1 Corinthians 7:5 – Symphony

Do not deprive one another, except sometime it should be by agreement for a period that you should have leisure for prayer, and you may be the same again, lest Satan may be trying you because of your incontinence.

In the previous verse, Paul had determined that whoever marries, gives his or her body to the other. It is therefore not fair to deprive the other, once married. Except when this happens in harmony and for the occasion. For example, if someone wants to devote themselves entirely to prayer and does not want to be distracted. If the other agrees, fine. As long as it doesn’t   cause the other person problems that would make him or her lose control.

The word for “harmony” in Greek is “symphony” which literally means “together-sound”. We use the word for a piece of music in which various instruments sound together in harmony. Isn’t that a beautiful picture of a marriage in which sometimes completely different “sounds” nevertheless form a harmony? And that about intimacy and sex, items that all too often nourish conflict and removal. But that is not necessary. Where ‘the orchestra’ is led by the right Conductor, Love will prevail symphonically.

Delen: