These few verses are an interesting selection. In the first part of the chapter, Paul lays out instructions on marriage – the duties of spouses towards each other, the benefits of marrying and of not marrying, of accepting one’s lot in life. And then, in these verses, after spending so much time defining the marriage relationship, he says something like, “Yeah, don’t worry about all that. This pending crisis will reorder everything you think you know.” Relationships, milestones in life, and commerce will be completely reshaped when the kingdom of God is realized.
Paul understood this apocalyptic shift to be just on the horizon, days or months away, but here we are, reading his remarks some two-thousand years later. His words pack less of a punch than they would have for his contemporaries. Yet, the last sentence, “For the present form of this world is passing away,” rings very true given everything we have lived through recently.
In the past year, what have you seen pass away? What losses do you grieve the most? What losses might be making room for something new?
Offer a prayer of lament for all that has been lost and find hope in the promise that God is about to do something new.