Temples of God, and Paul’s Counsel to the Unmarried
…that is, the Holy Spirit, “by whom we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). And we have been bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20), since Christ, the Savior of us all, laid down his own life for us (compare 1 John 3:16). We are, then, temples of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:16); for Christ makes his dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit, and in his own nature he has also the Father and God, from whom he came forth in essence. For he himself said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23).
So let foul-smelling pleasure be far from our minds, as from a temple of God, and let the sweet fragrance of self-control rise up instead, like incense. Let us present “our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, our reasonable worship” (Romans 12:1). For we were bought “not with perishable things, with silver or gold, but with precious blood” (1 Peter 1:18–19), as it is written. Let us therefore serve him who bought us; let us present ourselves to him for obedience (Romans 6:16), “and our members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). For it is written, “The body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13). So when we keep the members of the body free of the defilement that comes from love of the flesh, then the Lord too will be for the body; for he dwells among the holy, being holy by nature, as God.
“To the unmarried and the widows I say: it is good for them if they remain as I am” (1 Corinthians 7:8).
The people of Israel were found to be very fickle and easily carried away toward anything at all that pleased them. For this very reason they were rightly barred by the law from giving rulings of their own. For of the commandments it says, “To them nothing may be added, and from them nothing may be taken away” (Deuteronomy 4:2; compare Deuteronomy 4:2). But those who brought in the decrees of the Gospel had minds set firmly on the good and had Christ himself speaking within them (compare 2 Corinthians 13:3). So they rightly took courage to give their words of guidance with great authority, even where some matter of conduct was not laid down in the sacred writings.
The inspired Paul was such a man. “I say,” he writes, “to the unmarried and the widows, it is good for them if they remain as I am,” and so on (1 Corinthians 7:8). Where we have no divine law, he has of necessity put “I say”; but where Christ was the one giving the command, he says “I command,” adding at once, “not I, but the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:10). Yet what necessary thing did Christ overlook when he gave the law? Do those who lead us into the mysteries devise something better? And how could it be anything but ignorant and utterly senseless to think that what comes from Christ is not complete? What, then, shall we say?
The divine preaching of the Gospel did not forbid marriage, since God, I think, measures the commandment to human nature. For when the Pharisees, testing him, asked the Lord “whether it is lawful to put away his wife” (Matthew 19:3) for a cause other than fornication, he told them that whoever puts away “his wife, except on the ground of fornication, causes her to commit adultery” (Matthew 5:32; compare Matthew 19:9). At this the disciples said to him, “If this is how the case stands between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry.” And he said to them, “There are eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to accept this accept it” (Matthew 19:10, 12). For he set it before those who wish to achieve it, but he did not bring it under law, since he knew that not all are able to master the impulses of the flesh.
In this the shadow of the law (compare Hebrews 10:1) also has something entirely like it. It commanded that the various kinds of sacrifice be offered to the glory of God: some for sin and for sins of ignorance, others for cleansing and the casting away of filth, and also those on the Sabbath, those at the new moon, and those at the feasts. But besides these it also allowed…
