No Divorce-1 Cor 7:8-16

1 Corinthians, New Testament, Sermons

Settling down in simplicity. When I married on Aug 15, 1981 less than a year after becoming a Christian, I said to myself, “Well I guess that’s it for the rest of my life!” I didn’t realize it then, but 39 years later my matter of fact, down to earth, and entirely unromantic expression has simplified my life and settled me down. Through Christ, Christy and the community of the church, I was no longer a restless wonderer (Gen 4:14). On the immutable foundation of Scripture and matrimony, my life was firmly set on a long obedience in the same direction (Eugene Peterson). It has been and still is God’s marvellous, magnificent and mysterious grace of God upon my life, which I pray to declare all the days of my life (Ac 20:24).

𝑺͙͟͟𝒂͙͟͟𝒅͙͟͟ ͙͟͟𝒑͙͟͟𝒂͙͟͟𝒊͙͟͟𝒏͙͟͟𝒇͙͟͟𝒖͙͟͟𝒍͙͟͟ ͙͟͟𝒓͙͟͟𝒆͙͟͟𝒂͙͟͟𝒍͙͟͟𝒊͙͟͟𝒕͙͟͟𝒚͙͟͟: Divorce has disproportionately disheartened, disillusioned, discouraged, devastated and destroyed too many individuals and countless families.

 

Remain as You Are in Your Marital Status (7:8-16) — stay unmarried if widowed, and if married don’t divorce.

  • What is Paul’s advice to widowers [unmarried] and widows (1 Cor 7:8a)? Is Paul possibly a widower (1 Cor 7:8b)?
  • Should remarriage [for widowers and widows] be considered and why (1 Cor 7:9; 6:18)? What does this show us about Paul?
  • Should married couples in the church divorce (1 Cor 7:10-11)? What does Jesus explicitly say about divorce (Mk 10:9; Mt 19:6) and about those who divorce (Mk 10:11-12; Mt 5:31-32)?
  • What is Paul’s advice to Christians married to non-Christians (1 Cor 7:12-13)? Why and what can a holy [believing] spouse potentially do (1 Cor 7:14, 16)? What if the unbeliever leaves (1 Cor 7:15a)? Why (1 Cor 7:15b)?

