1 Corinthians 7:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having corrected three very serious faults, first, the division of the Church, second, the vice of the incestuous man, and third, covetousness, the Apostle now speaks more gently.

Among other things, he offers instruction and counsel concerning marriage and virginity, in order to calm his hearers after severe rebukes.

In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians he does otherwise. He begins gently and ends sternly. Here, after finishing his discourse on virginity, he again turns to rebukes.

He does not present everything at once, but varies his discourse with both kinds of speech, according to the demand of the occasion and the nature of the subjects.

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me." Having corrected the disorders of divisions, fornication, and covetousness, he now lays down rules concerning marriage and virginity. For the Corinthians had asked him in a letter whether one ought to abstain from one's wife or not.

"It is good for a man not to touch a woman." It is good and excellent, he says, if every man, and not only a priest, as some wrongly understand this, were not to touch a wife at all and were to remain a virgin. Yet it is safer, and closer to our weakness, to enter marriage. Therefore he adds what follows.

Let us turn to the beginning of the testimony. "It is good," he says, "for a man not to touch a woman." If it is good not to touch a woman, then it follows that to touch is not good, because only what is not good is opposed to the good.

If it is not good and is excused, then it is permitted so that something worse may not come from what is bad. What kind of good is this, which is permitted out of fear of something worse?

For he would never have added, "let each man have his own wife," if he had not first said, "because of fornication." Remove fornication, and he will not say, "let each man have his own wife."

It is as if someone said: it is good to eat wheat bread and the purest fine flour. But lest one compelled by hunger eat ox dung, I allow him also to eat barley.

Stirred up by the perverse judgments of the false apostles, who through hypocrisy taught the rejection of marriage so as to appear purer than others, the Corinthians were not pleased with this judgment. Therefore they wrote Paul a letter about this question, and about this question only.

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman." The Apostle clearly shows that he is writing replies to the questions they had submitted. The Corinthians had asked whether those lawfully joined in marriage to wives, and then deemed worthy of saving baptism, should have conjugal relations with them. Thus he writes, praising continence and condemning fornication, yet also consenting to conjugal relations. For after saying, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," he added: "But because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband."

The Apostle answered this to the clergy, since they had written to him. Thus he forbade fornication as unlawful. But he allowed cohabitation in marriage as pious and as restraining fornication, while advising continence as more perfect.

First instruction, concerning conduct in ordinary daily life, on the married and virginal states (1 Cor 7).

The apostolic instruction concerning the married state is composed of the following distinct thoughts.

The moral purpose of marriage is the avoidance of fornication (1 Cor 7:1).

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me," that is, whether to enter marriage or not, "it is good for a man not to touch women."

The Apostle clearly makes it known that he is writing answers to the questions that had been put to him by the Corinthians (Theodoret).

Thus the Apostle directly says that the state of virginity, with its purity of soul and body, is the higher state for man in the moral respect.

The Apostle writes about marriage and celibacy in answer to a question from the Corinthians on this matter. Answering the question first briefly, he teaches that virginity is excellent, but that many cannot bear it.

Therefore married life must be the common norm of life, while virginity can be the portion only of those capable of it. This is the same teaching that Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed.

In response to the statement that it is better not to marry, He answered: "He who is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Mt 19:12).

Saint John Chrysostom says: "If you seek the highest good, it is better not to be joined to a woman at all. But if you seek a safe condition, one suited to your weakness, then enter into marriage.

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me." The sentence has no ending. One must supply: this is what I say, or, this is my answer.

"The Apostle clearly makes it known that he is writing answers to the questions that had been put to him by them" (Theodoret).

"It is good for a man not to touch a woman." This means not to touch her at all, and therefore not to enter into marriage.

The words that follow do not allow us to think that the Apostle is speaking to those already married, as though it were good for husband and wife to live like brother and sister.

For in contrast to this place he later says that a man should have a wife and a woman a husband.