Marriage and Virginity
13. It is great foolishness, therefore, to think that the benefits of this virginity are not necessary for the kingdom of heaven, but only for this world, in that marriages endure the strain of many worldly cares and worries, while virgins and celibate persons are spared those troubles. As if being single is better only to have freedom from the worries of this life, and not because it is of any benefit for the next life! So as not to seem to have brought forth this shallow opinion from their own empty minds, they invoke the testimony of the apostle, where he says: Concerning virgins, however, I have no commandment from the Lord, but, as one who through God's mercy has remained faithful, I give you advice. Accordingly, I think this is good because of present needs, namely, it is good to stay as you are (1 Cor 7:25-26). "See," they say, "here the apostle makes it clear that this is good because of the needs of the present time, and not because of future eternity."†13 As if the apostle would give any thought to present needs, unless he was looking ahead and providing for the future, given that his whole undertaking had no object other than to call people to eternal life.
Virginal Consecration Brings Greater Glory in Heaven
14, 14. Pressure from present needs, therefore, is to be avoided, but only when it is a hindrance for future benefits. It is this kind of pressure that compels married life to be concerned about worldly things, how the husband can please his wife, and the wife her husband.†14 Not that this cuts them off from God's kingdom, as sins do. Sins are forbidden by a commandment rather than advised against, and disobeying God when he commands something incurs damnation. On the other hand, that thing that could be possessed to a greater degree even in the kingdom of God, if one gave more thought to pleasing God, will certainly be diminished, when one gives less thought to it because of the demands of the marriage. Therefore, Concerning virgins, he says, I have no commandment from the Lord (1 Cor 7:25). Anyone who does not obey a commandment commits a sin and is liable for punishment. Therefore, because it is not a sin for a man or woman to marry (if it were a sin it would be forbidden by a commandment), it follows that there is no commandment from the Lord about virgins. To avoid sin or obtain forgiveness for sins is the way to enter eternal life. There is a special splendor there, however, that is not bestowed on everyone who lives forever, but only on certain ones. To achieve this being redeemed from sin is of little consequence unless one has also made a certain vow to the redeemer. No one will be blamed for not making that vow, but there will be commendation for those who made it and kept it. As one who through God's mercy has remained faithful, I give you advice (1 Cor 7:26), he says. I, who am not faithful by my own merits but by God's mercy, should not be loath to give sound advice. Accordingly, I think this is good because of present needs. What he is saying is this: "This is not something about which I have a commandment from the Lord, but advice I give you, namely, that concerning virgins, I think this is good because of present needs (1 Cor 7:25-26)." I know what the needs of the present time, to which marriages are subject, demand. It is that less thought be given to God's concerns than is adequate for obtaining that glory that will not be shared by everyone, not even by everyone living on in the eternal life of salvation. For one star differs from another star in splendor; and it is like that with the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:41-42).
Therefore it is good to stay as one is (1 Cor 7:26).
Virginity Is a Counsel, Not a Commandment
15, 15. Further on the same apostle goes on to say: You are bound to a wife? Do not look for a divorce. You are free of a wife? Do not look for a wife (1 Cor 7:27). The first of these two propositions is the object of a commandment, which it is a sin to disobey. To divorce a wife, apart from the case of adultery, is forbidden, as the Lord himself says in the gospel.†15 The other, You are free of a wife? Do not look for a wife, is a statement of advice, not a commandment; hence to marry is not something wrong to do, but it is better not to do it. He immediately adds: If you have married, you have not committed a sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not commit a sin (1 Cor 7:28). When, however, he said that first thing, You are bound to a wife? Do not look for a divorce, did he add, "And if you divorce, you do not commit a sin"? He had already said previously: To those, however, who are married it is commanded, not by me, but by the Lord, that a wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave him, she should either remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband (1 Cor 7:10-11). It is possible that her leaving is not through her own fault, but her husband's. He then says, And a husband must not divorce his wife (1
Cor 7:11), and still presents this as the Lord's commandment. On this occasion too he does not add, "And if he does divorce her, he does not commit a sin." This is a command, and not to obey it is a sin; it is not advice, whereby you accomplish less good if you decide not to act on it, but do not do anything bad. Accordingly, when he said, You are free of a wife? Do not look for a wife (1 Cor 7:27-28), since here he was not forbidding doing evil, but was recommending doing the more perfect thing, he immediately added, and if you have married, you have not committed a sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not commit a sin.
