7:7-9 What is the gift Paul had that he alludes to here?
7:7-9 What is the gift Paul had that he alludes to here?
Paul is not alluding to his unmarried state here as many in the church believe, but to his gift of self control which God gave him that led in turn to his being able to remain unmarried, or celibate - a state of being he chose for himself.
We learn this from the phrase …it is good for them if they abide (KJV), even as I in V8, which refers to Paul's unmarried state. Abide 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 his own choosing and he was able to maintain it through the gift of self control with which God had endowed him. Not every Christian has this gift and in V9 Paul commands those who do not have it, to marry.
No one can serve the Lord effectively if dominated with unfulfilled sexual passion (CP also V1-2). All this clearly refutes the teaching by some in the church that Paul had at one time been married (see also comments on Mt 19:10-12 and Ac 22:3-5).
1Cor 7:10-11 See comments on Mt 5:31-32.