Let God work with what you came with, your background, and no need to fit in for any special occasion because, he says, keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
That's what matters. Just have a relationship with God. Love him. Do his bidding. Do his will.
Keep his commands. When we give our lives to Jesus, sometimes we try to become someone else, someone that we think God will work through better. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how God works powerfully through your authentic self. But before we begin, we want to tell you about a resource that helps you see how God works powerfully through all the circumstances of your life. Life is hard and then we die. That is a harsh but accurate philosophy. Listen to this gentle encouragement. But God.
That's right. In the most difficult circumstances, God can intervene as he did for Joseph, Job, and through the resurrection of Jesus. Here's Skip Heitzig. In fact, there may not be two more hopeful words than these two words, but God, because they point us to the great interrupter, the one who can powerfully and graciously interrupt our life with his plans and change our lives forever. We want to help you understand some of the Bible's most profound but God moments so you can have more hope for change in your own life. Pastor Skip's 10 message teaching series, But God, is our thanks when you give $35 or more today to help connect more people to the only one who can radically change a life. Get your But God CD collection today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 for today's study.
So let's join Skip Heitzig. It's pretty easy to understand the scriptural teaching on marriage. Pretty straightforward. On God's original intention, his original design is one man and one woman for one lifetime. That's his original design. Does that get marred? Yes. Does it get messed up? Yes.
Does it sometimes need to be adjusted? Yes. And the parameters are clearly laid out in scripture. There's no ambiguity really in these things.
But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried. Now this this has bothered some believers. They say, well, why do unbelievers, you know, get all forgiven for their past? But believers, you know, are kind of like fenced in. Really?
You don't know the answer to that? You and I are Christians. You and I are called to a higher level. We're called and empowered by God to live at a higher level. And so because we're now under the covenant of God's grace, all the past is washed away. But now as God's children, there are certain ways that we live that glorify God in our body, in our spirit, which belong to Him. That's the higher standard.
So He lays it out. Look, stay married. If one of you leaves, then you have to stay unmarried. You live that way. You've chosen that lifestyle. You stay unmarried now. Or at some point in the future, you reconcile to the spouse you left.
Those are the two options. And it's pretty clear. Well, there was other issues, though, in the Corinthian church, because what happens if a believer, or let's say you have a marriage, you have two unbelievers. One gets saved and the saved believer goes, man, I'm a Christian now.
I want my, let's say, husband to be a Christian, or I want my wife to be a Christian if you're a man. So you've got a believer and an unbeliever, and the believer wakes up when he goes, wait a minute, this is an unequal yoke. I'm married to an unbeliever.
Didn't Paul say only believers are to be married to believers? But now I find myself married to an unbeliever. Well, yeah, but that's because you got saved. Yeah, but now I'm married to an unbeliever.
Now I have an unequal yoke. And besides that, I met this real cute Christian girl at church who thinks I'm awesome and spiritual and smart and witty. And maybe it's the Lord.
No, it's your hormones, pretty sure. So he gives directions for that. To the rest I say, to the rest I, not the Lord, say. That is, this hasn't been addressed specifically in the words of Jesus or in the Old Testament. If any brother has a wife who does not believe and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. So the unbeliever says, you know what, I don't want to bail on the marriage. I still need to be married to an unbeliever. I still need to be married to an unbeliever. I still need to bail on the marriage. I still love you as my spouse.
I want to make these things work out. I don't agree with your religion. I'm not all into that, but I love you and I'm committed to you. If you're a believer, let that happen.
And he explains why. A woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him, the husband is sanctified by the wife. And the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. What does it mean that one is sanctified by the other?
Well, I'll tell you what it first doesn't mean. It doesn't mean they are automatically saved because one person in that family is a believer. It doesn't mean that. Because if it meant that, he wouldn't have called them a spouse who doesn't believe. He says, if you have a husband who's an unbeliever, you wouldn't call them an unbeliever if they're automatically saved. Now they're a believer. So it doesn't mean that if you marry an unbeliever, the unbeliever is now saved. It means they're sanctified or set apart or in a position of influence by you.
So here's the idea. Let me give you an analogy. The unbeliever is not directly under the spout where the blessing comes out. You as a believer are under the spout where the blessing comes out. But as the blessing comes out on you, child of God, the droppings and the splashings are going to go on your family. The grace of God is going to be conferred in an influential way, a sanctifying way, a special grace kind of a way because of the presence of just one believer in that household. Do you know that's a biblical principle? Do you know that God sometimes blesses an entire household because of one person? The household of Laban was blessed because of Jacob.
