1 Cor. 7:10 But to the married I give instructions, *not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. 12 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. 13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 14 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. 15 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.
The only way that one can use v. 15 as a way to rationalize divorce and remarriage is by ignoring the prior verses. The ok to divorce and remarry crowd assume that there is no distinction between letting the person leave, and going ahead and divorcing and remarrying. Paul, to the contrary in the immediately preceding verses makes such a distinction. He says, it is better to stay with the husband in both verses 10 and 13. But if there is a problem with the spouse not wanting to stay this distinction is spelled out in v. 11. Paul writes in v. 11 that one would then let the person leave, but not get divorced. The distinction between letting the person leave (being separated) as being Ok, but not getting divorced is clear. In v. 11 he writes that one is still tied to that person, and is not free to marry anybody else. The option is to get back with that same person he married. If not, that person is bound to not remarry. He gives no option to remarry some other person.
When Paul is writing about one not being bound, he is obviously not writing to undo what he just stated in verses 11 and 12 where he said to not divorce. If he wanted to write that it was ok to divorce in v. 15, it was quite within his capability to write "one can then get divorced and remarry". But of course Paul did not write that. One is not bound only means one can not force the unbelieving spouse to reside with you, one is not bound to do so. However, as v. 11 says, one can not divorce the spouse. Paul was in total agreement with Jesus who said, "What God has joined, let no one put asunder." (Mt. 19:6; Mk. 10:9, Lk 16:18). For an examination of Jesus' teaching on divorce, click here.
Some argue that the Catholic position would have Paul contradict himself later in 1 Corinthians 7. That is supposedly because that interpretation of vs. 11-15 has Paul supposedly contradicting v. 28. Here Paul supposedly says it is Ok to get divorced and remarried. Actually, V. 28 says absolutely nothing about those who are divorced "not sinning" by getting remarried. Actually, the text says (RSV):
1 Cor. 7:27-28 Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry you have not sinned: and if a virgin marries, he has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.
The unmarried text gives not a hint that he is writing about people divorced and remarried. When he says it is ok for the people to get married, the immediate context is about virgins (or as we will later see, widows) and thus about those never even married (or about those whose spouses have died). It is not a sin for someone who has never married (or whose spouses have died) to get married. V. 28 is thus totally irrelevant to the situation, and in fact if one interprets it the way you do, it would contradict what Paul earlier wrote in 1 Cor. 7:11-12 (even including v. 15, when he is saying it is ok to be separate, but not divorced), when he says one shall not divorce.
The above is what I wrote on a bulletin board. What follows in red is a response on that bulletin board by a supporter of allowing divorce and remarriage.
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Matt... (the quotation of 1 Cor. 7:27-28) that's apparently a poor translation of those verses:
The KJV says:
Art thou _bound unto a wife_? seek not to be _loosed_. Art thou _loosed from a wife_? seek not a wife. But and _if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
The NASB says:
Are you _bound to a wife_? Do not seek to be _released_. Are you _released from a wife_? Do not see a wife. But _if you should marry, you have not sinned_, and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.
The interlinear I have also agrees with these translations. This is speaking of the divorced remarrying without sin.
She gives us other translations of 1 Cor. 7:27-28:
The KJV says:
The NASB says:
The interlinear I have also agrees with these translations. This is speaking of the divorced remarrying without sin.
Art thou _bound unto a wife_? seek not to be _loosed_. Art thou _ loosed from a wife_? seek not a wife. But and _if thou marry, thou hast not sinned_; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
Are you _bound to a wife_? Do not seek to be _released_. Are you _released from a wife_? Do not see a wife. But _if you should marry, you have not sinned_, and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.
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Here is my response to the above objection:
Even if I grant you the translations that you gave, it does not give what you are seeking. If I am single, I am not bound to a wife. If my wife died, I am not bound to a wife. Paul is writing that it is not a sin for either a single person or one who is widowed to marry. It could fit any of those categories that do not fit the word divorced. Either one of those categories fit the context of 1 Cor. 7. The magic word you are looking for is divorced. It would have to read, if one is divorced from his wife, then it is no sin to marry. That Paul does not write even in the translations you give.
Back in 1 Cor. 7:10-11, as elaborated earlier,Paul wrote that it was ok for one to let the spouse depart, but not Ok to divorce. V. 15 also uses the same word to let a person depart, but does not say it is ok to divorce. And in v. 11 Paul specifically said that if one is separated one can not divorce. Paul would have to contradict himself in v. 28 if he has the OK to divorce and remarry interpretation.
The interpretation that one is not bound to a wife when one is widowed is found in another Scripture very relevant to the issue at hand. Paul gives us this view in Romans 7:2-3. Paul here verifies this very interpretation about being free to marry only when a woman is widowed (her husband dies). Only then is one released from the law, or loosed from the husband . This confirms again the no divorce and remarry position of Paul. Romans 7:2-3:
The KJV translation:
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead,she is loosed from, the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
The NASB translation:
2 For *the married woman is bound by law to her [1]husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law [2]concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Notice the translators in both occasions used the exact same words in both Romans 7:2-3 and 1 Cor. 7:27-28. The NASB used the word released from the husband in both places. The KJV used the word loosed in both places. In the case here in Romans 7, being released from, or loosed happens only when the husband dies. Thus a widowed person can remarry. It does not say that a divorce person can remarry. Thus, this fits the interpretation of no divorce and remarriage perfectly. If one is widowed, only then is one is released from the law of her husband as stated in 1 Cor. 7:27-28. Thus 1 Corinthians 7 perfectly matches Romans 7 in condemning marrying and remarrying while the other person is alive. If one remarries while the other is still alive, one is an adulterer/ess.
P.S. (In this paper, I have not touched on the issue of annulment. Annulment is not just another term for divorce . For a discussion of this issue, click here.)
© 1998 “Paul On Divorce, Remarriage, and 1 Cor. 7.” This textmay be downloaded or printed out for private reading, but it may not to another Internet site or published, electronically or otherwise, without express written permission from the author.be uploaded
Last modified August 13, 1998.
