"The Greek girl, brought up in ignorance and seclusion, was not fitted to be the comrade of her husband, nor could her husband, in most cases, either truly love her or know anything of her character before marriage. The great Greek plays leave love as a motive for marriage just as much out of sight as St. Paul does. So, also, we must remember that a Corinthian Christian would scarcely ever have any real security that the same course of action would please the Lord and please his wife. St. Paul spoke of things as he found them."[1]
When we add that the arguments based on the probability of persecution, and on the certainty of the speedy coming of Christ, have been disallowed by experience, it would seem that little or nothing can be concluded for the guidance of the modern Church from the apostle's evident preference for the single life. Moreover, his language in the later Epistle to the Ephesians places marriage on so exalted a plane that it is not possible to imagine any higher, and we may conclude, if we will, that experience tended to correct whatever there was of error in the earlier opinions.
Asceticism was one aspect of a form of thought which was widely spread in the world
- ↑ See Goudge, "1 Corinthians," p. 64.
