I Corinthians 7, 14. Acts 15

Sooner or later someone is going to ask you whether you must obey the words of an apostle if he tells you up front it is “just his opinion.”

Webster tells us that an “opinion” is a belief that is stronger than just an impression, but weaker than actual knowledge.

In the first place, no apostle ever says that. Not exactly. Paul, in the most quoted of apostolic “opinions” uses (1 Corinthians 7:25) the word gnomay or “cognition”, translated here “judgment”, or “advice,” from the Greek word that means “to know.” Nevertheless, since it was Paul’s “knowing” we must concede for the moment that therefore it is not God’s knowing.

But the verse goes on… I give my judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy has made trustworthy. No idle boast, this. If the Lord Himself makes my judgment trustworthy, it is truly worthy of your trust. He is saying, I have no clear revelation from God, but I can take what I already know of the Lord and His ways and His words, and apply them to this situation. And when I have reached my conclusion you can take it to the bank. God trusts me to do this. You can trust the outcome of my thinking.

Doesn’t sound like “opinion” to me.

Neither is Paul suggesting weakness in his inner convictions at the end of the chapter when he gives more of this inspired advice, and then says, almost off-handedly, “and I think I also have the Spirit of God.”

Pounce, pounce, there, he said it! He doesn’t know if he even has the Spirit of God!

Right. The man on whom Ananias laid his hands and who could instantly see. The man who cast a demon out of a little girl who was prophesying for money in his hearing. The one who ministered constantly in the power of God has some doubt about God being in him? No, no, look again.

It’s true that the word translated “think” and that the English word itself leave open the possibility that what the person is thinking could be wrong. So we don’t look to the definition of “think” for the solution here. We look at the tone, and the context, and the man.

Paul seems to be speaking in humility, with a tinge, only a tinge, of sarcasm. Almost humor. As though a giant would look at a small man and say to his friends with a smile, “I think I can take him.” Or a very hungry man would look at a small meal and when being asked if he can eat all of that, he grins and says, “I think I can.”

No doubt here. Rather, an understatement if ever there was one.

Earlier in the chapter, there seems to be more of the mixing of Paul’s “judgment” with the clear word of the Lord. See verses 10 and following.

He gives a clear command from Jesus about husbands and wives never leaving one another. That was clear. Every God-person knows that, and he is just refreshing the Corinthians’ memories. But he goes on to say that now he is entering into some teachings for which the only source he has is the Spirit of God within him, the judgment he has acquired by knowing the Lord. “Not the Lord, I” am speaking here.

That is, we do not have on record anywhere where the Lord Himself said what I am going to say, because the situation never called for it. But now the situation is here, and I as a Spirit-advised apostle, can share truth with you as though it were from the Lord.

Back to verse 25. There’s another factor in the finding of the whole truth in this passage. He mentions the “present distress” and claims that marriage now could be doubly difficult because of persecution that could take one spouse away and cause greater grief than they could imagine. Even then, he “spares” them, gives them permission to marry, since marriage is a good thing and it is better to marry than burn.

So the apostle is bold to proclaim truth from his inner man, knowing that man has been touched by Divine life. One could make a case that most of his writings are “only” his judgments. Often he will say things that are not necessarily able to be verified in some other Scripture, but because he is an apostle, his readers are bound to accept his words.

That is what apostolic authority is about. Believing that the Spirit of God moved upon a group of men who would lay the foundational truths of the church forever.

This is what was going on in Acts 15, when the leadership of the Jerusalem church wrote to brethren elsewhere and claimed first, “It seemed good to us being assembled with one accord…” (verse25), but later, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us…” (verse 28)