But this I say, brethren, the time is straitened. For the rest, that they who have wives, be as not having [any]
Paul has been advising the Corinthians about marriage and single life. Now he gives the reason behind all of it. One fact governs the whole of life — marriage, sorrow, joy, buying, using the world: the time has been cut short.
Older translations read "the time is short," or "straitened." One writer traces that word and finds it points to something squeezed together:
We are to recognise that "the time is short," or "straitened." The word used means contracted as to space. It is used in only one other place in the New Testament — Acts 5:6, about Ananias being wrapped up for burial. How often we fail to see that we live in a straitened time! The death and resurrection of Christ have narrowed the issue. So we should hold all we have in the world with a light hand, ready to leave at a moment's notice.
One writer names the point in history when the time was cut short:
This is no commonplace remark on how short time is. It is the solemn statement that the time has been shortened from now on — that is, as I suppose, since Christ's death and the call of the church. It was shortened so that the believer should hold everything but Christ with a loose hand: all the things in which men might rejoice, however sorrowful their lot may be. But the Saviour has changed everything for the Christian. He looks on the earth as the place of Christ's rejection. He follows Him in spirit into the heavens now opened, and from there he waits for Him in peace, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. This world has no more permanence than the shifting scenes of a theatre.
Paul never names the Lord's return here. Yet the same writer says the whole passage rests on it. The world's outlook depends on denying it.
Not a word here formally brings in the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet it all rests deeply on that great and most influential truth, held as a living and constant expectation. What does the entire course of the world depend on? It takes for granted ages to come for man and his progress here below. So it denies in practice, and often openly, the Lord's coming as a real hope, or even as truth. What fills man with vainglory? What kindles his enthusiasm, or steels him to labour and endurance? Would any of it be found if he believed the Lord was coming? Clearly not.
Some twist "as though they had none" into an excuse. One writer answers that it cannot cancel what Paul commands earlier in the same chapter.
This does not give anyone a warrant to neglect his wife. That would directly contradict the instruction the Holy Spirit gave through the same apostle in our chapter. Suppose a Christian husband used that passage as a warrant for neglecting his wife and children, day after day and evening after evening, so as to exercise his gift in a wider circle. The inevitable result will be that the state of his wife and children will soon close the door on his service.
The same balance is struck elsewhere. God set up these ties, and a new power lifts us above them without denying them:
God established certain relationships… Sin has come in and spoiled everything. A new power has come in which, while fully recognising them as of God, and using them as pictures of the highest spiritual relationships with Christ and the Father, has nothing to do with them — is above them and outside them. As a rule those who talk much about being dead to nature do so because they are not… "Dead to nature" is legality.
Paul's aim in all of this is positive:
The apostle only wanted them to be free from anxiety and distraction, so that they might serve the Lord. If reckoning themselves dead to nature did not produce this effect, they gained nothing — they lost by it… If they mastered and silenced the will of nature, they served the Lord without distraction. They lived by the Spirit and not by nature, even in the things God had ordained as good for nature.
The verse does not condemn marriage, tears, laughter or property. It puts them in their place, as things that end.
Some things last only for a time — marriage, weeping, rejoicing over present circumstances, buying, using the world. They were not matters that should take up too much time and attention. If they are things God gives for our present comfort, they must never enslave us in any way. They must not so occupy our interest that eternal realities grow dim and lose the place that belongs to them. For all that is present is passing.
- Shortened — "Short" means compressed or contracted. The death and resurrection of Christ narrowed the time; this is not just a remark about how brief life is.
- Expecting — Behind the shortened time stands the Lord's coming. Paul never names it, yet the world denies it and plans as if history will roll on.
- Holding — Because the time is contracted, hold everything but Christ with a light hand, ready to leave at a moment's notice.
- Honouring — "As though they had none" never excuses neglect of a wife or children. That would contradict what the same apostle commands in the same chapter.