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τουτέστι τὸ Ἅγιον, "ἐν ᾧ κράζομεν Ἀββᾶ ὁ πατήρ·" ἠγοράσμεθα δὲ καὶ τιμῆς, τεθεικότος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὴν ἰδίαν ψυχὴν 267 τοῦ πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ· ἐσμὲν οὖν ἄρα ναοὶ Θεοῦ ζῶντος, ἐναυλίζεται γὰρ ἡμῖν δι' Ἁγίου Πνεύματος Χριστὸς, ἔχων ἐν ἰδίᾳ φύσει καὶ τὸν ἐξ οὗ πέφηνεν οὐσιωδῶς Πατέρα καὶ Θεόν· ἔφη γὰρ αὐτός "Ἐάν τις ἀγαπᾷ με, "τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει, καὶ ὁ Πατήρ μου ἀγαπήσει αὐ"τὸν, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐλευσόμεθα καὶ μονὴν παρ' αὐτῷ "ποιησόμεθα." ἀπέστω δὴ οὖν τῶν ἡμετέρων διανοιῶν ὡς ἀπὸ ναοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ κάκοσμος ἡδονὴ, ἀναφοιτάτω δὲ μᾶλλον καθάπερ ἐν τάξει θυμιαμάτων τῆς ἐγκρατείας ἡ εὐοσμία, καὶ παραστήσωμεν "τὰ σώματα ἡμῶν θυσίαν ζῶσαν, ἁγίαν, "εὐάρεστον τῷ Θεῷ, τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν" ἡμῶν· ἠγοράσθημεν γὰρ "οὐ φθαρτοῖς ἀργυρίῳ ἢ χρυσίῳ, ἀλλὰ τιμίῳ "αἵματι," κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· οὐκοῦν τῷ πριαμένῳ δουλεύσωμεν, αὐτῷ παραστήσωμεν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς ὑπακοὴν, "καὶ "τὰ μέλη ἡμῶν ὅπλα δικαιοσύνης τῷ Θεῷ·" γέγραπται γὰρ ὅτι "Τὸ δὲ σῶμα οὐ τῇ πορνείᾳ ἀλλὰ τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ ὁ "Κύριος τῷ σώματι." ὅταν τοίνυν τηρῶμεν τὰ μέλη τοῦ σώματος, τὸν ἐκ τῆς φιλοσαρκίας οὐκ ἔχοντα μολυσμὸν, τότε καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἔσται τῷ σώματι· κατοικεῖ γὰρ ἐν ἁγίοις ἅγιος ὢν κατὰ φύσιν ὡς Θεός. Λέγω δὲ τοῖς ἀγάμοις καὶ ταῖς χήραις, καλὸν αὐτοῖς ἐστιν ἐὰν μείνωσιν ὡς κἀγώ. Ἐλαφροὶ καὶ εὐπάροιστοι κατεφωρῶντο λίαν εἰς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν σφίσι καθ' ἡδονὴν οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραήλ· ταύτῃτοι δικαίως τὸ χρῆναι γνωμοδοτεῖν παρῄρηντο νόμῳ· ἐπ' αὐτῶν γὰρ, φησὶν, οὐκ ἔστιν προσθεῖναι, καὶ ἀπ' αὐτῶν οὐκ ἔστιν ἀφελεῖν· οἱ δέ γε τῶν εὐαγγελικῶν θεσπισμάτων εἰσηγηταὶ βεβηκότα τὸν νοῦν ἔχοντες εἰς τὸ ἀγαθὸν, καὶ αὐτὸν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἐσχηκότες λαλοῦντα Χριστὸν, ἐθαρσήθησαν εἰκότως 268 ἐπ' ἐξουσίας ποιεῖσθαι πολλῆς τοὺς τῆς ὑφηγήσεως λόγους, κἂν εἰ μή τι κέοιτο τῶν πρακτέων παρά γε τοῖς ἱεροῖς γράμμασιν· τοιοῦτός τις ὑπάρχων καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος Λέγω δέ φησι τοῖς ἀγάμοις καὶ ταῖς χήραις, καλὸν αὐτοῖς ἐὰν μείνωσιν ὡς κἀγὼ, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς· ἔνθα μὲν γὰρ οὐ θεῖος ἡμῖν νόμος τό Λέγω τέθεικεν ἀναγκαίως· οὗ δὲ Χριστὸς ὁ προστάττων ἦν, τό Παραγγέλλω φησὶ, προσεπάγων εὐθὺς τό Οὐκ ἐγὼ, ἀλλ' ὁ Κύριος· τί δὲ ἄρα παρῶπται τῶν ἀναγκαίων νομοθετοῦντι Χριστῷ; ἐπινοοῦσι δὲ τί τὸ ἄμεινον οἱ μυσταγωγοί; καίτοι πῶς οὐκ ἀμαθὲς καὶ ἀπόπληκτον παντελῶς τὸ μὴ ἀρτίως ἔχειν οἴεσθαι τὰ παρὰ Χριστοῦ; τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; οὐκ ἀπέφησεν τὸν γάμον τὸ εὐαγγελικὸν καὶ θεσπέσιον κήρυγμα, ἐπιμετροῦντος οἶμαί που τοῦ Θεοῦ τῇ ἀνθρώπου φύσει τὴν ἐντολήν· ἔφη γὰρ τοῖς πειράζουσι φαρισαίοις ὁ Κύριος ἐρωτήσασιν αὐτόν "Εἰ ἔξεστιν ἀπολῦσαι τὴν γυ"ναῖκα αὐτοῦ" μὴ ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ, ὅτι ὁ ἀπολύων "τὴν γυναῖκα "αὐτοῦ παρεκτὸς λόγου πορνείας, ποιεῖ αὐτὴν μοιχευθῆναι." πρὸς ταῦτα λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταί "Εἰ οὕτως ἐστὶ τοῦ "ἀνθρώπου ἡ αἰτία μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς, οὐ συμφέρει γαμῆ"σαι· ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Εἰσὶν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες ἐκ κοιλίας "μητρὸς ἐγεννήθησαν οὕτως, καί εἰσιν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνουχίσθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καί εἰσιν εὐνοῦχοι οἵ"τινες εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν· "ὁ δυνάμενος χωρεῖν χωρείτω." προὔθηκε γὰρ τοῖς ἐθέλουσι κατορθοῦν, οὐ μὴν ὑπήγαγε νόμῳ, ὅτι μὴ πάντας ἠπίστατο τῶν τῆς σαρκὸς κινημάτων κατευμεγεθεῖν δύνασθαι. 269 Καὶ τοῦτο εἰς ἅπαν ἔχει τι τοιοῦτον καὶ ἡ κατὰ νόμον σκιά· προστέταχε μὲν γὰρ τοὺς τῶν θυσιῶν ποιεῖσθαι τρόπους εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ, τοῦτο μὲν ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας καὶ ἀγνοημάτων, τοῦτο δὲ εἰς καθαρισμὸν καὶ ἀπόῤῥιψιν ῥύπου, καὶ μὴν καὶ τὰς ἐν σαββάτῳ τὰς κατὰ νουμηνίαν, τὰς ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς· ἠφίει γεμὴν πρὸς τούτοις καὶ 8