Mrs. Maken's argument hinges on her understanding of 1 Corinthians 7. She notes, "Past Christians also read I Corinthians 7, and they understood that Paul was writing at a time of 'great distress,' referring to the famine in the Greek countryside and the percolating persecutions taking place at the time. Because of these threatening circumstances, Paul advised that marriage could temporarily be placed on the back-burner. They understood that letter to convey expediency, nothing more. Paul never held marriage and singleness to be on equal planes, and neither did past Christians. Paul acknowledged celibacy (i.e., the supernatural removal of sexual desire) as a God-given gift. He acknowledged that the celibate could be single, but that the single could not necessarily be celibate and therefore prescribed marriage."

I can hear myself cheering her on, it sounds so right. I mean that will all sincerity. But, let us step back just a bit. Let us stop there for a moment and consider 1 Corinthians 7. Paul does mention the issue of great distress, but not until v. 26. He has much to say prior to that point in regard to singleness. In looking at the text, by way of application, let us consider some major issues related to this subject.

The first major issue to consider is God. No matter what the issue is under consideration, our primary and ultimate duty and delight is to glorify God. Perhaps surprisingly, according to Paul, we can glorify God with our bodies by remaining single. Obviously, it is necessary to refrain from sexual contact outside of marriage. At the same time, the Scripture indicates that it is good to remain single if one is so inclined.

In 1 Cor. 7:1, Paul is coming off the heels of admonishing the Corinthians to glorify God with their bodies. His primary concern was that they flee immorality. Here, he turns to answer some questions the Corinthians had asked him. At the same time, he deals first with the question of sexual relations. In so doing, he moves from the negative admonition of "flee immorality" to the positive admonition "have regular sexual relations in marriage." In so doing, Paul implies that we not only glorify God with our bodies by fleeing immorality, but we glorify God with our bodies by having regular sexual relations in marriage.