“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #75
“But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Cor. 7:29-31).
We have referred many times to the “present distress,” which was the time of tribulation and persecution that Paul was anticipating. And as a time of tribulation, it had much in common with other periods of distress and persecution throughout the history of the world—and there are lessons here for the saints down through the history of the church. The attitude of Job, acknowledging that the Lord gives and the Lord removes, is an attitude that should be owned and internalized by every believer. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We are called to travel lightly. All that we have, no matter who or where we are, should be surrendered before God, lifted up on an open palm. The Lord can place things there, and take them away. If we clench them in our fists, it is no additional trouble for God to take them away, but our fingers get broken.
But this moment that Paul is anticipating was also unique. He says that a time of trouble was coming, in which marital status would be irrelevant, weeping would be beside the point, rejoicing would be a morning mist, and purchasing things would add nothing to the real inventory. The believers in the first century were living in the transition of ages, and they were told to “use the world” in a way that did not abuse it. Paul gives as his reason for these marching orders the fact that “the form, shape, template, pattern” (schema) of this world was passing away. The very structure of the old Judaic aeon was about to go defunct. The Christian aeon was beginning, and the convulsions that would occur would make it not a marrying time.