Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You are saying things that are confusing because you are confusing two different passages talking about two different things. In the one passage Paul encourages people to marry rather than to have passions without a godly fulfillment. But in the passage in 1 Timothy 5 Paul is speaking about a condemnation that comes from marriage if one marries after pledged themselves to the service of Christ and the church which was a pledge of celibacy.

You said:

So the point is not that marriage is wrong which you seem to think i said, but that marriage protects us from ‘passion’ and ‘sexual immorality’, which was precisely Pauls instruction to the younger widows who were abondoning Christ to follow after their ‘desires’.

Mark, you are wrong here. You have missed Paul’s point in that he isn’t saying that marriage is a condemnation for everyone but marriage is a condemnation for those who have pledged themselves to Christ in celibacy and after the pledge want to marry. It is then that Paul says that marriage brings condemnation.

1 Timothy 5:11–12 (NASB95)
11 But refuse to put younger widows on the list, for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married,
12 thus incurring condemnation, because they have set aside their previous pledge.

The condemnation from verse 12 comes directly after “want to get married” and the reason is given. It is because marriage sets aside a previous pledge. The desire for marriage is not wrong and in fact marriage is the only appropriate solution to sexual desire. But the issue in this passage is focused on one thing – it is the pledge. It is the only time in the Scriptures that a single woman is condemned for marrying a single man.

In the screen print below the Greek is broken down by clause analysis so that it should be clear to see that the condemnation is directly connected to the marriage.

In this case a marriage would bring condemnation, not protect from it. The Net bible says it this way:

1 Timothy 5:11–12 (NET)
5:11 But do not accept younger widows on the list, because their passions may lead them away from Christ and they will desire to marry, 5:12 and so incur judgment for breaking their former pledge.

This is not talking about illicit sex or sex out of marriage. It is talking about marriage that would break a former pledge and bring condemnation.