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In the 7th chapter of I Cor., Paul had apparently been asked questions by the Church in Corinth which tended to disparage marriage and to regard it as an undesirable state when one of the parties is an unbeliever. His long reply may be summed up in a few words: "Abide in your present station, for the time is short." He believed that, by remaining single, he could devote himself more acceptably to his Gospel work. The passage m I Tim. 5:14 is not inconsistent with the other, for the circumstances of the two cases were different, and in the latter he commends marriage under certain conditions, as an antidote to certain temptations.
