Corinth was on a peninsula. Ships needing to get from two important shipping seas would be taken across land at Corinth. Sailors would have several hours to explore the city as their ships traversed the land. The temple prostitutes for the goddess Aphrodite numbered in the hundreds, even thousands, at Corinth, profiting from the sailors. Rampant legal religious prostitution, though financially profitable, was socially and personally destitute.
New Christians in morally desolate Corinth sought Paul’s guidance on secure living practices concerning marriage and sex. Apostle Paul knew the benefits of a celibate life. He also knew that this would be especially hard for the Corinthians who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior in Corinth. The city had so much immorality that each man should take a wife, and each woman should have a husband (2).
Marriage is so much more than sex. Paul is not saying that marriage is only about sex. He is simply addressing a matter for which they asked for his advice. He states in verse 6, “I say this as a concession, not as a command.” He will have more to say on this later in the letter.
The young man and young woman who are dating and considering marriage, the newly married, and those who are struggling in their marriage need to know that sex is designed by God to be a part of married life, not the principal part of marriage. Sex is a part, not the whole of marriage. Sadly, modern society has placed such a high expectation on sex that sex is confusing and then disappointing to many, just as it was in Corinth. The relational aspects: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control, romance, and intimacy are lost in the modern quest for constant sex. People are devastated in a quest for someone elses idea that life’s goal is perfect sex all the time.
