Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people..

There was early cloud cover…but now it’s all sunny again. It’s later than I’d like…but Becki and I had some good lengthy conversation over the New Testament reading for today. Then there was some play with little Nicholas who woke up about 7am. He’s sure a little delightful cutie in the morning.

Once again, I’m not sure how this day will take shape. Perhaps there will be some gardening, some saw milling, some firewood processing, some shed completing…maybe even activating the old dory boat…maybe even putting it in the water for a pre-fishing test run.

1 Corinthians 7 is a challenging portion of scripture. For extra credit, and for expanded consideration, I’m attaching that chapter from the Message translation. I realize some view that translation as contaminated. While it may not be flawless, I personally believe that Eugene Peterson has done a great job at blending scholarship with intended meaning. Give it a read.

Time for a little jog. Have a great day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

I don’t lay any claim to being some kind of professional teacher or counselor relative to marriage and sexual relationships. And I know that most of us are not very aggressive about opening this topic, being rather bound by the traditional silence that it has been given in our past. But the prevalence of conflict and problems in this area of life and the clarity of scriptural instruction go together to give me an urgency that we as parents, teachers, and leaders be as forthright as the scriptures are on the subject.

Paul gives some instruction in this chapter that, in some cases, is hard to sort out and understand. But no one can accuse him for being ignorant or insensitive to the reality of human sexual passion. Even within the exclusive confines of marriage, there are still certain diabolical dangers that Paul wants his people to understand. (See 2 Corinthians 2:11) So he instructs married believers to constantly recognize their oneness with each other and that their married bodies are designed and ordained for the mutual satisfaction and fulfillment of each other. The “act of marriage” is intended to be an ongoing pattern of experience for normal married couples that should only be set aside temporarily for the purpose of focused spiritual pursuits. But even in that case, Paul cautions, it must be done with care and by mutual agreement—SO THAT SATAN WILL NOT TEMPT YOU. An implied point of the presentation is that good satisfying sexual participation in marriage is actually a form of effective spiritual warfare that helps protect one from the kind of temptation that leads to sexual failure—a favorite strategy and objective of Satan.

Let’s make no mistakes in our basic understanding of this basic area of life. Too many do—and pay big consequences. God is the giver, designer, and creator of marriage and its special one-flesh feature. Satan is the stealer, twister, and destroyer of the same. Your best protection against the deceptive devices of the enemy is to nurture A HEART AFTER GOD and hide His Word in your heart as a means to live by its principles—SO THAT SATAN WILL NOT TEMPT YOU. Because if you don’t, he will.