- Serving — The goal is a heart free from distraction. Enjoy God's passing gifts, but never let them own you.
and they that weep, as not weeping; and they that rejoice, as not rejoicing; and they that buy, as not possessing;
Paul has just told the Corinthians that the appointed time has grown very short. Here he applies that to three things that grip the human heart: grief, gladness, and getting. Does this verse tell a Christian to feel less? Or to hold everything with a looser grip?
The instruction rests on the clause just before it. One writer explains why that shortened time loosens the believer's grip on everything else:
This is not a common remark on how brief time is. It is the solemn statement that the time has been shortened from now on — that is, as I take it, since Christ's death and the call of the church. The purpose is that the believer should hold everything but Christ with a loose hand, including all the things in which men might rejoice, however sorrowful their lot may be. But the Saviour has changed everything for the Christian. The Christian looks on the earth as the place where his Lord was rejected. He follows Him in spirit into the heavens now opened, and waits there in peace for Him, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. This world really has no more permanence than the shifting scenery of a theatre.
What is short is not just a lifespan. Another writer draws the line:
He does not reason on the brevity of life, but on the shortness of their allotted time of pilgrimage. With life, as men reckon it, they have already finished. Both dead and risen with Christ, their calling is to wait here as His witnesses until He comes. So let their thoughts suit their calling, and their actions suit their thoughts. The married should not long for a settled life here, and mourners should not long for more hopeful days. Their endless comfort will arrive when Jesus comes.
"Mourn as though they were not mourning" could sound like a call to suppress feeling. Commentators reject that reading. One writer says the Spirit deepens feeling instead of deadening it:
Christ does not ignore relationship, sorrow, joy, business, or position. Instead He brings in an energy of the Spirit for each one. That energy deepens sensitivity and respects everything God has established in nature and on earth. At the same time it raises us above it all and attaches us to Christ in heaven, who is about to come again.
Another writer sets this against stoicism, the philosophy of stamping out feeling:
This is not stoicism. Stoicism would try to hammer out all the higher feelings of nature in the stoic, and of the divine nature in the badly taught Christian. If my affections were as sensitive as Paul's were, I would have more feeling than I have. But in this sense my feelings are not just natural, fallen nature. They are new. I have Christ and His mind as their power and their regulation. Christ wept; but He wept in the sight of God, and He would not have been perfect as a man if He had not wept more than once.
One writer points to the Lord Himself, first at Bethany and then on the road to Jerusalem:
Resurrection was everything to Him. It was His relief in the sorrows of life, and His object in the middle of the promises and prospects of the world. It gave His soul a calm sunshine when dark, heavy clouds had gathered over Bethany. It moderated and separated His affections when the bright glare of a festive day lit up the road from there to Jerusalem. The thought of it made His mind holy equally in the grief and the enjoyments around Him.
The last part of the verse touches money and property. One writer turns it into a rule for the person whose business does well:
Let those who prosper seek their joys somewhere other than in this passing and uncertain world. Do not let the love of gain take the place of godliness. Gain glues men to the things of time. Godliness teaches us to handle God's things as our own... The believer should not live today as if he feared tomorrow might take his joy away. He should not lounge at ease in his inheritance. He should live as a steward who is wise to turn the money of unrighteousness to lasting account.
Another writer puts the whole passage into one rule about what a believer calls his own:
Christ has been rejected, and the power of evil has come in. Marriage is entirely lawful, and so on. Yet let even those who have wives be as though they had none (vv. 29-31). I am to use this world in everything as not a possession of mine, as not belonging to me.
- Short time. The season has been cut short since Christ's death and the calling of the church. Nothing here is worth a settled grip.
- Loose hand. Short time is the reason for the loose hold. Hold everything but Christ lightly. Mourners need not long for happier days here. Their lasting comfort comes when Jesus comes.
- Deeper feeling. This is not stoicism. The Spirit deepens feeling and lifts the heart above it. Christ wept, and would not have been perfect as a man if He had not.
- Christ's example. Resurrection steadied Him at Bethany and in Jerusalem's festive crowd alike. That is what it means to mourn as though not mourning, and to rejoice as though not rejoicing.
