Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Seventeenth Century Language Message-ID:Date: 3 Oct 89 00:13:41 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 35 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) writes: (actually, our moderator appended) >... No commentator that I looked at >saw Dave's suggested meaning of "married woman", i.e. someone else's >wife, This is regarding 1 Corinthians 7:1 which says "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: {It is} good for a man not to touch a woman.". It would appear that there has been a slight misunderstanding. I never meant to say that I thought this verse teaches that it is good for a man not to touch someone else's wife. This is extremely good advice, but that is not what I believe God is saying here. I believe that He is telling us something much more restrictive, which is that it is good for a man not to touch any woman at all unless she is his wife. This is yet another Scriptural principle that really goes against the grain of today's sociological norms, but the Bible does declare that the ways of the world tend to always contradict those of God. The NIV's it is good for a man not to marry is not only unScriptural, after all God Himself caused Adam to marry, but also entirely removes the principle that this verse declares. One who guided his life by the NIV's version of this piece of divine advice would easily convince himself that things like extra-marital dancing and even fondling are acceptable before God. God, on the other hand, wants us to know that the only place for any form of intimacy between a man and a woman, and the only place for even those things which may tempt one toward such intimacy, i.e. physical contact, is only within the marriage relationship itself. Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014 856 Grenon Avenue Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 6G3