19:10-12 Is Jesus enjoining celibacy here?

19:3-9 See comments on Mt 5:31-32

19:10-12 Is Jesus enjoining celibacy here?

No! Jesus clearly makes it a matter of personal choice. Because of being born impotent or having been emasculated, eunuchs do not marry.

To make oneself a eunuch for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake, means to live like a eunuch in voluntary sexual abstinence by refraining from marriage in order to devote oneself exclusively to the work of God. To be able to do this however is a gift.

Not every Christian can do it, and God does not expect it (cp 1Cor 7:7-9). In V7 here Paul is alluding to a gift with which God had endowed him. He was not referring to his unmarried state, but to the gift of self-control he had which led in turn to him being able to remain unmarried. We learn this from Mt 19:8-9.

The phrase “it is good for them if they abide even as I” in V8 refers to Paul’s unmarried state. Abide (KJV), or remain (NKJV), is a verb in what is known as the aorist tense in the Greek construction of the sentence, signifying Paul’s unmarried state as a permanent and final decision: “as I have always been and always will be.”

Paul’s unmarried state was of his own choosing and he was able to maintain it through the gift of self-control with which God had endowed him. (See also comments on Ac 22:3-5; 1Cor 7:7-9).

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