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The author
Micael Grenholm, a Swedish charismactivist, apologist and author.
The Role of Relationship in the Kingdom of God
So I’m in a relationship now, which is exciting and overwhelming and horrifying and wonderful. Sarah is a charismactivist with a heart for revival and poverty reduction, a vegan Pentecostal with a global vision for Biblical community-churches that live out the book of Acts. She’s great and I thank God for her every day.
Now, as I’ve written previously I’m really a big fan of celibacy. I have no reason to doubt Paul’s statement in 1 Cor 7:38 about how singleness is “better” than being married. As long as I’ve been a Christian I have found it plausible that a single person can be “undivided” to the Lord in a way that couples can’t (1 Cor 7:33-35).
Now, many would argue that marriage and celibacy are on equal level of both value and sacrifice and that neither is better than the other. I get the impression that this is the official stance of most evangelical and charismatic churches here in Europe at least. Still, in practice, the notion is often that getting a spouse is the priority goal of every Christian’s life and celibacy is the secondary option for those who fail or are uninterested. (more…)
Celebrating Celibacy
What happened to celibacy in the Protestant church? As a new believer, when I first read the New Testament I quickly understood that marriage shouldn’t be prioritized by Christians. Paul writes:
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion…
I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife — and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.
I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. (1 Cor 7:8-9, 32-35)
Now, there’s nothing wrong with marrying, celibacy is just better. “He who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better.” (v. 38) Now, some would argue that Paul’s words doesn’t apply to us today, since he may have spoken about a context of persecution or, as some argue, a false perception of that Jesus would come back any minute, based primarily on verse 29.
But persecution isn’t mentioned – and we should always be careful with building a Christianity that is unpersecuted since that tends to be very lame and unbiblical – and isn’t Jesus’ second coming even more immanent now than it was then? Furthermore, Paul’s reasoning about the celibate being undivided to the Lord is not dependent on either persecution or Christ’s return. (more…)
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