I Corinthians 7:13 And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.
14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
15 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
Yesterday there was a major error in our devotional, at least for some. I did not notice it until I looked back at that devotional today. I made a correction in the reference for the text we had yesterday. Those who read our devotional through SermonAudio will notice that I made the wrong correction there. I put II Corinthians instead of I Corinthians. The rest of you were not affected by my mistake. It was made midstream and thus changes were made along the way. My apologies for any confusion that caused. I try to be careful but I missed that error.
In today’s verses Paul is continuing to instruct God’s design for marriage in a fallen world. When a person is saved, they must submit to God’s Word in all things. The lost should also heed God’s Word, but because they are lost, they will not want to submit to the truth. Christians are to be a light in this dark world.
Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
The first word in this verse is “let”. Every born again Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. He works in the heart of the saved person to help him to be what God designed the true Christian to be. We are not THE LIGHT. We are to let the Light flow through is.
John 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Jesus is the Light of the world. As the above verses tell us, He lights every person that comes into the world. Every person has a conscience and every person knows they do not meet God’s standard of righteousness. Every person tries to fill that void with something. In our time, too many parents are not filled with that Light and thus they blindly put roadblocks into the path of their children, keeping them from identifying that major deficiency in their own lives. When children have enough toys to trip over them all the time and yet wanting more, we have failed them. When children are allowed access to cell phones and other devices to play games, we have failed them. There was a report put out recently of some group that was suing TikTok for interfering with children’s development, with their platform. TikTok is not the issue. The issue is parents who allow their children to have access to that platform. Companies would not develop things if there was no market for them. That is not that hard to understand.
For centuries, saved and lost people understood the importance of marriage. Where did that understanding come from? It came from the Light that every person has. Generations of parents and children were excited about marriage. They would work hard to plan that wedding and invite the guests to celebrate the wedding. With the darkness that is permeating the world, and the soft preaching that exists in most pulpits today, many families no longer appreciate the institution of marriage. Many parents are satisfied with their children never marrying, and just living together in fornication.
The Bible teaches us that marriage is designed by God as a picture of true Biblical salvation. In true Biblical salvation, the repentant sinner is joined to Christ in salvation. The bond is permanent. A saved person cannot lose their salvation because It is a gift that was given to them by God. Marriage is to be a picture of that gift.
Marriage is a very important step for those who choose to marry. Pastors need to teach the importance and the significance of marriage. It is a time of rejoicing, but it is also a time of sober thought. What is this young couple, or older couple doing? What is the picture they are beginning to paint?
Paul was directed to remind the saints in Corinth and all other saints of the importance of marriage. In our verses today, Paul continued to teach on the permanence of marriage. We need to do all we can to protect the true Biblical purpose of marriage.
In verse 13, the saved woman (according to the context) that has an unsaved husband should not leave her unsaved husband. If he is content to live with her, then she should stay with him. She will have a difficult time as the woman because she will need to take the spiritual lead in the house. She does not usurp the authority of her husband, but she is the one who will read her Bible and pray, daily. If there are children she will want to teach them the truth. God is able to help her in the many challenges she will face. By God’s grace, the husband will get saved as she lives her life for God’s glory. Sometimes, the husband never gets saved. That is difficult for the godly wife.
In verse 14 we are reminded of the important place the saved person has in a “mixed” marriage. As we mentioned yesterday, a saved person should never marry an unsaved person. If the saved person sinned and disobeyed God’s clear command on this, he or she has no right or authority from God to leave that marriage. You sinned. Confess your sin and ask God to forgive you. Then live right and trust God to work in spite of your sin and to continue His work in your unsaved spouse, for His glory.
Sometimes the couple is unsaved at marriage. Over time, one of the two gets saved. Now there is a conflict. However, that is not grounds for divorce. That is grounds for prayer. God will work through the saved spouse to affect the heart of the unsaved spouse. Again, by the grace of God, the unsaved spouse can be brought to salvation as well.
God is able to make the saved person a blessing in that marriage. Through the godly testimony of the saved person, God can break the heart of the unsaved person. The blessing of seeing your spouse saved is great. You, the saved person, have no Biblical authority to throw out the unsaved person in the marriage.
Notice verse 15. If the UNBELIEVING DEPART. It is not the believer that is supposed to leave the marriage. The unbeliever may choose to separate. They may decide they want no part of truth faith. God says, the saved person is to allow the unsaved person to leave the marriage bond. That will not be a frivolous decision. The saved person will do all they can to keep the marriage together. However, in the end, the person has freewill and the unsaved person may choose to leave.
The next part of this verse is another verse that is corrupted by many people. It is important to take God at His Word and not to inject our opinions into what God has declared.
We already know that God says marriage is permanent as long as the two are alive. That has never changed. What is the bondage spoken of here? Is marriage bondage? The unsaved person may think so. God did not design marriage to be bondage. As we noted earlier in this passage, in a marriage, there is an intimacy involved. This intimacy is designed by God only for marriage.
In our text, the unsaved person who chooses to leave, should not think they can come back on a whim and have all the benefits of the intimacy, after they have left. The wife is not there for a one night stand for the unbelieving husband who just wants to use her. The same applies to the wife. Our world makes divorce far too easy. If the wife wants to leave her husband, she should leave with the clothes on her back. The laws of our land, that she should get at least half of everything and then alimony yet as well, do not meet God’s standard. The unbelieving wife needs to understand the hardship she is choosing for herself. It does not need to be that way, but she is choosing to leave her husband.
The right decision for the unbelieving wife is to get saved and then the marriage will work as God intended it to work. The unbelieving husband also needs to understand that if he chooses to leave he does not have the privileges of marriage any longer. Financially, he may come out on top, but there are other matters that are of greater importance that he will no longer find fulfilment in. Again, for him the right thing to do is to get saved and take his proper place as the head of the home with God’s blessing.
God has called us to peace. Peace comes when we submit to God’s will. God never commanded divorce and remarriage. Moses gave permission for divorce and remarriage, but it was not God’s will. Jesus made that clear. There are many examples of the mess that people made through not following God’s design for marriage. People often overlook or ignore the hurt and the damage done in a divorce and they assume that the second or third marriage is such a beautiful thing, it must be God’s will. WRONG.
God does forgive sin. What does forgiveness entail? The Catholics teach that you make confession and pay whatever the priest decrees and you go on about your life. You can commit the same sin again and go through the same process again. The Catholics do not expect you to stop sinning. They are getting rich off of the sins of their people.
Jesus taught that when we are truly forgiven, we also want to stop the sin. We do not want to continue on in sin, if we are truly saved. Divorce and remarriage is adultery. There is no other way to look at it, Biblically. Since God does not command divorce and remarriage, it is not legitimate. It is not marriage. We call it marriage, but it is adultery. There may well be children born in that adulteress relationship. They are the victims of the cruelty of their parents. Sin has consequences. The way to minimize the consequences is to obey God. We will continue this tomorrow, Lord willing.
Pastor Bartel