Laban had to admit that himself. He goes, you know what? I and my whole family, my flocks, my herds have been blessed because of you, Jacob. Just because you've been hanging around, I've gotten the blessing. The Bible says the house of Potiphar was blessed because of Joseph's presence within it. Remember in the Old Testament when God was about to destroy Sodom, Abraham finds out and says, hey, God, if you find 50 people in that city, will you spare the city for 50 righteous?
God said, done. You find me 50 righteous people in Sodom and I won't nuke it. Well, he knew he couldn't find 50. He said, would you do it for 40? Sure, you find me 40. Yeah, probably not going to find 40. How about 30? You going to go for 30, God?
Sure, I'll do it further to get some all the way down to 10. If I find 10 righteous people, done, find me 10. The presence of 10 righteous people is enough for me not to judge a whole city.
See how that works? That city was sanctified by them, just like a marriage is sanctified by a believing spouse. Now, he does say otherwise your children would be unclean. I think what he's referring to is a text in Malachi chapter 3.
I always like to find out where things are implied in other parts of the scripture to get the idea of the author, the original author's original intent. So in Malachi, sorry, chapter 2, in verse 14, let me read it to you. Yet you say, for what reason, that is the judgment, because the Lord has been witnessed between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did he not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one? He seeks godly offspring, therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce, for it covers one garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. Believers provide a special channel of blessing and grace to unbelievers. He seeks godly offspring. Verse 15, that's what I believe is a reference, a side reference to this in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, the sanctifying influence.
You know, I've seen it. My wife was raised as an atheist. Lenny was raised in an atheistic home, no believers at all.
Her father wrote a book on the power of positive thinking, tucked her in bed every night, told her God didn't exist, and told her little stories, bedtime stories, parables at night, of how it's all by human achievement, there is no God, it's all you, baby, all the way, and you can do it, you can do it, those kind of stories, that's how she grew up. So he was a rabid unbeliever, and positive thinking humanist and an atheist. One day he gets converted to Christ, he gets saved.
He was a very intelligent man, he was a doctor, a surgeon, and became a lawyer, so, I mean, a high achiever. But he was reading the New Testament one day to see if Jesus was a positive person. And as he was reading the Gospel of John, he turned to his wife and said, if what I just read is true, I'm in deep trouble. And he said, and I think I believe what Jesus said, and I need to get baptized. And his wife looked at him like, your much learning has made you mad.
I mean, who are you? What have you done with my husband? I mean, you were this atheist, but now you want to get baptized. Well, he ended up getting baptized. He went down, Chuck Smith baptized him in the ocean, and he immediately called up all of his family and said, let me tell you what Jesus did in my life and what he needs to do in your life.
So because he was saved, Lenya got saved, one of their other sons got saved, so the blessing spreads in a family. And Paul is going to allude to this in the next few verses. Verse 15, but if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. The unbeliever says, yeah, I'm not into your whole religious thing, and I thought I could handle you, but I can't handle you. I just really want out of the marriage. I don't want you to smile all the time at me or let's pray before a meal or look at you with your little Bible. I don't want to do that.
I'm out of here. So if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. A brother or a sister that is a Christian is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? How do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? That's why I say when it says they're sanctified, it doesn't mean they're saved, because how do you know that maybe they will get saved? So they're not saved yet just because of the presence of one believer. You follow? The sanctifying influence is different from the salvation that may or may not come as a result of your faithful testimony in the marriage lived out. But how do you know?
It might actually happen. So far he has said that the marriage bond is sacred. The marriage bond can only be broken by death, by adultery, or by the unbeliever departing the believer.
Those are the three. But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. You're gifting, you're calling for singleness, for marriage, for remarriage, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called wild circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Now I don't know how critically you read the Scripture. I don't know what depth you question it, but have you ever thought how that is even possible once you're circumcised? Right? I mean, are you going to undo that?
So what does he mean so what does he mean exactly by that? If anyone is called while circumcised, let him not become uncircumcised. Was one called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised.
No, that is a possibility. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave?
Do not be concerned about it, but if you can be made free, rather use it. It's hard for us living in America, modern America, post-modern America, post-Covid post-modern America, for us to realize the kind of impact that Christianity had in an empire like Rome. An enormous social impact. There was class warfare in Rome that the church ended. So in Rome, it mattered if you were a Jew or a Gentile. In Rome, it mattered if you were a slave or a freedman.
It mattered if you were this class or that class. The church was the only institution in the Roman Empire where those things did not matter at all. That there was no social division. They were all one in Christ. Paul writes to the Galatians. There's neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male or female. We're all one in Christ, he said. That was groundbreaking.
