind us that happiness in this world is only a faint call to secure joy in the next life.”
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