James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Corinthians 7:29 - 7:29

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James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Corinthians 7:29 - 7:29


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

BRIEF LIFE IS HERE OUR PORTION’

‘The time is short.’

1Co_7:29

What are the practical conclusions the Apostle draws from this truth?

I. Domestic relations.—Home influence is the sacred source which gives character to everything in life. ‘They that have wives be as though they had none.’ The dearest ties and associations of life must not detain the heart. It must be taken up only with Jesus, and every affection must be kept in subjection to Him. There must be a sitting loose to the nearest and dearest for His sake. This must be the test of everything, and must give its character to every domestic duty, and to every affection of the heart.

II. The sorrows and trials of life.—‘They that weep as though they wept not.’ These too must take their tone from this truth. They are now nearly filled up. We are not, like Mary, to continue at the sepulchre, but to speed with messages of love to the weeping ones. We must sit loose to our sorrows, for sorrow will soon end.

III. Joys must not detain the soul.—‘They that rejoice as though they rejoiced not.’ There are hours of delight. God plants flowers in our way; yea, many that are sweet. But to all we must sit loose. The one Rose of Sharon has won our hearts, and this must impart its fragrance to every other. Christ is our joy.

IV. ‘They that use this world as not abusing it,’ or ‘not using it to the full.’ It does not mean abusing it in the sense of perversion, but only the right use of what is according to God’s will. We are to engage in its business, its duties, its callings; to use its money, its air, its opportunities for good—to ‘use’ them all for the Lord. Without Him nothing; with Him all things according to His will.

Rev. F. Whitfield.

Illustration

‘While we wave the palms of glory

Through the long eternal years,

Shall we e’er forget the story

Of our mortal griefs and fears?

Shall we e’er forget the sadness,

And the clouds that hung so dim,

When our hearts are fill’d with gladness,

And our tears are dried by Him?

‘Shall the memory be banish’d

Of His kindness and His care,

When the wants and woes are vanish’d,

Which He loved to soothe and share?

All the way by which He led us,

All the grievings which He bore,

All the patient love He taught us,

Shall we think of them no more?’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

TIME AND ETERNITY

The rule has been laid down that time ought to seem short as it passes along and great as we look ahead. And the reason is this. We measure time by the number of ideas which pass through the mind or the actions we do in succession. As these ideas or actions pass, if they be good and pleasant ones, they make the time appear to go quickly, but if we take a retrospective view, the longer the time seems to be. And therefore every man ought to have many ideas in his mind and perform many actions: and those ideas and actions happy ones. Thus time should be little as it goes; great when it is over.

I. There are three reasons why time is short.

(a) We ought to be thinking a great deal about eternity. And to the eye that has been dwelling on eternity, all time, everything we can measure, must be short.

(b) Good occupations make shortness. There is a great deal to do. Alas for the man who finds any day of his life too long! That man cannot be living as he ought to be living.

(c) No man who is very happy complains that the hours run sluggishly; and whether we are happy or not happy, we ought to be happy.

II. If you desire that time should feel short, live straight to the present—the present duties, the present joys, the present trials; the past all forgotten, the future all undiscernible. You have nothing to do but with the passing moment. It will glide by very rapidly if you will always live only for the present. Don’t be long about anything. Concentrate. Hold everything that has not an eternity in it by a slight hand, by a loose hand; it is not worth much, for ‘the time’ indeed is very ‘short.’ Live for eternity, love for eternity, marry for eternity, die for eternity, work for eternity. Carry with you the thought, and let that thought be always eternity, eternity, eternity is coming!

III. What we want is to be exceedingly practical.—Too short now for all that fretting about little things. Too short to flit away an hour when every moment is golden. Too short to be careful when the future we care about may never come; and if it comes will be only for a little while. Too short to hoard up, when ‘this night thy soul may be required of thee.’ Too short to quarrel, when already we stand before the door, and we are all about to go in together to stand before His judgment seat. Too short to mourn for those who are gone—when they will so soon come back again. Too short to weep—when God is so soon to ‘wipe away all tears from our eyes.’

IV. But it is not too short to pause and feel its shortness, and praise God for its shortness. Not too short to realise that the two worlds are one. Not too short to leave whatever is not true and holy, and begin now the heavenly. Not too short to see our union with Jesus and His saints. Not too short to do something for Him before we go in and ‘finish the work which He has given us to do.’

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘ “Millions of money for an inch of time!” cried Elizabeth, the gifted but ambitious Queen of England, upon her death-bed. She had enjoyed threescore and ten years. Like too many of us, she had so devoted them to wealth, to pleasure, to pride, to ambition, that her whole preparation for eternity was crowded into her final moments; and hence she who had wasted more than half a century would barter millions for an inch of time.’