1 Corinthians 7:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But He punished the one who demanded a hundred denarii from his fellow servant. Next, so that the wife would not fear becoming unclean through living with such a husband, the Apostle says: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife ... and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband" (1 Cor 7:14).

A man, they say, remains in unbelief through ignorance, which perhaps will come to an end. The Apostle himself says this in 1 Cor 7:16: "How do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband?" But fornication is committed because of manifest corruption. Moreover, the fornicator has already separated himself beforehand. By taking his members away from his wife, he has made them members of a harlot. The unbeliever, however, has committed no sin against bodily union. Or rather, through this union he may perhaps be joined also in the faith. I do not even mention that the order of life would be overturned, and the Gospel exposed to reproach, if the believing half separated from the unbelieving. Yet apply this commandment of the Apostle only to the case in which husband and wife were joined in marriage while both were still in unbelief. Afterwards one side or the other turned to the faith. For if only the husband, or only the wife, had been unbelieving beforehand, the believing half was not at all permitted to enter marriage with the unbelieving. This is clear from the Apostle's words. He did not say: if anyone wishes to take an unbelieving woman. He said: if any brother has one. Again, he does not simply command the believing half to live with the unbelieving, but only if the latter desires it. This is what "is willing" means: if that person wishes it.

It is not as though the grace of Christian regeneration, received by one spouse, passes to the other merely through marital communion. The husband is sanctified for the sake of the wife only as husband, not generally as an unregenerate man. The wife is sanctified only as spouse, not in her whole nature as an unregenerate woman. Chrysostom says: "The unbelieving husband is sanctified. How, then? Is the pagan holy? No. He did not say 'is holy,' but 'is sanctified by the wife.' He said this not to recognize the pagan as holy, but to calm the believing wife as much as possible concerning the lawfulness and purity of cohabitation with a pagan. Uncleanness lies not in the bodies of those joined, but in the will and thoughts." In a similar sense, that is, in the sense of legitimate birth, the Apostle also said that children from mixed marriages are holy, meaning not unclean. Chrysostom explains: "He calls them holy in order by this name to drive away still more strongly the spouses' fear that their union may be unclean."

That the Apostle in no way lowers the wife before the husband is evident from his words about the unbelieving wife's consent to live with a Christian spouse. Having indicated one highest foundation for the indissolubility of Christian marriage, namely the Lord's commandment, the Apostle gives several reasons in favor of the indissolubility of a mixed marriage. The first reason lies in the sanctification of the unbelieving member of the marriage union. The second lies in the sanctification of the children. Next he speaks of the benefit of remaining in the outward condition in which one is found. Thus the general order of family life is not destroyed, but sustained. Christians are also delivered from many serious reproaches. Saint Chrysostom says of this: "The Apostle said this so that the believing wife would not fear becoming unclean through living with such a husband, an unbeliever, and conversely. On the contrary, the purity of the believing wife overcomes the uncleanness of the unbelieving husband, just as the purity of the believing husband overcomes the uncleanness of the unbelieving wife." In a similar sense, children from mixed marriages are also sanctified. Blessed Theodoret, concerning the Apostle's words, "But if the unbeliever departs," remarks: "What the Apostle said does not contradict the Lord's teaching, but explains it. For, he says, the saving preaching does not introduce confusion into life. On the contrary, it seeks rather the true and God-loving peace."

"He does not establish as law that one should take an unbelieving wife, nor does he command a believing woman to be joined to an unbelieving husband. Rather, he gives rules for those joined before they received the preaching. For it happened that a husband believed while the wife remained in unbelief. Conversely, the wife received the preaching while the husband remained in the sickness of unbelief. The Apostle commands the healthy one to bear the weakness of the spouse who lives with him, caring for that person's salvation" (Theodoret).