1 Corinthians 9

V. 5 Defends the right to have relationships

In verse 5, Paul continues his defense of his Apostleship and begins to touch on another issue that pertains to ministers. If you remember in chapter 7 Paul mentioned that he was a single man and that being single had many benefits for someone such as himself who had committed his life to ministry. If you are single you are not bound to a family and have greater freedom to move and flow as the Holy Spirit beckons you.

The Corinthian church must have begun to question whether a minister of the gospel should be married or not and Paul deals with this by saying that they have the power to marry a Godly woman just like some of the other apostles did and he names Cephas (Peter) as an example. Certain Christian denominations today still adhere to some form of celibacy for their clergy members but as we see here Paul tells the people of Corinth there is no such limitations on ministers in the eyes of God. This issue is dealt with more completely by Paul in Chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians (you can refer to our teachings on this chapter on our Facebook newsfeed), but we wanted to make note that Paul directly addressed this issue again, so it must have been a distraction or disagreement amongst the Corinth congregation.