The gift of celibacy is God’s ability to live without the need for sex; the inability to resist the need for sex is a sign that the individual does not have this gift:
“But if you can’t help it, get married?” “(I Corinthians 7:9)
Like any gift, it is given to some Christians and not to others
“For I desire all men to be like me; but each has his own gift of God, one in one sense and one in another. “
The purpose of this gift is for the individual to be free to devote himself fully to God’s work, without secondary care with the family.
“And I wish you were carefree. The bachelor deals with the things of the Lord, as the Lord pleases; but who is married deals with the things of the world, how to please women?”(I Corinthians 7. 32-33)
God’s gifts to Christians are bestowed for service in the Church by God’s sovereign will and not by man’s self-determination:
“Walk each one as God has assigned him, each as the Lord has called him. Is this what I command in all the churches?(I Corinthians 7. 17)
“But now, God has placed the limbs in the body, each as He wanted. “(1 Corinthians 12:18)
It is a very useful gift in missionary work in dangerous places where it is not appropriate for a man to endanger his entire family.
However, the imposition of celibacy as practiced by Roman Catholicism is described in the Bible as a doctrine of demons:
“But the Spirit expressly says that in recent times, part of the faith apostasy, listening to the deceptive spirits and doctrines of demons; By the hypocrisy of men who tell lies, having burned their own conscience; Ban marriage?(I Timothy 4. 1-3)
It is a doctrine of demons, for it is an attempt to determine, autonomously, what only God has the right to grant.
Finally, a modern example of the manifestation of this gift is the famous Anglican minister and theologian John Stott.
By Frank Brito © Return to the Gospel
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