38. Marriage
MARRIAGE Please explain1 Corinthians 7:14-15;1 Corinthians 7:39. In verses 14 and 15 the subject is that of a mixed marriage, in which, after two unbelievers have married, one of them has been saved. Let them not separate, but remain together, that is, if the unbeliever in the case is willing. “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 (or sanctified, the same word). But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart,” etc.
Here are persons sanctified who are not saved. “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?’ (verse 16).
“Sanctified” means “set apart,” and the teaching here is that the unsaved husband of a saved wife, or the unsaved wife of a saved husband, or the unsaved children of such a union, are sanctified, or set apart, as in a separate class, by reason of their relation to each other; just as under the Old Testament anything coming into contact with the altar was sanctified by that contact (Matthew 23:17-19; compare Exodus 30:29). The 39th verse of 1 Corinthians 7 teaches that marriage is dissolved only by death, and that after the death of her husband a widow may marry again, but “only in the Lord”—that is, only to one who is “in the Lord.” She might have been the wife of an unsaved man before, though being herself saved after she had married him; but now she must not again be “unequally yoked” to an unbeliever (compare 2 Corinthians 6:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:1). Is it against the teachings of the Bible for cousins to marry?
There is no Bible teaching upon the subject of the marriage of cousins. Under the Levitical code marriages were forbidden within a certain degree of consanguinity or affinity, but even then the marriage of cousins was not forbidden (see Leviticus 18:1-30). Under the new covenant, the matter is not touched upon except indirectly in 1 Corinthians 5:1 where the church was rebuked for tolerating a situation where one of its members had “his father’s wife,” evidently meaning his step-mother. The all important marriage law of the New Testament is, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:14). Marriage for Christians should be “only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39). Of course, the marriage of persons so closely related as to make such marriage incestuous is properly forbidden by civil laws.
1. Do you think it is right according to God’s Word for a married person to seek a divorce? You know that in taking the marriage vow one swears to love, honor, etc., until death do part. Give me Scriptures on this, please.
2. Then is it right for a divorced person to marry again? Can a person who is saved or regenerated do such a thing? I think that nothing but trouble and sorrow will follow. My mother divorced my father and married again, and though her second husband was a fine man, she was not truly happy. The whole question of marriage and divorce is a most solemn one. And it is one to which God’s people should give earnest heed in these awful days of laxness along these lines.
1. There are circumstances, undoubtedly, when it is necessary and wise and Scriptural for a married couple to separate. And that is all that the word “divorce” really means: it is division. There is no thought of remarriage involved in the word itself. This matter of separation under certain conditions is covered in principle in 1 Corinthians 7:10-16.
2. Under the Law of Moses, remarriage of divorced persons was authorized in certain circumstances (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). But on this our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 19:8-9 : “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.” In this passage our Lord implies that one may put away his wife if she is guilty of fornication, that is, he may separate from her. But even here it is doubtful whether the husband is justified if “he shall marry another” while his first wife is yet living. In Mark 10:1-12, which is a parallel account, no exception whatever is noted: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery” (11,12). Again in Luke 16:18 He says: “Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.” In view of all these Scriptures on the subject it seems clear that the marriage relation cannot be dissolved except through death; and as one who is authorized to perform marriage ceremonies I have always refused to officiate where either of the parties to the marriage has been divorced and the former partner was yet living. I have also always refused to officiate in the marriage of a believer to an unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:1).