Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
not abusing it—not abusing it by an overmuch using of it. The meaning of "abusing" here is, not so much perverting, as using it to the full [BENGEL]. We are to use it, "not to take our fill" of its pursuits as our chief aim (compare Luke 10:40-42). As the planets while turning on their own axis, yet revolve round the sun; so while we do our part in our own worldly sphere, God is to be the center of all our desires.
fashion—the present fleeting form. Compare Psalms 39:6, "vain show"; Psalms 73:20, "a dream"; James 4:14, "a vapor."
passeth away—not merely shall pass away, but is now actually passing away. The image is drawn from a shifting scene in a play represented on the stage (I John 2:17). Paul inculcates not so much the outward denial of earthly things, as the inward spirit whereby the married and the rich, as well as the unmarried and the poor, would be ready to sacrifice all for Christ's sake.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Corinthians 7:31:
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Ecclesiastes 5:18
Song of Solomon 8:12
Daniel 7:12
2 Corinthians 6:17
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