H. Widows (7:39–40)
H. Widows (7:39–40)
39. Christian marriage means that a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If he dies (koimēthē, ‘falls asleep’), she is free to remarry if she will. NIV is a trifle over-definite with the rendering, he must belong to the Lord. While this is often accepted as the meaning, Paul says no more than ‘only in the Lord’. In marriage as in all else, the Christian must remember that he acts as a member of Christ’s body.
40. Right to the end Paul refrains from saying anything to indicate that there is something morally higher about celibacy. He thinks that the widow is happier if she refrains from remarriage. We must, of course, read this in the light of the special circumstances mentioned earlier in the chapter. There is nothing tentative about the authority with which Paul speaks. He has sometimes been able to quote a saying of Jesus, sometimes he has given his own opinion. But in doing this he holds that he has the Spirit of God. He is conscious of the divine enablement; what he says is more than the opinion of a private individual. His I too may imply that some of the Corinthians had claimed inspiration. Paul is no whit behind any of them.