“I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.”
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. — Paul addresses the unmarried (agamoi) and widows as distinct groups, each facing particular challenges. The affirmation that it is good (kalon) to remain unmarried is permitted by Paul's own celibate example. However, the concession that follows will acknowledge that not all can maintain this state. The absence of judgment on those who marry is crucial: celibacy is good but not obligatory.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 7:8
“Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent.” What then can this mean? “Let not the wife,” says he, “exercise continence, if the husband be unwilling; nor yet the husband without the wife's consent.” Why so? Because great evils spring from this sort of continence. For adulteries and fornications and the ruin of families have often arisen from hence. For if when men have their own wives they commit fornication, much more if you defraud them of this consolation. And…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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