Speaking about marriage and celibacy, Paul certainly had in mind situations in which marriage had either not yet taken shape or had ceased to exist, usually because one of the spouses had died (vv. 7-8). Judging by the meaning of the apostle's words, he either had not yet married by the time his apostolic ministry began, which is more plausible, or he had already been widowed. Looking at him, some people may have begun to think, as many Christians later thought, that celibacy is preferable to marriage for a Christian's spiritual life.

But the apostle himself clearly does not think so. On the contrary, he considers an orderly family life to be the best option for most people (vv. 2-5). On the other hand, Paul clearly predetermines nothing in this regard when the matter concerns a specific person in all his uniqueness. He understands perfectly well that every rule has exceptions, and if someone seeking the Kingdom is firmly convinced that he is such an exception, the path of celibacy is, of course, not closed to him (vv. 1, 6-7). The apostle only urges people not to regard widowhood, or more broadly, the impossibility of marriage, as in itself a sign of a calling to celibacy, as often happened in Christian circles in the Middle Ages (vv. 8-9).

He clearly understands that true celibacy is a spiritual choice, not a forced condition. Its meaning is not to reduce every manifestation of bodily life to the smallest possible minimum, as was typical of representatives of certain philosophical and ascetic schools of the pagan world, who acted this way out of a deep conviction that bodily existence itself is the source of evil from which the seeker of truth must be freed.

The meaning of Christian celibacy is inseparable from life in the Kingdom and from the search for its fullness. After the fall, nature often triumphs in a person's life over the spirit where it ought to be subordinate to it, and this fully applies to the sexual sphere. At the end of time, after the complete transformation of human nature, relations between men and women must change in a way we cannot now even imagine. They are so unlike the forms of marriage familiar to us today that the Savior refuses to call them marriage at all, saying that in the Kingdom people "neither marry nor are given in marriage." And when someone seeking the fullness of the Kingdom chooses celibacy, he is not rejecting marriage altogether, but rather postponing his choice until the moment when the Kingdom triumphs in all its fullness. Until the time when marital relations can be revealed in all their depth, free from the influence of the evil and sin in which our still-untransformed world lies.

What is the Apostle Paul not accused of? Of expressing himself obscurely, of making it possible to misinterpret his words. But most of all, of the fact that today’s text leaves no loopholes. Choose your path responsibly and follow it. Physical love in marriage is indispensable. It is not sufficient for peace, but it is necessary. Divorce is impermissible; fidelity is obligatory. One spouse’s unbelief cannot serve as grounds for destroying the family. How often one hears accusations directed at the Apostle: he supposedly failed to understand everything and cannot give any advice because he himself was never married; besides, he too was human and therefore must have made a mistake somewhere. But such arguments arise precisely when people need to justify what, deep down, even the accusers themselves cannot justify—when they want to find the guilty party anywhere except in their own heart. The Apostle is simply telling us that the family is sanctified by God regardless of changes in our views. Once we have chosen this path, our task is to follow it to the end. Or else to live as he did.

In his letters, Paul discussed several times questions of the religion in its relation to the spiritual life. A summary of these discussions can be reduced to a simple formula: for the Kingdom, the religiosity of man has no basic value, and thus, it has either value also for the Church. And the religious man can take his religion with him in the Kingdom, if it is organic for him, quite as he can take it with him in the Church, provided that he will not set it up as a rule and impose it to the brothers. But it was impossible for the apostle not to see of course in religion the spiritual component.

In fact: there are people, for whom religion is inseparable of their relationships with God and with the neighbor, and consequently, and of the spiritual life in the proper sense of the words. And here everything is already defined by the measure of the sincerity of a concrete person. For someone religion is a means of spiritual self-affirmation, a means to influence the spirits and the souls, and sometimes also a means of manipulating others. Paul considers such a religiosity, what is not surprising, of completely unacceptable for the Kingdom, and thus, and for the Church.

If the religiosity of man is such, one cannot speak about a normal spiritual life. But what, if the religiosity is only a form, the protective shell of the spiritual life? Although it does not occur quite often, but it arrives all the same, and the apostle finds inadmissible to destroy this protective shell: because man can simply be still not firm enough, to do without it.

Such a religiosity is usually proper to people who have recently embarked on the spiritual way, and religious restrictions and prohibitions, remaining external and not replacing what was called in the time of Paul the internal Torah, are really necessary for them and allow them not to get lost on the spiritual way. The destruction of such a religiosity would still be one and, probably, useless experience for his owner.

Of course, sooner or later everyone, who goes on the spiritual way, the way of righteousness and the way of the Kingdom, should part with his religiosity if it is not for ever, then at least to push it to the second plan. But here, as in life in general, everything takes place at the appropriate time. And the apostle suggests not to precipitate things: because, for the one, who is not yet ready to part from the usual religious shell, its violent destruction can turn in a serious spiritual crisis. And the apostle suggests not to risk, but to give to each to grow spiritually until this stage, when the separation with his own religious form will become for him organic.