<p>7:8 <em>But I say to the unmarried and to widows</em>- The &quot;But <em>I </em>say&quot; may mean that Paul is now sharing what has directly been revealed to him, whereas his other teaching is a reflection of the Lord's 'saying' or teaching as recorded in the Gospels. It would seem from the context of <em>porneia</em> and the problem of church usage of prostitutes that the sexual needs of the unmarried and widows were being met by prostitutes, and in this context Paul argues for marriage if they feel their sexual needs are beyond their self-control.</p><p><em>It is good for them if they live as I do- </em>Adam alone was &quot;not good&quot;. Adam and Eve together are described as &quot;very good&quot; (Gen. 1:31). Paul seems to have this in mind when he says three times that &quot;it is good&quot; to be single (1 Corinthians 7:1,8,26). But what's the point of this paradox? Perhaps Paul's point is: 'In the old, natural creation, it wasn't good that a man should be alone. But now, in the new creation, it's good that a man does try to live a single life, because as Adam married Eve, so we are now married to Christ'. Or it may be that attention is being drawn to the fact that God's provision of Eve was&nbsp;the first of God's countless concessions to human need. It was God's intention, ideally, that Adam be single, therefore he was potentially &quot;good&quot; in his single state. But he couldn't handle it, therefore God made him a partner. And therefore Paul says that to live the single life is &quot;good&quot;. But in the same way as God made a concession to Adam, so He does to believers now; &quot;but if they cannot contain, let them marry&quot;. Whether we agree this makes marriage a concession to human&nbsp; need or not, the fact is that surely single believers should at least <em>consider</em> the single life. Likewise Paul's invitation to follow his example of being single in order to devote himself to his&nbsp;Lord must be taken as seriously as his other invitations to follow his example (e.g. 1 Cor. 10:33; 11:1). He knew that he was (in the words of Robert Roberts) &quot;a Christ-appointed model&quot;; the record of his life is framed to give the picture of the ideal believer. &nbsp;</p><p>According to :10, this verse 8 is part of Paul's repeating of the Lord's teaching about marriage. But where did He specifically speak about singleness? Surely it was when He spoke about men making themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom's sake (Mt. 19:12). The disciples' comment &quot;It is not good to marry&quot; is picked up by Paul when he says it is &quot;good&quot; to be single unto the Lord. The Lord's response to &quot;It is not good to marry&quot; was that &quot;All men cannot receive this saying, saving they to whom it is given&quot;. The Lord Himself made concessions about marriage, and so Paul did the same.</p><p>The triple description of the single life as &quot;good&quot; (1 Corinthians 7:1,8,26) uses a Greek word which can mean 'beautiful'. Yet many a lonely, longing sister might not see anything 'beautiful' about her singleness; neither would she go along with 1 Corinthians 7:34, which says that the unmarried woman has the advantage that she can single-mindedly give herself to the things of the Lord Jesus. It may seem to her that she would serve the Lord much better if she were married. And probably so. This raises the possibility that by &quot;the unmarried&quot; Paul may not mean 'the single ones in the ecclesia'. He may be referring to those who had consciously decided to be single, but used the church prostitutes at times. Likewise &quot;the widows&quot; doesn't have to mean 'all those in the ecclesias who have lost partners'. It could mean those widows who had devoted themselves to the Lord Jesus rather than seeking another partner, after the pattern of widows devoting themselves to the temple (cp. Lk. 2:37).&nbsp; The fact he recommends some younger widows to remarry (1 Tim. 5:14) is proof enough that &quot;widows&quot; doesn't mean 'all widows'. It may be that single and widowed brethren and sisters made open statements of their decision to devote themselves to the Lord Jesus, and so he would be using &quot;unmarried and widows&quot; as technical terms for those who were proclaiming celibacy to the Lord Jesus, and yet it seems were tempted to use the church prostitutes at times.&nbsp; 1 Tim. 5:9 suggests there was a specific &quot;number&quot; of widows in the Ephesus ecclesia who were financially supported by the ecclesia.&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;Live as I do&quot; translates a word which better means to remain or abide. This would connect with the teaching in :20 &quot;Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called&quot;.</p>