For widowers and widows: stay unmarried (7:8–9). Next, Paul addresses a different group: “the unmarried and the widows” (1 Cor 7:8). “Unmarried” (agamoi) refers specifically to widowers, not all those who are not married. (Paul’s advice to other non-married persons—the divorced and the not-yet-married—is in 7:11, 25–38). This counsel, like most others, is carefully balanced and directed equally to men and women: in this case, men and women who have lost a spouse to death. Paul apparently places himself within this group, telling them that it’s well for them to remain “as I am” (1 Cor 7:8, 7), i.e., unmarried. [This is the only hint in Paul’s letters that he might once have been married—as would have been normal, indeed virtually mandatory, for a Jewish man of his time who was devoted to the study of Torah (Ac 22:3; Gal 1:14; Phil 3:4–6; cf. the later rabbinic teaching that “He who is twenty years old and not yet married spends all of his days in sin.”] Paul’s marital history and status, whatever it may have been, was no doubt known to them; so, he need offer no further explanation. His purpose is simply to advise widows and widowers to remain as they are (cf. 1 Tim 5:14).An important qualifier urging remarriage “if they are not practicing self-control” (1 Cor 7:9). [Porneia looms in the background.] Paul’s concern is that widowers or widows find themselves lured into illicit sex [prostitutes or extramarital affairs]. Those who feel the compulsion of sexual desire should marry, “for it is better to marry than to burn.” Almost all modern translations correctly interpret the last verb to refer to the “burning” of sexual passion, rather than the flames of God’s judgment. “It is better to marry than to be aflame with passion” [NRSV]. This is often read as though Paul were damning marriage with faint praise. But Paul is specifically addressing the widowed, not everyone, and that his teaching is far more flexible and permissive than the position of the anti-sex faction at Corinth, who were undoubtedly insisting that it was forbidden for the widowed to remarry.For Christian married couples: no divorce (7:10–11). Paul returns back to married couples in the church. If continuing sexual relations are mandatory for Christian husbands and wives, might some of them seek an escape route into celibacy by means of divorce? Had this perhaps already been occurring in Corinth? Or had the issue of divorce arisen for other, more ordinary, reasons? Whether prompted by a concrete instance or not, Paul articulates a general norm in verses 10–11: Christian wives and husbands should not divorce one another. In contrast to the counsel of verses 8–9, this teaching is not merely advice: it is commanded by the Lord himself.   One of the very few places that Paul appeals explicitly to a teaching of Jesus to support a directive to his churches (1 Cor 9:14; 1 Thess. 4:15–17). The wording is different from the Gospels, but Paul is certainly alluding to Jesus forbidding divorce (Mk 10:2–12; Mt 5:31–32; 19:3–12; Lk 16:18), an unusual stance more stringent than anything found either in Judaism or in Greco-Roman culture. In Judaism, only the husband had the prerogative of divorce, but in the Roman world women also had the right to initiate divorce. The fact that Paul uses different verbs to describe the action of the wife (“separate”) and the husband (“divorce”) probably reflects his Jewish background and sensibilities, but there is no difference in the legal or practical effect of the action: the modern distinction between “separation” and “divorce” is not in view here, and Paul’s formulation in verse 13 does recognize the woman’s legal right to divorce her husband—though he is urging Christian women not to exercise it.Paul not only repeats the teaching of Jesus but also reckons with the possibility that some within the community may not obey it. Therefore, he adds his own proviso to the Lord’s commandment: If the wife does terminate the marriage, she is to remain single (agamos) unless she is reconciled to her husband (1 Cor 7:11). Paul doesn’t explicitly state the reciprocal commandment (that a husband who divorces his wife must remain single or be reconciled to his wife), but in view of the symmetry of Paul’s teachings for men and women throughout the chapter, this norm should be assumed as implicit in Paul’s directive. The reasoning behind this ruling is probably the same as the reason in Mk 10:11–12: divorcing one spouse to marry another is nothing other than a legalized form of adultery. Paul says nothing here, however, about whether the spouse who has been abandoned is free to remarry. The major concern of his pastoral counsel is to prevent either partner from initiating divorce.Paul doesn’t call upon the community to expel or discipline persons who go against this teaching of the Lord by divorcing their partners. Presumably, they’re allowed remain in the community, with the proviso that they are not to marry again.For Christians married to unbelievers: stay in the marriage (7:12–16). Next Paul confronts an issue not envisioned by the teaching of Jesus: mixed marriages in which a believer is married to an unbeliever. Jesus was addressing a Jewish audience, and his prohibition of divorce assumed that both husband and wife were part of the covenant people of God. Paul’s Gentile mission created a very different set of circumstances. What about those situations in which one partner in a marriage hears the gospel and becomes a convert to the new faith, while the other remains an unbeliever (apistos)? Can such a marriage continue? Some must have argued, in such a marriage the believer is defiled by sexual contact with the pagan spouse, and must break off intimate attachment with an unbeliever who lives in the realm of darkness and lawlessness (2 Cor 6:14–7:1).Paul responds by speaking on his own authority (“I say—I and not the Lord”). He offers an amendment to Jesus‘ unconditional prohibition of divorce. (Paul shows no sign of knowing the Matthew’s exception clause that permits divorce in cases of porneia [Mt 5:32; 19:9]; that seems to have been a later adaptation of the tradition.) Paul makes a point of distinguishing his own ruling—one is tempted to say his own halakhah [the collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah]—from Jesus’ commandment, offering it for their guidance. The believer should stay with the unbelieving spouse as long as the unbeliever is willing to maintain the marriage, but if the unbeliever desires to terminate the marriage, the believer is no longer bound to the marriage commitment. Again Paul carefully states this ruling in a way that applies symmetrically to men and women in the church. The striking thing here is the way in which Paul exercises the freedom to adapt the Lord’s teaching to new circumstances.

By this stance, Paul rejects the assumption congenial to his own pharisaic background—that the pure person is defiled by contact with the unclean. Instead, he argues, “the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband” (1 Cor 7:14). Holiness is “contagious.” This extraordinarily declares the power of God to work through the believer to transform the spouse and children. This is exactly the reverse of the logic of defilement that Paul has used earlier in the argument [union with a prostitute defiles Christ, (1 Cor 6:15–17); bad leaven leavens the whole lump of dough, (1 Cor 5:6)]. Here, Paul reverses the metaphor and asserts that, within the family at least, holiness is more powerful than impurity (cf. Rom 11:16: “If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy.”)1 Cor 7:16 is to be understood as encouragement to the believing partner to stay in the marriage even if there’s no evidence of the unbeliever’s receptiveness to the gospel. As one whose own life had undergone a dramatic reversal—from persecutor of the church to apostle—Paul knows that we should never underestimate the power of God’s grace to redeem and transform even the unlikeliest people (1 Cor 15:8–11).What Paul addresses here must have arisen with some frequency in Corinth and elsewhere in the early church. The spouse who joined the Christian movement would often be perceived as having joined a bizarre sect of people venerating a crucified criminal. Pagan spouses might have found their Christian spouses’ new religious practices and companions embarrassing, or even intolerable. Paul says to let the unbeliever go if he or she wishes, for “it is to peace that God has called you” (1 Cor 7:15b). The believer’s fundamental loyalty is to the new family of God. At the same time, Paul’s openness to maintaining mixed marriages must seem like a puzzling compromise to those who were pressing the community to adopt radical ascetic standards. Paul is walking on a tightrope, maintaining a delicate balance between the radically new character of the community of faith and its continuing existence within the sphere of worldly commitments. The marriage commitment is not merely a burdensome obligation but where God’s holiness and transforming power may operate. Thus, Paul’s view of marriage, even marriage to an unbeliever, is hope-filled.

REFLECTIONS for the church today where issues of sex, marriage, and divorce top the list of controversial problems.

