And Bob says in a slightly differingmg format:
"Interesting that you define self-abnegation in this way. I understand it as saying that the illusion of self, as separate and individual, tends to block out the fact of unity with God. The awareness of this unity became a new paradigm with Jesus, for which he was threatened and then killed. It is a covenant of awareness if you like, in which you will realize that “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
Paul was struggling with this “change of mind” that he understood had come with Jesus. He proposed “kenosis”, the “emptying” of the individual for the reception of this realization through divine grace. It is what Owen Barfield called final participation and Mark Vernon termed as reciprocal participation, but to this day it is not an easy teaching, which is probably why people took on physical forms of self-mortification.
In the text you quote, Paul was struggling with the apocalyptic visions that were around at the time – whether the world would end quickly. He asks whether it is prudent to make arrangements for the future if the end is coming. He also saw an advantage in his ministry by being asexual, but he also says that we are all different and some can forego sexual relations, some cannot. I wouldn’t want today to see the words as encouraging celibacy unless it comes natural to people."