- Stewardship, not ownership. Buy, but do not own. Handle what you hold as a steward. Use the world as something that does not belong to you.
and they that use the world, as not disposing of it as their own; for the fashion of this world passes.
Paul writes to believers in the middle of ordinary life — marriage, business, buying, grieving, celebrating. He tells them how to hold all of it, and gives one reason: the present form of this world is passing away. Older translations call that form the "fashion" of this world — the wording in the quotes below.
Older translations render Paul's word as "abuse." That makes the verse sound like a warning against excess only. Commentators say the word means something different, and that the mistake has done real damage.
The word translated "abuse" appears only here and in 1 Corinthians 9:18. "Abuse" is one fair way to render its classical use. But once you understand the Christian's relationship to the world, and the apostle's argument, that meaning cannot be accepted. We have good reason to fear that a great deal of worldliness has hidden behind this mistake. Another meaning, given even in the dictionaries, fits far better: "to do what one likes with" a thing, or "to exercise absolute power over" it. The Christian is in the world, but not of it; and, as the apostle reminds us, the fashion of this world passes away. We do not belong to the world, and it does not belong to us.
So the line is not between moderate use and excess. It is between handling a thing and owning it.
There is no thought of "abusing" in it. "Abuse" is a bad word, but it is hard to give the sense in one word; no single English word suits. As for the other passage — "using this world and not abusing it" — you hear it quoted by people who are up to their neck in it. It means using this world without having it in your possession — simply handling it, and not as property.
Paul's reason is not that life in general is short. One writer ties the shortened time to a turning point, and pictures this world as a stage set.
This is not a commonplace remark about how short life is. It is a solemn statement that the time has been shortened from now on — since Christ's death and the calling of the church, I take it. The purpose is that the believer should hold everything but Christ with a loose hand. That includes all the things men might be glad about, however sad their circumstances. The Saviour has changed everything for the Christian. He looks on the earth as the place where Christ was rejected, and follows Him in spirit into the heavens now opened. From there he waits for Him in peace, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. This world has really no more permanence than the shifting scenes of a theatre.
Paul does not say the world vanishes. He says its form goes. One writer uses this verse to explain what Scripture means when it says the heavens and the earth pass away.
Yet the heavens and the earth pass away — that is, in the form in which we now know them. Or, as the apostle says to the Corinthians, "the fashion of this world passes away" (1 Corinthians 7:31). Other scriptures assure us that this is the sense in which we are to understand it.
If the world is not ours to dispose of, one answer would be to own as little as possible. One writer points elsewhere — away from hoarding, and away from strict self-denial too.
So the disciple, if he is wise in a heavenly way, will not try to pile up or hold on to the wealth that many men call their own. He will gain from the rich grace of God, who does not call him to a life of self-denial, yet frees him from selfishness… Knowing that the fashion of this world passes, he keeps his eye on the everlasting dwellings. Instead of disposing of the world as their own, and so either hoarding it or enjoying it selfishly, they give away right and left.
The verse sits inside Paul's advice to the married and the unmarried. The passing world shapes that advice, though it forbids no one to marry.
The world at present is full of distress and need. The time is short, and its weeping and rejoicing will soon be over, for the fashion of this world is passing. So he judges that it is good for a Christian to be free from earthly ties… Still, Christians who marry do no wrong; but they will have trouble in this life and will add to their cares. The apostle would have us free from care, as far as possible, so that we can serve the Lord without distraction.
- Handle, don't hold. The word behind "abuse" means using a thing as your own. Paul's call is to handle the world, not to own it.
- Misread, misused. Read as a ban on excess only, the verse has sheltered real worldliness.
- Loose hand. The season is short, so hold everything but Christ with a loose hand — weeping, rejoicing, buying and marrying included.
- Form, not existence. What passes is the world in the shape we now know it, the shifting scenery of a stage, not creation itself.
- Free to give, free to serve. Grace frees you from selfishness without demanding a life of self-denial. The open hand gives away, and serves the Lord without distraction.