“1 Corinthians 7:12-16”

Thursday, April 05, 2018

“But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?”

---End of Scripture verses---

When Paul wrote, “But to the rest I say, not the Lord” in verse 12, he was not suggesting that this was another apostolic opinion. He was merely indicating that the Jesus had not addressed this issue personally in His earthly teachings. What Paul declared in today’s verses is just as much a command as if Jesus had said it himself, because Paul was speaking on the Lord’s behalf and with His authority. To tell someone they “must not” do something is a directive not a recommendation.

A huge problem for married Christians in the first century was that a marriage could turn hostile if one spouse gave his life to Christ and the other did not. Societal bias was so slanted against Christians in some places that if your spouse chose to follow Jesus, that could qualify as grounds for divorce. But notice here that the disciple of Christ is forbidden from initiating a divorce if he or she is married to an unbeliever. “He must not divorce her” and “she must not send her husband away” (verse 13).

It is no wonder why Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30). Choosing to follow Jesus could (and still can) very well cost you your marriage. As long as it was (is) not the Christian’s choice to break those bonds, he/she will receive many times over the blessings that were (are) lost.

“The unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband,” and vice versa (verse 14). Whatever Paul means by this statement, he is definitely not saying that an unbelieving husband or wife is “saved” just by being married to a Christian. Obviously he is using the word “sanctified” in a conditional way. The same is true when he says that the children in a marriage are made “holy” by the presence of a believing mother or father.

I think Paul is simply saying that the believer legitimizes the “mixed” marriage in the current dispensation we are living in. Consider the fact that, under God’s previous covenant with Israel, believers were forbidden to intermarry with non-believers (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3-4; Ezra chapter 10; Nehemiah 13:23-31). But, under God’s present (and final) covenant arrangement with mankind through Christ Jesus, there is no such prohibition. The unbeliever doesn’t make the believer unclean. On the contrary, the believer makes the unbeliever clean. The Christian “sanctifies” his/her family and is his/her home’s “saving grace” and greatest hope for the receipt of God’s blessings.

That having been said, I believe the Bible still teaches clearly that it is much wiser to marry a Christian than a non-Christian. We open our lives and our homes up to many unnecessary difficulties and temptations when we do not chose a mate that shares our spiritual worldview and most important values. Paul unequivocally says that “Bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

And even though what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 is not contextually referring to the bonds of marriage, the principal is still true. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?” I believe it is wiser to marry someone who will make it their number one priority to help you get to heaven.

But if you are currently married to someone who does not faithfully follow Christ, make it your number one priority to make the marriage the best you possibly can, and to help him/her get to heaven. “For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?” (verse 16) “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.” (1 Peter 3:1-2)

“Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace” (verse 15). When Paul wrote that we are “not under bondage in such cases,” he was not saying that the “bonds” of marriage are somehow broken in those instances. He is merely saying that Christians are not forced to fulfill their marital obligations to “unbelievers” who have no desire to live with them. The word for “bondage” here means to “enslave”. A believer is not the unwilling non-believer’s “slave” if they become contrary and hostile.

But we must remember that this verse does not contradict what Jesus and Paul have clearly taught in other places in the Bible. There is still only one exception to marriage as an unbreakable bond, and that is sexual infidelity (Matthew 19:9). Even if verse 15 does allow for a “divorce”, it does not authorize a remarriage. I know many Christians who have been married to non-Christians, and when the marriage did not work out, they cited 1 Corinthians 7:15 as their right to divorce and remarry. At the very MOST, this authorizes the right to divorce and remarry, if the non-believer leaves BECAUSE of the believer’s faith in Christ. And even that is very questionable.

Please understand that I am not trying to tell anyone who they can and cannot marry. I just want to do my part in helping people be as well-informed as they possibly can be when making these eternally important life decisions. My prayer is that none of us will base our decisions on questionable interpretations of inconclusive passages that could very well lead us astray and cost us our eternity.

Please read 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor

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