{"id":16911,"date":"2021-08-09T22:00:11","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1corinthians-7_1-9-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-07-28T21:43:15","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T04:43:15","slug":"1corinthians-7_10-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1corinthians-7_10-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Marriage and Divorce Seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 7:10-16\u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Corinthians 7:10-16.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 10-11:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a01\u00a0Corinthians\u00a07:10-16, Paul is addressing another issue in his church at Corinth: the issue of divorce.\u00a0 In verses 10-11, Paul reiterates the teaching of the Lord Jesus on divorce from Matthew 19:4-9 and Mark 10:1-10, which is that generally speaking married people are not to divorce.<\/p>\n

Does that mean that divorce is never allowed under any circumstances?\u00a0\u00a0Keep in mind that in Matthew 19 and Mark 10, Jesus says that divorcing (i.e legally dissolving the marriage) and remarrying is permissible in the case of marital unfaithfulness.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps the reason Paul does not mention this is because Paul is most likely writing this in response to a specific situation, or situations, that he has heard about going on in the church in Corinth.\u00a0\u00a0It could be that the Christians in Corinth were trying to back out of their marriages for immature reasons that had nothing to do with marital unfaithfulness.\u00a0\u00a0So here Paul emphasizes that marriage is a lifelong commitment that is not to be easily dissolved.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 7:12-14 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 12-14:\u00a0\u00a0The exact situation that gave rise to Paul\u2019s comments here is not certain.\u00a0\u00a0It could be that a Christian in the church in Corinth was married to an unbeliever and that Christian is wondering whether he or she should divorce their spouse because their faith and values are not aligned.\u00a0\u00a0Paul advises the Christian in the marriage not to divorce their unbelieving spouse if that unbelieving spouse is willing to keep going in the marriage.\u00a0\u00a0The reason Paul gives is because \u201cthe unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband.\u201d What does that mean?\u00a0\u00a0Despite using the word \u201csanctified\u201d, as verse 16 shows us, Paul does not mean that an unbeliever can be saved just by being married to a Christian.\u00a0\u00a0Rather, Paul is more likely saying that by remaining married to their Christian spouse, the unbelieving person has an opportunity to receive salvation and to be won to Christ because they get to see Christ at work in their spouse\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

When Paul mentions that children who are born to a couple where one spouse is a Christian and the other spouse is not Christian are still \u201choly\u201d and not unclean, what does Paul mean?\u00a0\u00a0I believe Paul means that the children in that marriage are not irreparably corrupted just because one parent is Christian and the other is not, that those children are not any less valuable than children who are born to a couple where both parents are Christians.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 7:15-16 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 15-16:\u00a0\u00a0In the case where a Christian is married to an unbeliever and the unbeliever completely abandons the Christian and their marriage, Paul says that the Christian \u201cis not bound in such circumstances\u201d; in other words, if that unbelieving spouse insists on dissolving the marriage, the Christian spouse is not obligated to fight to stop the marriage from dissolving.\u00a0\u00a0Again we do not know the specific circumstances that gave rise to Paul making these comments, but it seems that Paul is providing comfort to a Christian who thought that he or she was bound to keep fighting for their marriage to a non-Christian even when that non-Christian has left or is on the verge of leaving.<\/p>\n

One last practical note:\u00a0for those of you who are married, since divorce is generally not an option, I would encourage you to stop yourself from saying the words “I want a divorce” or other like phrases with your spouse when you and your spouse are fighting.\u00a0 Since words are powerful, the moment you say you want a divorce, the more of a real possibility divorce becomes in the mind of both you and your spouse.\u00a0 So guard your words toward one another and always lean toward reconciliation whenever possible.<\/p>\n

Whether you are single, married, widowed or divorced, let’s pray that we would take marriage and divorce as seriously as God does.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Corinthians 7:10-16.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 (NIV)
\n10\u00a0\u00a0To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.
\n11\u00a0\u00a0But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.<\/p>\n

On verses 10-11:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a01\u00a0Corinthians\u00a07:10-16, Paul is addressing another issue in his church at Corinth: the issue of divorce.\u00a0 In verses 10-11, Paul reiterates the teaching of the Lord Jesus on divorce from Matthew 19:4-9 and Mark 10:1-10, which is that generally speaking married people are not to divorce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does that mean that divorce is never allowed under any circumstances?\u00a0\u00a0Keep in mind that in Matthew 19 and Mark 10, Jesus says that divorcing (i.e legally dissolving the marriage) and remarrying is permissible in the case of marital unfaithfulness.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps the reason Paul does not mention this is because Paul is most likely writing this in response to a specific situation, or situations, that he has heard about going on in the church in Corinth.\u00a0\u00a0It could be that the Christians in Corinth were trying to back out of their marriages for immature reasons that had nothing to do with marital unfaithfulness.\u00a0\u00a0So here Paul emphasizes that marriage is a lifelong commitment that is not to be easily dissolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16912,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911\/revisions\/16912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}