Font Size
1 Corinthians 7:23-25
New Catholic Bible
1 Corinthians 7:23-25
New Catholic Bible
23 You were purchased at a price. Do not become slaves of men. 24 Therefore, brethren, everyone should remain before God in the condition in which he was called.
25 Virginity—Total Consecration to Christ.[a] In regard to virgins, I have received no instructions from the Lord, but let me offer my own opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy can be considered trustworthy.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Corinthians 7:25 Paul looks for words and ideas to render intelligible the entirely new experience of virginity as the gift of one’s life to the Lord. Man and woman are made for one another, but when Christ came into the world, he threw a new light on the realities of the present world: these do not say the final word about the human condition, but represent only a stage (this includes even marriage; see Mt 22:30) on the way to the final fulfillment. We must judge everything in the light of the coming kingdom and give first place to love of the Lord.
Jesus had already stressed the grandeur of celibacy as a radical consecration to God and to the kingdom, but he did not impose it (Mt 19:10-12). Paul gives the same counsel to those Christians of Corinth who are not bound by the state of matrimony.