Marriage Entails Troublesome Burdens
16, 16. But then he added: Such people will be troubled by the flesh, but I will spare you that (1 Cor 7:28). In this way he was encouraging virginity and perpetual chastity, and so to some extent also discouraging marriage, but in a restrained way, to be sure, and not as something bad and forbidden, but as something burdensome and worrying. Giving in to sins of the flesh is one thing, but being troubled by the flesh is another. In one case sin is committed, in the other a burden is endured. It is a burden that people generally do not refuse, especially in the course of duties that carry great honor. In the present age, however, when bearing children physically does not contribute toward the future physical birth of Christ, to undertake for the sake of having a marriage the burden of those afflictions of the flesh that the apostle pronounces to be the lot of those who marry would be utter foolishness. The only exception is for those who lack self-control, if there is danger they will give in to the temptation of Satan and fall into mortal sin. When, however, he says he is sparing those he feels will suffer the afflictions of the flesh, nothing more helpful occurs to me to say for the moment than that he did not want to spell out the details of that affliction of the flesh that he predicted for those who decided to marry. They relate to the jealous suspicions of husbands and wives, to having and looking after children, to the sorrows and worries of widowhood. Is there anyone, among those who have tied themselves with the bonds of marriage, who is not tossed and torn by those cares? We should not exaggerate it, however, for fear of not sparing the very persons the apostle thought to spare.
The Apostle Paul Does Not Condemn Marriage
17, 17. These brief comments were needed to put the reader on guard against those who use the text, Such people will be troubled by the flesh, but I will spare you that (1 Cor 7:28), to slander marriage, by saying that Paul implicitly condemns it. They would have you understand that when he said, but I will spare you that, he did not want to utter the actual condemnation. In other words, when he said, And if you have married, you have not committed a sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not commit a sin (1 Cor 7:28), he was lying.
In that case, while he spared them, he did not spare his own soul. Those who think like this about the scripture, or who want others to do so, are constructing for themselves, as it were, a way to have a license to lie and a method of defending depraved opinions, whenever they hold views that conflict with sound doctrine. If anything that would refute their errors is presented as being revealed in the holy bible, they have it at hand like a shield, to use it to defend themselves against the truth, although in so doing they leave themselves defenseless against injury from the devil. They have only to say that the writer was not speaking the truth, sometimes to spare the weak, sometimes to frighten the arrogant, whatever suits the purpose of defending their perverted opinions. So, while preferring to defend their opinions rather than correct them, they strive to break the authority of the holy scripture; but on it, and on it by itself, all proud and hard heads are broken.†16
Advocates of Virginity Must Not Condemn Marriage
18, 18. For these reasons I urge men and women who practice perpetual chastity and holy virginity to value their perfection above that of the married state, but without holding marriage to be bad, and with the knowledge that the apostle said, not lying but absolutely truthfully, Anyone who has his daughter married does well; and anyone who does not have his daughter married does better (1 Cor 7:38). And if you have married, you have not committed a sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not commit a sin (1 Cor 7:28); and a little further on, In my opinion, however, she will be better off if she stays as she is. And, so it will not be thought to be a merely human opinion, he adds, I think, however, that I have the Spirit of God (1 Cor
7:40). This is what the Lord teaches; this is what the apostle teaches; this is the true and sound teaching: choose the better gifts, without condemning the lesser ones. God's truth in God's scripture is worth more than anyone's virginity, physical or spiritual. Let chastity be loved, without truth being denied. What evil can people not think up even about their own bodies, when they believe that in the text where he was commending virginity of the body, the apostle's tongue did not have virginal integrity, untouched by the defilement of lying? First of all, therefore, and above all, let those who choose virginity hold it as absolutely beyond question that holy scripture contains no lies, and hence that statement also was true: And if you have married, you have not committed a sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not commit a sin (1 Cor 7:28). Let them not think either that the great excellence of virginity is diminished if marriage is not an evil. On the contrary, someone who was not