1 Corinthians 7:29-31 But this I say, brothers, the time is short: it remains, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;… Like the traveller who goes to sleep in the course of a long journey, and awakes astonished to find that he has traversed such a distance, so have we felt, when the approach of the year's end roused us to give attention to the matter. Here are two statements, and a series of practical inferences drawn from them. I. The first statement is pre-eminent for its brief point and solemn suggestiveness: "THE TIME IS SHORT." Time, as every one knows, is simply duration; but it may be either the duration of the world itself, or the brief space of an individual's life on earth; or it may be employed to specify the precise date of some important occurrence. 1. It is short, in itself considered; for, as the Psalmist sings, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten"; and this is rather the outmost limit than the general average of life. 2. It is short in comparison with the duration of the material universe. 3. The time of our life, again, is short as compared with the years of those who lived in the days before the flood, or even with those of the patriarchs immediately thereafter. They reckoned by hundreds; we do now, at most, by scores. 4. Again, the time of our life is short in comparison with the work we have to do in it. The old painters had an adage, which they derived from Hippocrates, the father of medicine, "Art is, long, and life is brief." They felt in their pursuits what our great lexicographer has expressed, when he declares, in reference to some matters about his dictionary, "that a whole lifetime might be devoted to them, and even a whole lifetime would not be sufficient." And so every true Christian feels regarding the work that is set before him. 5. But once more here, the time of our life is brief in comparison with eternity. II. The second statement here made is, that "THE FASHION OF THIS WORLD PASSETH AWAY?" The figure has been taken, as is commonly supposed, from theatrical exhibitions. How rapidly, in a drama, does scene follow scene, and act succeed to act! Battles are fought and won, empires lost and gained, sudden elevation followed by swift misfortune, and the events of many years compressed into a few short hours; and then, after the foot-lights are extinguished, the place where, shortly before, there have been pomp and pageantry, is hushed in the silence of complete desertion; while, if you follow the actors to their homes, you may discover that he who stalked across the stage with the port of an emperor, ties down to sleep in an empty attic, or on the cold damp floor of a cheerless cellar. And such, indeed, is life: its changes as rapid, its possessions as fleeting, its joys as transient, and after it is over, there may be seen many contrasts far more striking than that between the actor in his sparkling finery on the stage, and the same man shivering in the cold nakedness of his home. In the estimation of others, however, the figure here is taken, not from the theatre, but from a public profession. But such a procession the whole race of mankind upon the earth has been. On the page of history men pass on and on in ceaseless motion; the costumes vary as the times do change; yet still we gaze, and still they pass: and then, when we come down to the day in which we live, we too fall in and follow them, joining thus "the innumerable caravan that moves" to the pale realms of shade. Thus it has ever been, thus it shall ever be. In solemn procession the race is moving on to death. "Passing away" — let us affix these words to the ornaments we delight to look upon, and the works of art we love to see. Briefly let us pass on now to the consideration of the practical inferences which are here drawn from these two solemn truths. 1. The first has respect to the relationships of life — "It remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none." But let us not misunderstand our apostle. He does not mean that a man should desert his wife and children, and leave them to the cold cheer of the workhouse, or to the still more uncertain mercy of precarious charity. That is one way in which a man — nay, let me rather call him a human brute — having a wife, may be as though he had none; but that is not obeying the apostle's precept. Neither does he menu that a man should spend all his time out of his own house — whether in the fashionable club-room, or the genteel hotel, or the low public-house. That is another way in which he who has a wife may be as though he had none; but that is not obedience to the apostle's precept. Neither does he mean that a man should come to his home after business cross, testy, and cantankerous, so that he cannot be spoken to; and should sit down to his newspaper or book, with a foot on either side the fire, utterly oblivious that there is one by his side whom he has solemnly sworn to love. The meaning is that wife, and children, and earthly relationships in general, must all be subordinated to God. We must not build ourselves upon them, as if they were to be always with us, or we always with them. We must build thus on God alone. 2. The next inferences have respect to the sorrows and the joys of earth — "They that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not." Here, again, we must beware of supposing that Paul means to inculcate that stoical indifference to which all things come alike, and which can neither be melted to tears nor won into a smile. This was not the example which the Saviour set; for He joined in the mirth of a marriage feast, dropped a tear over the grave of Lazarus, and wept over the lost Jerusalem. He means that we must not allow ourselves to be swallowed up of sorrow, we must not nurse our grief until it become too strong for us to rise above it, nor brood over our sadness until it become murmuring. 3. The next inference has respect to the business of life — "They that buy, as though they possessed not." This, of course, does not mean that possessions impose no obligation, or involve no responsibility. The vastness of their possessions is to cause no pride; for what is it, after all, to the infinitude of God? The smallness of their earthly portion is to cause no envy; for, having God, what cause have they to complain? 4. Finally, these truths have an influence on the enjoyment of this world's goods — "They that use this world, as not abusing it." There is thus a legitimate use of the world. I have no sympathy with those who cry out against a proper employment and enjoyment of the good things of this life. No man has so good a right to enjoy these things as a Christian. The things of the world are not in themselves evil. They become so only when, by the deceitfulness of our hearts, we seek to put them in an improper place; when we derive our entire enjoyment from them, or find our entire happiness in them. But, on the other hand, our noblest use of them is to employ them in the service of the Lord. If you have money, use it; do not let it lie rotting in idleness, but let it be employed in the promotion of God's glory, and the well-being of your fellows. If you have position, or rank, do not throw its weight into the scale of evil, neither seek to denude yourself entirely of it; but abide in it, and employ all the influence it gives you on the side of God. (W. M. Taylor.) Parallel Verses KJV: But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; |
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