  • Divorce and remarriage. Paul affirms Jesus’ strong prohibition of divorce—in Mk and Mt—that marriage is an aspect of Christian discipleship. The reconciling power of God’s kingdom is where forgiveness and healing dissolves the alienation that leads to divorce. Marriage is serious as a binding covenant commitment. The love of God overcomes all faithlessness. But sadly members of the church may exercise their legal option of divorce. This does not exclude them from the fellowship of God’s people; if anything, their need for the community will be even greater. With a believer marries an unbeliever, the church may need to exercise flexible moral discernment in cases not dealt with by Jesus. This has significant implications for the problem of remarriage after divorce. Paul doesn’t say whether the believer whose unbelieving spouse chooses to separate is then free to remarry. (This is where Roman Catholic tradition has allowed remarriage.) That question remained on the agenda for their own discernment. If remarriage is allowable in that case, might there be others as well, such as in cases of abuse or abandonment of one spouse by the other? Paul and the gospels clearly excludes divorce and remarriage as a legal strategy for serial polygamy. But this still leaves many questions unresolved, and Paul’s careful reflection about the issues addressed in 7:10–16 offers a model of how our thinking about such matters might proceed.
  • The power and lure of holiness. That the believing partner sanctifies the unbeliever (1 Cor 7:14) marks a revolution in religious consciousness, the same revolution that began when Jesus had table fellowship with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes. The power of holiness is so encompassing that it can draw the unholy into its field of force and transform it. The hope of 1 Cor 7:16 is that the lure of holiness will be manifest through members of the community of faith in such a way that their unbelieving spouses will be drawn to the truth and love of God. The logic of this way of conceptualizing holiness can be extended to many situations other than marriage relationships; it suggests metaphorically a broader truth about the vocation of the church in the world.

Reference:

  1. Richard B. Hays. First Corinthians. Interpretation. A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 1997.
  2. Gordon D. Fee. First Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the NT. 1987.
  3. Richard B. Hays. The Moral Vision of the N.T. A Contemporary Introduction to N.T. Ethics. 1996.

Sermon Divisions:

  1. 7/12/20: Always Thank God (1:1-9) [1 Cor 1:4].  Cosmic Epic Calling [1 Cor 1:2].
  2. 7/19/20: The Devil Divides, God Unites (1:10-17) [1 Cor 1:10]. All Agree. No Divisions. Perfect Unity.
  3. 7/26/20: The Cross—God‘s Way—is Dumb (1:18-25) [1 Cor 1:18]. The Cross Stumbles. The Cross is like a Cop Out. Foolish Cross.
  4. 8/2/20: What You Were, Who Christ Is (1:26-31) [1 Cor 1:26, 30]. The Necessity of Lack. No Boasting  [1 Cor 1:31].
  5. 8/9/20: Nothing but Jesus (2:1-5) [1 Cor 2:2].
  6. 8/16/20: Wise vs. Stupid (2:6-16) [1 Cor 2:6]. True Wisdom is Only for the Mature. The Mind of Christ [1 Cor 2:16].
  7. 8/23/20: You‘re NOT Spiritual (3:1-4) [1 Cor 3:1].  Spiritual, Yet Not Spiritual.
  8. 8/30/20: Merely Servants (3:5-9) [1 Cor 3:5]. Field Laborers.
  9. 9/6/20: Build with Care or Be Destroyed (3:10-15, 16-17) [1 Cor 3:10-11]. God’s Temple.
  10. 9/13/20: Deceived by Wisdom (3:18-23). All Belongs to Christ and God. Wisdom doesn’t boast.
  11. 9/20/20: When You Are Judged (4:1-5) [1 Cor 4:4]. Go Ahead…Judge Me!  Judged Only by God; Accountable Only to God.  Judging Others Blinds You.
  12. 9/27/20: When You Are Scum (4:6-13) [1 Cor 4:13]. Become Scum. Puffed up Corinthians and Suffering Apostle amid Others’ Boasting.
  13. 10/4/20: Imitate Me (4:14-21) [1 Cor 4:19]. Fatherly Admonition. Final Warning to Boasters. Fatherly Admonition to Paul’s Corinthian Children.
  14. 10/11/20: Expel the Wicked Man (5:1-13) [1 Cor 5:13]. Drive out the wicked person from among you. [David, Daniel]
  15. 10/18/20: You Were Washed in the Name (6:1-11) [1 Cor 6:11]. You will Judge the World [1 Cor 6:2]. I Say this to shame you [1 Cor 6:5]. [Christy Peace]
  16. 10/25/20: Your Body is for God (6:12-20) [1 Cor 6:13]. Glorify God with Your Body. [Adrien]
  17. 11/1/20: Sex in Marriage is a Good Thing (7:1-7). [Yohan] [Women, Wives, Wise West Loop Elders and Singles]
  18. 11/8/20: No Divorce (7:8-16). [Angie]
  19. 11/15/20: Remain as You Are (7:17-24). [Taniesha]
  20. 11/22/20: An Eschatological Reason to Stay Single (7:25-31). [David, Daniel]
  21. 11/29/20: An Urgent Imperative for Singles (7:32-35). [Sarah, Josh]
  22. 12/6/20: Stay Single or Marry (7:36-40). [Noah]
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