1Cor 7:29-31 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 29 The time is short - These persecutions and distresses are at the door, and life itself will soon be run out. Even then Nero was plotting those grievous persecutions with which he not only afflicted, but devastated the Church of Christ. They that have wives - Let none begin to think of any comfortable settlement for his family, let him sit loose to all earthly concerns, and stand ready prepared to escape for his life, or meet death, as the providence of God may permit. The husband will be dragged from the side of his wife to appear before the magistrates, and be required either to abjure Christ or die. Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens Uxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum Te, praeter invisas cupressos, Ulla brevem dominum sequetur. Hor. Odar. lib. ii., Od. xiv., v. 22. Your pleasing consort must be left; And you, of house and lands bereft, Must to the shades descend: The cypress only, hated tree! Of all thy much-loved groves, shall thee, Its short-lived lord, attend. Francis. Poor heathenism! thou couldst give but cold comfort in such circumstances as these: and infidelity, thy younger brother, is no better provided than thou.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Verse 29

The time is short - These persecutions and distresses are at the door, and life itself will soon be run out. Even then Nero was plotting those grievous persecutions with which he not only afflicted, but devastated the Church of Christ.

They that have wives - Let none begin to think of any comfortable settlement for his family, let him sit loose to all earthly concerns, and stand ready prepared to escape for his life, or meet death, as the providence of God may permit. The husband will be dragged from the side of his wife to appear before the magistrates, and be required either to abjure Christ or die.

Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens

Uxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum

Te, praeter invisas cupressos,

Ulla brevem dominum sequetur.

Hor. Odar. lib. ii., Od. xiv., v. 22.

Your pleasing consort must be left;

And you, of house and lands bereft,

Must to the shades descend:

The cypress only, hated tree!

Of all thy much-loved groves, shall thee,

Its short-lived lord, attend.

Francis.

Poor heathenism! thou couldst give but cold comfort in such circumstances as these: and infidelity, thy younger brother, is no better provided than thou. Verse 30

They that weep, etc. - There will shortly be such a complete system of distress and confusion that private sorrows and private joys will be absorbed in the weightier and more oppressive public evils: yet, let every man still continue in his calling, let him buy, and sell, and traffic, as usual; though in a short time, either by the coming persecution or the levelling hand of death, he that had earthly property will be brought into the same circumstances with him who had none. Verse 31

And they that use this world - Let them who have earthly property or employments discharge conscientiously their duties, from a conviction of the instability of earthly things. Make a right use of every thing, and pervert nothing from its use. To use a thing is to employ it properly in order to accomplish the end to which it refers. To abuse a thing signifies to pervert it from that use. Pass through things temporal, so as not to lose those which are eternal.

For the fashion of this world - Το σχημα του κοσμον τουτου signifies properly the present state or constitution of things; the frame of the world, that is, the world itself. But often the term κοσμος, world, is taken to signify the Jewish state and polity; the destruction of this was then at hand, and this the Holy Spirit might then signify to the apostle.