Yet those who marry will experience distress in this life, and I would spare you that. I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1Corinthians 7: 28-31)

Paul perceived the transformation of the world as very near. In anticipation of the new reality, we should put away our conventional understandings. We should begin to live as if God's reign had already begun.

Paul lived in this way. He continued to work as a tent-maker. He experienced joy and pain. But his life had been transformed. Paul was already a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

Paul expected a further even more dramatic transformation. But I wonder if Paul was not already experiencing what Jesus had promised. I wonder if God's reign is so near at hand that all any of us need to do is reach out to it.