Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus shunned the kind of populism that, in his words, belongs only to “false prophets”—those who claim to be men of God without truly being so. Indeed, if everyone says only good things about a person and his activities, this usually means one of two things...
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus shunned the kind of populism that, in his words, belongs only to “false prophets”—those who claim to be men of God without truly being so. Indeed, if everyone says only good things about a person and his activities, this usually means one of two things: either the activity is so insignificant that it affects absolutely no one and nobody cares about it (so there is no reason to criticize the person engaged in it), or the person is trying to please everyone, without scrupling at any means. Anyone who amounts to anything at all will certainly have friends and enemies; and if he is engaged in something of any substantial scale, he will also have supporters and opponents. This naturally raises the question: how should a Christian—that is, an inhabitant of the Kingdom the Saviour brought into the world—treat opponents, and still more, enemies?
Friends and supporters are, of course, easier: we love them and wish them well quite naturally, according to the laws of the untransfigured world that everyone knows and therefore needs no one to teach. Enemies are more difficult: there is nothing to love them for, while the untransfigured world, by its nature—whether physical or psychological—presupposes reciprocal relationships. If these are absent, if they break down, or, even more, turn from positive to negative, a kindly attitude is out of the question. Moreover, we want immediately to sever all relations with the enemy who wishes us harm. But this is precisely what, according to the Saviour’s word, we must not do. It is no accident that he calls us to pray for our enemies. Indeed, it is impossible to maintain good relations with someone who does not want them. Yet love is, above all, precisely an attitude towards another, a desire for the good of the one we love. If love is reciprocated, the relationship becomes mutual and a special spiritual space arises in which it exists and develops. But what if it is not?
Jesus points to prayer as the only possible way of interacting with someone who wants no positive relationship. Of course, prayer presupposes a relationship with God first and foremost. But any other person can also be included within that relationship if God is willing to receive him and the person praying asks for this. There will, of course, be no delay on God’s part, so here everything depends chiefly on the person praying. His relationship with his enemy will then be mediated by his relationship with God. The enemy is no longer excluded from the life of the person praying (as hatred and cursing erase the hated and cursed person from the spiritual life of the one who hates and curses), but is included in it, albeit indirectly. Yet such indirect inclusion can always become the beginning of another kind of relationship, direct and immediate—and it will no longer be a relationship between people who hate each other.
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7:25 Now concerning virgins - Of either sex. I have no commandment from the Lord - By a particular revelation. Nor was it necessary he should; for the apostles wrote nothing which was not divinely inspired: but with this difference, - sometimes they had a particular revelation, and a special commandment; at other times they wrote from the divine light which abode with them, the standing treasure of the Spirit of God. And this, also, was not their private opinion, but a divine rule of faith and practice. As one whom God hath made faithful in my apostolic office; who therefore faithfully deliver what I receive from him.
7:26 This is good for the present distress - While any church is under persecution. For a man to continue as he is - Whether married or unmarried. St. Paul does not here urgethe present distress as a reason for celibacy, any more than for marriage; but for a man's not seeking to alter his state, whatever it be, but making the best of it.
7:27 See note Co1 7:26.
7:28 Such will have trouble in the flesh - Many outward troubles. But I spare you - I speak as little and as tenderly as possible.
7:29 But this I say, brethren - With great confidence. The time of our abode here is short. It plainly follows, that even they who have wives be as serious, zealous, active, dead to the world, as devoted to God, as holy in all manner of conversation, as if they had none - By so easy a transition does the apostle slide from every thing else to the one thing needful; and, forgetting whatever is temporal, is swallowed up in eternity.
7:30 And they that weep, as if they wept not - "Thoughsorrowful, yet always rejoicing." They that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not - Tempering their joy with godly fear. They that buy, as if they possessed not - Knowing themselves to be only stewards, not proprietors.
7:31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it - Not seeking happiness in it, but in God: using every thing therein only in such a manner and degree as most tends to the knowledge and love of God. For the whole scheme and fashion of this world - This marrying, weeping, rejoicing, and all the rest, not only will pass, but now passeth away, is this moment flying off like a shadow.