Marriage and Remarriage

The second longest of Paul’s letters, 1 Corinthians is written to the church at Corinth to offer solutions to problems that he had heard about through oral reports and to answer questions that people from the church had written to him about. The church was a young congregation that had been started by Paul during his second missionary journey. The city was the capital of the Roman province Achaia, and located on the isthmus at the southern part of the country. Because of the vast diversity in the city it was a morally decadent city due to the pagan influences which were prevalent in that day. The book is subdivided into two sections: Chapters 1-6 and 7-16. The first major division Paul offer solutions to problems the church was facing, the second section answers questions the church had asked in a letter he had received. 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 is the passage that will be discussed. The purpose for writing is to show that Paul gives permission to marry, divorce, and remarry but only under certain circumstances.

The first sentence of the passage begins with a direct charge or order from Paul to the married. He is instructing those who are married Christians and a part of the church not to divorce from one another. Paul’s strict instruction may suggest that the church at Corinth was in favor of divorce and was having difficulty understanding what the basis for divorce was . Paul gives them clear instruction that it is not him giving this charge but the Lord. The statement “Not I but the Lord” is giving Jesus the credit for His teachings while on the earth. Paul was aware of Christ’s teachings and instruction, so he was informing the church at Corinth that these were the principles established by Christ during His earthly ministry. Another possible alternative is that the next few sentences are of inspired revelation to the apostle. When one looks at the context of the passage, the order of male and female are reversed in this section from his other mentioning of male and female in the chapter. Paul might have been aware of a particular situation in which a wife was attempting to divorce her husband and so directly speaks to this situation. The word depart in vs. 10 is synonymous with the words put away in vs. 11. She is not to divorce or leave her husband for any reason, because they are both believing members of the church and a divorce would do nothing but bring about discord within the church. Christ only gives acceptance of divorce for adultery which is not mentioned in this passage, but is recorded in the Gospels. Paul’s purpose for not mentioning this stipulation may be that he does not want give the church any more questions about the subject than they already have. If the woman does divorce the husband then she is to remain unmarried or otherwise be reconciled to her believing husband. The man is not to put away his wife either. The same instruction as was given to the woman is placed upon the man at the end of vs. 11. Paul does not mention that the man should remain unmarried if he was to divorce his wife because the same rules apply to the a believing couple regardless of gender.

Vs. 12 begins a new discussion addressed to a new group of people within the church. “To the rest I say, not the Lord” does not mean that this passage is uninspired from God, but that Christ did not directly speak to this issue in his ministry. Paul is building upon the general rules set down by Christ, but is applying it to a particular situation that he is dealing with. He speaks with authority when writing to the church at Corinth and is assured of himself that the members of the church will accept his instruction based on his genuine apostleship. The phrase “To the rest” is a vague statement but literally means to those with situations other then those he has already addressed in vs. 10-11. “The rest” is referring to those who are married but one of the partners does not belong to the church or claim Christ. The church, Christ, nor Paul would sanction a marriage between two such people but in this situation it is possible for one of the partners to have come to Christ after the marriage, or gone against the wishes of the church thus giving Paul the occasion to write on this topic. It is notable that Paul’s use of the word Brother indicates that he is speaking to a group of believers because Paul never addresses an audience as brothers unless referring to those who have had an authentic experience with Jesus Christ. His instruction to the men is to remain married as long as the unbelieving woman consents to stay. Paul says they must not divorce based on the teachings of Christ, because a married Christian was forbidden to divorce for any other reason than adultery. Adultery was clearly not the case here and so the Christian spouse was not to initiate the divorce process.

Vs. 13 is directed at the Christian women who are married to unbelieving men. In the ancient world it was a disgrace for a woman to have different friends or religious preferences from that of her husband. It is most likely that the woman Paul is referring to had been converted after marriage and now was seeking a more holy life and thought it necessary to divorce because of religious preference. Paul instructs them that unless the man initiates the divorce that she is still bound by her commitment of marriage. The thought of intermarriage produced an amazing burden upon the union between two people. The man coming to Christ and his wife not following introduced a problem because of Christianity’s high intolerance to other religions, and a woman coming to Christ was a slap in the face to her husbands authority. The pressure of marriage to an unbeliever is enormous, but the Christian wives in particular would have been subject to severe stress because of the husband’s lack of acceptance of their new found faith.

Vs. 14 presents a strong discussion among scholars as to the meaning of the word holy or sanctified. In Paul’s understanding of the process of sanctification, there is no way that he could be saying that the unbelieving partner will be saved by their believing spouse. The intent was meant in a matrimonial or familial sense not in a personal or spiritual manner. The unbelieving spouse is not saved or justified through the believing spouse but the marriage itself is considered holy. “The purity of the believer over powers the impurity of the unbeliever, so the union is considered pure and lawful.” Paul’s use of the word otherwise indicates that he is responding to one of the questions asked of him in the letter he received. Someone was obviously worried about their children as a result of being part of a mixed marriage. “Otherwise”