The title of the message this morning is Answers to Questions Regarding Marriage and Divorce. Answers to Questions regarding marriage and divorce, Part One. Paul is not sitting down in chapter seven and just writing an exhaustive, dissertation on the subject of marriage and divorce. There's a number of, Issues that Paul would have talked about if he were trying to cover absolutely every base.
You need to understand that what Paul is doing in chapter 7 is he is responding to a letter. That the Corinthians had written to him a letter in which they had posed various questions regarding the subject of marriage and divorce and even physical intimacy within the bounds of marriage, questions regarding singleness, as well, and, and in some cases, perhaps they were asking questions. In other cases, perhaps in this letter, they were stating opinions and beliefs. And they were giving those things to the apostle Paul to see what he thought of their opinions on various matters regarding marriage and divorce.
And so throughout the length of 1 Corinthians chapter 7, you need to understand that Paul is responding to a letter that they had written to him. Look at what he says in verse 1. Now concerning the things about which you. Paul now has a letter that he's looking at that they had written to him with various questions and opinions and controversies and concerns, and he's looking at that letter and now he is writing to them things in response to that letter to answer those questions, to settle those concerns and those controversies regarding the issue of marriage and divorce, and then in later chapters, even other issues that they spoke about in their letter to him.
And folks, we don't have a copy of this letter. It would be great if we had a copy of the letter that they had written to Paul, and we were able to look at that and then look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 and see why he says what he says and why he limits his comments the way. that he does in chapter 7. Actually, there are questions that chapter 7 raises in our minds, and we would be asking in some cases different questions than what the Corinthians, were asking, but we need to understand Paul is simply responding to the questions that they were asking....