Objection 34

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

Matthew 19:12 and 1 Corinthians 7:32-34, eunuchs "for the kingdom of heaven's sake," and the unmarried "careth for the things that belong to the Lord." Celibate consecration is the higher way.

Both passages describe a voluntary expediency for undistracted service, and both explicitly forbid making it a rule. Jesus prefaces: "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given," and closes: "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matthew 19:11-12), gift language, permission language. Paul is more explicit still: "I speak this by permission, and not of commandment" (1 Corinthians 7:6), "I have no commandment of the Lord" (7:25), and he protects marriage in the same chapter: "if thou marry, thou hast not sinned" (7:28). The same Paul lists among apostolic rights "to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas" (1 Corinthians 9:5), the apostolic band was substantially married, and requires of a bishop that he rule his own house well (1 Timothy 3:2-5). A liberty commended is not a ladder commanded; and a system that turns the liberty into a command must at minimum explain why its rule does not fall under the warning of 1 Timothy 4:1-3.