That was earth-shattering. There was not an institution like that in the entire empire. So he knows that some are going to come in who have a Jewish background, some who have a Gentile background. They're circumcised and uncircumcised.
Paul says if you came with a Jewish background, you don't have to disassociate yourselves from that identity as a Jewish person. Now, Josephus actually tells us that during the height of the Greek influence in the Greek and Roman empires, that Jewish men who had been circumcised subjected themselves to a surgical operation that made them look like they had not been circumcised. So that they would be accepted in the public baths, the public gymnasiums in those days. So that they would be accepted by the Greek culture.
Some were willing to go through that. Maybe Paul has that in mind. He goes, ah, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't worry about fitting in in the gym or at the bath. Realize that you're in Christ. There's nothing wrong with that. There's no divisions in the church.
And if he called you while you were circumcised, okay, that's your identity. You don't have to shirk that. If you are a Gentile, you don't have to try to become Jewish. It's funny how many Gentiles I meet who try to become Jewish. You know, they're wearing a kippah even though they're not Jewish. They're always keeping the festivals even though they're not Jewish. They're always talking to the Gentiles. They're always talking Hebrew even though they're not Jewish.
And it's almost like they're trying to become, you know, like neo-Jews. Be who you are, man. Let God work with what you came with, your background, and no need to fit in for any special occasion because, he says, keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
That's what matters. Just have a relationship with God. Love Him. Do His bidding. Do His will. Keep His commands. That's all that really matters. It doesn't matter if you try to not be a Jew anymore or as a Gentile try to be a Jew.
Just be what you are. For he who is called, verse 22, in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed man. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ's slave. I love the way he words that. Now, Paul is not condoning slavery, but he's not trying to say let's have an insurrection against Rome and demand and picket in front of Caesar's palace.
Not the one in Vegas, the one in Rome. You know, that we want our freedom. Christ wasn't here to start a revolution. So if you're a slave, be a good slave.
Paul knew he couldn't overturn Roman slavery. He wanted the slaves to live a good witness because those slaves masters may come to know Christ and those that did often would set those slaves free. But he also says if you're a freed person and you might have no compulsion under a master whatsoever, keep in mind you really are the Lord's slave. So we're all slaves of Christ and he is our master. By the way, you should know also that a large percentage of the Roman Empire's population were slaves. Some reckon up to 50% were owned by other people. And it wasn't just unskilled laborers.
There were professionals, accountants, doctors, lawyers, professional musicians who were owned by a large number of rich patrons in the Roman Empire. Verse 23, you were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men.
Brethren, let each one remain with God in the state in which he was called. Now concerning virgins. You probably don't start many conversations like that.
But Paul does. New paragraph. Now concerning virgins.
Parmenoi is the Greek word. Usually refers to unmarried girls. Now concerning virgins. I have no commandment from the Lord.
That is, there's nothing written about in the Gospels or in the Old Testament. Concerning virgins, those young women who have never married, I have no commandment from the Lord. Yet I give judgment as one whom the Lord in his mercy has made trustworthy. I suppose therefore this is good because of the present distress that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed.
Are you loosed? Are you loosed from a wife? Don't seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned.
And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless, such will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you. What Paul was speaking about exactly, I'm not sure. He talks about a present distress. Was he talking about a political uprising? Was he talking about a persecution?
Probably he was, but we're not sure. A persecution that was fomenting and he could see it on the horizon. We know that a persecution would get so fierce that it would take his own life. He would stand before Caesar Nero.
Caesar would let him go, then Caesar would re-arrest him, and then Caesar would cut his head off or have his head cut off. So Paul, I think, could see that we're living in some tough times, in some distressful times. And so he just says, just kind of stay as you are, Corinthians. But if you get married, don't worry about it.
You haven't sinned. But he says, nevertheless, such will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you. Now, we don't have much time. I thought we'd be able to get through the whole chapter, so I'll spare you.
We'll wait till next week. But when he writes about this trouble in the flesh, it's pretty straightforward, common sense stuff. When a person gets married, or when two people get married, they have to adjust a lot. Do I get an amen from that, from married people? Can I have an amen? Yeah. Is that right?
Don't you have to adjust a lot? Don't you come, don't you people come into that relationship with all their habits and ideologies and messiness and baggage, and that has to get sorted out. Distress, the present distress, but he says here, trouble in the flesh. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from his series Expound First Corinthians.
Now, here's Skip with an important message for you. Our God has unmatched wisdom and power. That knowledge should give us great peace and comfort, because we are in His care. We want to help friends like you to connect even deeper with the Lord. That's why we share these Bible teachings that you have come to love. Can you help these messages keep coming to you and many others through your support today?
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