Undivided Devotion

February 12, 2016—1 Corinthians 7:32–35

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

Full disclosure, this could not have come at a better time. Yesterday I was in this weird funk where I felt like everything was coming unhinged, and that I had no control over anything. I wasn’t as productive as I would have like to have been at work, I was irritable with Josie, and I just felt totally unable to handle everything, and I was frustrated at myself for it.

I grew up hearing that certain brand of complementarianism that was more interested in defining gender roles rather than looking at what it meant to be a man and a woman in marriage as it relates to our union with Christ as His bride. Conversations would be focused on the man being a hard worker who was always ready to take a bullet for everyone and be a fighter. This brand of patriarchal complementarianism ends up asking the husband to become a mini savior of his family, with his wife as the reinforcements and helper to do that.

I didn’t come here to write about the pros and cons of complementarianism today, but if you want to chat privately hit me up. I love a good conversation. All that to say, I am still very affected by this model of masculinity and it was this way of thinking that caused me to have a mini meltdown yesterday.

You see, Paul anticipated days like yesterday for me. He said so right there that as a married man my attention would be focused on caring for my wife. That goes into all aspects of life including, but not limited to, picking up my underwear, washing dishes, not spending too much money on fancy cheese, and planning romantic evenings. It is easy to get overwhelmed and feel like a failure.

Before I was married, before I even met Josie I struggled with a different kind of anxiety — trying to please God. Many a night were spent feverously writing in my journal about my sins of the week, and striving harder and harder to be pure. I wanted to be ready to go to Bible college. I wanted to take life more seriously. I wanted to be as disciplined as possible. It took up a lot of my thoughts.

When Paul pointed out that a husband would be anxious about the needs of his wife, and vice versa, his point was not to condemn married folk for having their priorities mixed up. His point was to show that both married and unmarried people deal with some sort of anxiety. The whole crux of this passage is that Paul wants all believers to be free from being anxious about anything.

This teaching is consistent throughout all of scripture. We shouldn’t be a glass ball of emotions trying to keep everything together on our own. We aren’t supposed to focus on trying really hard to be a good husband, wife, or Christian. We aren’t supposed to be anxious about anything. We are to live out the reality of who we are in Christ. If we have Him, we have everything we need.

God doesn’t promise that it will feel like it. He doesn’t promise that we will stop having anxiety attacks or lack of faith if we just are more devoted. He just promises to be who He is and continues to offer that to us. Paul finishes his thoughts by saying that he doesn’t want us to feel restrained to do something a certain way, he just wants us to live unrestrained, focusing on Jesus, and not our feeble attempts to be thankful for all He has done. We ought to keep living on this earth in an orderly way, loving our spouses, our friends, our families, and our strangers; all the while with our undivided attention on our Savior.