I. If you look at the context of this passage, you will perceive that St. Paul's words refer to a particular case, or take their rise from circumstances peculiar to the times. The times were those of persecution, when men who avouched the Christian faith exposed themselves to the loss of substance and of life. It was undesirable, in times such as these, that men should add to the causes of disquietude and anxiety; and therefore the Apostle advised their not contracting marriages, inasmuch as single men were less encumbered, and more at liberty to devote themselves without let or hindrance to the service of God. It is obvious that what the Apostle designates by carefulness is not prudent attention, but anxious care.
II. It is not so much the actual trial of today as the anticipated trial of tomorrow which generates that carefulness from which Christians should be free. Consider the expression "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," for it helps to show you, according to the whole drift of our discourse, where there ought to be carefulness and where there ought not. There is in some Christians a fear that exemption from trial proves deficiency in godliness. Such careful Christians should be told that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." If they suffer not much evil, they may be sure, on the testimony of Christ, that they have enough. It is future good, and not future evil, on which we should have our hearts fixed heaven with its magnificent abundance of good. Let the image of this crowd your tomorrow, and tomorrow cannot occupy too much of today.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2201.
References: 1 Corinthians 7:32. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1692. 1 Corinthians 7 Expositor,1st series, vol. i., p. 237. 1 Corinthians 8:1. J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 89; W. C. Magee, Three Hundred Outlines,p. 144; J. R. Gardner, Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 393.