January 9, 2023

I Corinthians 7: 25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. (NIV)

We must distinguish between facts and the interpretation of facts.*

I have heard wiser Christians than I claim that if Paul said it we should accept it as inspired, but here Paul makes it clear that he is about to express his opinion about a touchy subject. Because of his reputation as the Lord’s spokesman, his words carry weight. So where do we draw the line between Paul’s opinion and Paul’s inspiration?

I think it’s safe to say that when Paul “gave judgment as one who . . . is trustworthy,” he was at least as careful as I am in my writing. When I share an application from a passage of scripture, I examine the context to determine if the message was meant for a specific audience at a specific time under specific circumstances, because not every word written in the Bible is binding on everyone at every time. If it’s an Old Testament passage, I look for a corresponding principle in the New Testament. If it’s from an epistle, I look to see what Jesus said on the subject. In this instance, we see that whether Paul’s words were inspired or not, they are trustworthy. As someone has observed, “Paul here advances nothing but what is included in what Christ says.”* (See Matthew 5: 32 and 19: 5.)

As always, it is our obligation to do our due diligence in determining the validity of the words presented by other people. Whether it’s the Apostle Paul or me, our words only have authority when they are in harmony with the words of Jesus. You can’t make judgments about what we say if you don’t know what Jesus said.

Can we truly know what Jesus would do without knowing what the Bible says?*