"But
this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth,
that both those 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..." 1 Corinthians
7:29-31.
It is necessary that we should not misunderstand Paul's
words, for he would never contradict himself. He who
wrote: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church..." would never write anything
that set aside or lessened the force of such a grand
description of marriage relationship. Clearly he did not
wish to minimise the importance of marriage; nor did he
mean that weeping or rejoicing or other human activities
should be obliterated; his remarks are set over against
the existing situation in Corinth and they are introduced
by the word 'But'. "But this I say, brethren, the
time is shortened" (RV).
In his letter the apostle had been forced to deal with
many unhappy features of current experience in the
Corinthian church. There were so many inconsistencies,
even contradictions, and so much which denied the Lord,
that it was as though he became utterly wearied of it all
and felt obliged to cry out in protest against using so
much time and energy on the quibblings and carnality of
God's people. He felt that he could not afford the time
which he was having to give to the negative task of
admonishing, correcting and remonstrating. He wanted to
get busy with the positive matters of life in the Spirit,
and groaned at the sheer waste of time produced by the
internal conditions at Corinth.
For this man, who ever had his eyes on a wider horizon,
there was still so much to be done. Paul was so aware of
the tremendous forces at work against Christ and against
His testimony that he felt that they were in an emergency
situation. In his day there were signs of a great crisis
in which Christian testimony might be curtailed; he
sensed in the very atmosphere the tension which
eventually brought him to martyrdom. Being conscious of
the emergency state in which public witness, the work of
the Lord, would be severely suppressed and the
antagonistic forces would overflow the world in their
attempt to destroy the testimony of Christ, he could not
refrain from crying out about it to his brethren:
"But... the time is short!". He wanted them to
get clear of their internal problems and difficulties so
that they could buy up all possible opportunities for
Christ. We need to be freed from self-preoccupation, so
that we can redeem what time there is, for at best it is
all too short.
I suggest to you that in this connection the Scripture is
very meaningful for us now. There are so many problems,
questions, differences of opinion, personal clashes, but...!
'But' brothers and sisters, 'the time is short - too
short to be wasted on things of secondary or third-rate
importance.' Even marriage, the sorrows and joys of life,
possessions, fashions, earthly interests - it is not that
they are wrong but they provide a subtle snare to
distract us from the real business of our Christian
living. Nothing, from the inner circle of our domestic
relationship to the widest circle of world events, must
ever be allowed to interfere with our testimony for
Christ. Those blessed with wives must not allow them so
to fill their lives that the happy domestic circle
becomes a preoccupation which absorbs all their time.
There are some that weep, but they must not let their
sorrow paralyse them with regard to the Lord's interests.
There are those who can rightly rejoice, but they must
watch that their delight does not subvert them, so that
they give it priority and find themselves turned aside
from their main concern which should have been for the
glory of Christ. There is much in the world which can
rightly interest. The Corinthians had already been told
that "All things are yours; whether Paul or Apollos,
or Cephas, or the world..." (1 Corinthians 3:22).
But Paul also told them that they must not abuse this
gift, not use it to the full, not let it be their prime
concern. Brethren, the time is short, and we must not
allow anything in any department of our lives to encroach
upon the interests of the Lord.
This is the cry of a man looking back and knowing that
for him time would not last much longer. Paul was always
feeling the cold hand of the past reaching out to remind
him of those wasted years which he so deeply regretted.
He had spent such a valuable part of his early life in
travelling along the wrong road, fighting against the Son
of God; and he deplored those barren years. How much
energy - and religious energy at that - had been utterly
wasted! His soul was filled with sorrow about the
failures, the lost opportunities of the past, and he was
stirred to make sure that this should never happen again.
He cried out in protest against the possibility of
further shortening. Life is not as long as all this, that
one can afford to have more failures, more lost time,
more misspent energy. Life here on this earth is all too
short. The man who looked back and grieved over those
periods of his experience when his energies were bent on
a course which brought no glory to his Lord, had to cry
out in dismay at the prospect of still more waste.
It is also the cry of a man who was looking around, being
made conscious of the overwhelming need which everywhere
abounded. Paul was deeply distressed over the crying
spiritual need of Christians who seemed so muddled and
powerless, as well as over the appalling condition of men
without Christ, multitudes who had no vital experience of
the transforming power of the gospel. And time was
passing so rapidly. The demands on every hand were so
great that it seemed most culpable to give them anything
less than full and undivided attention. So it is today.
Only the gravely insensitive can fail to register the
seriousness of the circumstances which surround us. The
needs are so great and the important thing to remember is
that our remaining time is very short, and so are our
opportunities for doing the Lord's work. It seems that
the Corinthians were so taken up with their own affairs
that they failed to realise how spiritual opportunities
and values were slipping from their grasp. Paul was
aghast that this should be so. He was no passive
spectator himself, no self-interested neutral, but a man
who realised the supreme importance of working the works
of God while it was still day. He cried out against the
paralysing work of Satan among Christians and the great
power of darkness in the world. "The god of this
world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving", he
affirmed (2 Corinthians 4:4), and this darkening,
blinding work of the devil forced him to warn his
brothers that the time was drawing to an end.
His words were also the appeal of a man looking on into
the future with eager expectation but who yet appreciated
how much still remained to be done in these shortening
days. His own course would soon be finished, and he felt
that if he spent all the moments of all his days in utter
devotion to Christ, it would still be woefully inadequate
and he an unprofitable servant. The time was so short
that he knew that at the end he would feel regretfully
that if he could have his life all over again he would
use it to so much better advantage. This might be a
general and very natural emotion, but for Paul the
important thing was to minimise it and be saved from
unnecessary regrets at the end of his brief career. So it
was that he urged his brothers at Corinth to join with
him in making everything subservient to the one great
consideration of the work of Christ.
Some of them were doubtless still young in years and
therefore not so conscious of the swift approach of the
end of earthly life, but the call to them was just as
valid, for at best life passes all too quickly and the
Spirit of God would surely impart to them something of
His own urgency to buy up every opportunity for
glorifying Christ. The Christians of those days lived in
constant expectation of the return of the Lord Jesus in
glory. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye" they were told, the trumpet would sound for the
termination of the gospel age (1 Corinthians 15:52). The
Second Coming has not yet taken place, but to many of us
it appears quite imminent, so that more than ever we need
to take note of the fact that the time is shortened. It
may well be that as we move rapidly towards that great
day we shall find that there will be a closing in upon
Christian testimony, with all kinds of new limitations
being imposed on the servants of the Lord, and then
Paul's 'But' will be even more relevant. It stands over
against all the petty and unworthy preoccupations of
Christians like those Corinthians who were inclined to
fritter away the precious moments still remaining to them
in unprofitable disputations and childish
self-indulgence. Most of the matters raised in this
letter would never have arisen if the believers had kept
their priorities right and not forgotten how rapidly time
is diminishing and eternity drawing near. The same
applies - and even more so - to our own day and age.
Brothers, there is no time to spare for the many
unimportant and time-wasting differences and disputes
which beset the Church of Christ and dissipate its
energies. There is something far more important on hand.
The Lord's interests demand that we have done with all
that has no eternal value and get on with the real
business of life, which is the bringing in of the kingdom
and of the King.
From
"Toward the Mark" May-June, 1974, Vol. 3-3