<p>7:40 <em>But in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I am certain that I also have the Spirit of God- </em>We noted earlier that Paul says that his judgment was confirmed by the Spirit. He was free to make his judgment on matters that were without direct guidance from the Lord's own recorded teaching; but his judgment was confirmed by the Lord.</p><p>That Paul should encourage single converts to remain single unto the Lord Jesus may seem a tall order, especially as he is making this challenge to a church who were so seriously immature. But consider the expectations on the early converts:<br />- Converts joyfully selling all their lands and property, pooling the money, and dividing it among the poorer members. Yet we can scarcely raise the money to pay for poorer brethren to attend a Bible School.<br />- Husbands and wives regularly abstaining from sex so they could the more intensely pray and fast for a&nbsp; period of several days. Surveys of Christian prayer habits reveal that on average we spend around 10 minutes / day praying. And scarcely any fast. <br />- Elders who spent so much time in prayer that they had to ask others to do some practical work for them so they could continue to give the same amount of time to prayer (Acts 6:2-4). <br />- Young brethren, &quot;the messenger of the churches&quot;, who spent their lives full time running errands in dangerous situations throughout the known world.<br />-&nbsp; Over zealous brethren (in Thessalonica) who packed up their jobs because they were so sure the second coming was imminent. <br />- The expectation that the Gospel of Mark (at least) was to be memorized by all converts. Most Christians can scarcely quote more than 50 Bible verses- after generations of Bible study in our community.<br />- The assumption that all believers would make converts (1 Cor. 3:10-15). <br />- Believers were regularly persecuted, tortured, imprisoned and forced to migrate long distances&nbsp; unless they made what some today would consider only a tokenistic denial of their faith.&nbsp;</p><p>We have somehow hived off the first century church in our mind, as if to say to ourselves: 'Well, that was them, but we're in a totally different spiritual environment'. The same mind-set occurs when we consider the zeal of earlier believers. There is no doubt that the more we read the New Testament, the more we will see that the level of intended commitment required was high indeed. The fact many failed to rise up to it doesn't affect this. That single converts were expected to remain single would not therefore have appeared so strange, once the spiritual context of the New Testament church is perceived.</p>