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1 Corinthians 7:30-31 The present form of this world then and now - Day 245

Good evening friends,

I found this to be a very challenging passage.  The last phrase is what go my attention originally back on 5.1.  Now 3 weeks later when I started to really ponder these words, I was convicted by how much I doubt that the form of this world is really passing away.  After all, it hasn't passed away after 2000 years.  Maybe it never will.  I think Paul is calling me to wake up.

Blessings,

Jeff

For the present form of this world is passing away. 

This is the reason for doing the opposite of what the current condition would suggest.  Those who mourn as if they were not mourning, those who rejoice as if they were not rejoicing.  This is a shocking to me.

Questions:

So who normally mourns?  People who have lost a loved one or suffered emotionally.  And who normally rejoices?  People who have just gotten married or had a child come to mind.  

Are people just supposed to ignore the causes of mourning and rejoicing?  People could choose not to do the things that lead to rejoicing, but no one can choose not to experience loss of a loved one.

If this was the recommendation 2000 years ago and form of the world was passing away then, how much more is it passing away now and the more pressing the need to not mourn or rejoice?

In other passages (Philippians) Paul says "Rejoice.  and again I say rejoice".  Doesn't this conflict with this passage?

Here is how Calvin addresses these questions.

As though they had none. All things that are connected with the enjoyment of the present life are sacred gifts of God, but we pollute them when we abuse them. If the reason is asked, we shall find it to be this, that we always dream of continuance in the world, for it is owing to this that those things which ought to be helps in passing through it become hindrances to hold us fast. Hence, it is not without good reason, that the Apostle, with the view of arousing us from this stupidity, calls us to consider the shortness of this life, and infers from this, that we ought to use all the things of this world, as if we did not use them. For the man who considers that he is a stranger in the world uses the things of this world as if they were another's ― that is, as things that are lent us for a single day. The sum is this, that the mind of a Christian ought not to be taken up with earthly things, or to repose in them; for we ought to live as if we were every moment about to depart from this life. By weeping and rejoicing, he means adversity and prosperity; for it is customary to denote causes by their effects. The Apostle, however, does not here command Christians to part with their possessions, but simply requires that their minds be not engrossed in their possessions. 1 Corinthians 7:29


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