1 Corinthians 7:1,2 - It is good for a man not to have sexual relations

7:1

Clearly the Corinthians had sent Paul a letter with some questions in it, some of these concerning marriage. As noted earlier, there were essentially two opposite approaches to sexual immorality. One was to say that it didn’t really matter at all what one did, the other was to take a very ascetic approach. Neither of these approaches was Biblical. Paul deals with these matters in this chapter, and what he says also challenges some of our attitudes in the church. In particular seeing marriage as the be all and end all of life (I have been happily married for thirty two years, so I do actually have a positive view of marriage!).

7:2

There is value in not having sexual relations, Paul will go on later to expand on the circumstances in which this is so, but for the moment he focuses on the dangers. One thing to note in all this chapter is the down to earth reality of Paul’s teaching, there is no airy-fairy nonsense! Sexual urges are strong, and sexual immorality is a real danger. So husbands and wives should not abstain from sexual relations (an exception will be given later). If they do they may be “putting God to the test”, ie increasing the temptation in their life for no good reason. Now we need to note that Paul here is not giving his complete teaching on the place of sex within marriage, it is not only to reduce the risks of getting into sexual immorality, but that is one effect of it. God has provided a perfectly good outlet for our sexual desires.