1Cor 7:15-16 - Estate Keeping - Part 3

Living With the Mess That Sin Creates

15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. 16 Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?


Now, if the pagan partner found under these circumstances is simply unwilling to accept their spouse on account of their faith in Christ, no blame attaches to the Christian involved. Not only may he let the partner go, but he is presumably also free to marry another if he so desires, only in the faith.

This is no formulaic, legalistic, straight-jacket approach designed to give a strict set of rules for every conceivable situation. These words are spirit and are intended to bring about obedience to the spirit of God’s law, within the providential circumstances of real lives as they are affected by this gargantuan paradigm shift from law to gospel. This is not a putting off of the law, but a putting off of the keeping of law as the justification of the believer. The believer is already justified by faith in the finished work of Christ. He already has an alien righteousness that makes God to be at peace with him.

And so it is a putting on of the gospel of peace with God and reconciliation through faith and a new heart. There is no condemnation now and forever. The believer is free to obey from a renewed heart and, as such, is free to seek the will of God in all circumstances not under threat of punishment, but under the umbrella of a love that wants only good for them.

Some might worry that this introduces a certain fuzziness and relativity to spiritual matters where people may act as they think fit, like they did at the end of the book of Judges. Quite the contrary is true. The believer is constrained by a far higher standard than the law itself could bring about. Adultery, for example, is not simply the physical act, but is now known to be the thought from which the act springs, whether performed or not.

On the other hand, a pagan who, by the grace of God comes to faith in Christ while married to a pagan who refuses to live with him afterwards, has absolutely no heart-born intention to divorce or to adulterate the marriage. One assumes, though it is not in the text, that the believing partner has real attachment to the unwilling spouse and tries as much as conscience dictates to keep the marriage alive - all the more so if there are non-adult children. All this having failed, the Christian is free from blame even though there is a divorce, and is free from sin in the matter even if he remarries, providing it is to a believer.

Undoubtedly, some people will have difficulty here. Some might not feel free to remarry - or might think it preferable to remain single. That is something for them and for their consciences before God - but it is a personal matter of conscience and not a regulation for the church. God does not condemn remarriage under such circumstances and neither should any mere human.

Nothing is said of any pre-existing children in this scenario. But the practical implications can be no different even if there are children present. Their existence cannot negate the decision of a pagan unwilling to live with a newly converted believer. They will leave no matter what. And the question of what happens to the children must be worked out between the parents. The Christian will realize that it is better to rear children in a Christian home, but is not entitled to force this upon an departing spouse. It is one of the messy details that sinful human lives gives to us. God must be sought and decisions made in the light of scripture. Mistakes may happen but God is always working for good in the life of the saint.

The far more preferable situation, as said previously and as is about to be repeated in the next section, is that each new convert remain in the estate he enjoyed when God called him. Inasmuch as it depends upon the Christian, this is his preferred course of action. Stay married to the unbeliever if they are willing. And the reason is not some mystical thought about union, but as an opportunity for evangelism.

Two things are at work here, as they always are. The first is to recognize the providence of God. He ordained the salvation of the one and the willingness of the other to remain; He ordained the circumstances for a purpose that is good for the believer. The second is that the believer has a responsibility and a duty of love to God and to the spouse. And, because we cannot know the future - as the Calvinists keep on pointing out, though only the elect will be saved we must preach to everyone because we don’t know who they are until they come to Christ - because God is in charge and doesn’t tell us everything in advance, then the hope remains that the unbelieving spouse will be so influenced by the godly life of the one they share a family with that they will be moved to seek God. Ya never can tell!

But whether they do or not, the whole interactive life, with all of its pain and difficulty, will be God’s will for the believer in Christ Jesus for their ultimate good, and for God’s glory.