1 Corinthians 7:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Just as, when speaking about withdrawing from fornicators, the Apostle made the matter easier by adding, "not at all with the fornicators of this world" (1 Cor 5:10), so here too he takes care that the commandment be very easy to fulfill. If, he says, a wife has an unbelieving husband, or a husband an unbelieving wife, they must not leave one another. What are you saying? Must an unbeliever remain with his wife, but not a fornicator? Is fornication not less grave than unbelief? Fornication is less grave, but God greatly cares for your benefit. Thus He also says concerning the offering of sacrifice: "Leave your gift ... and be reconciled to your brother" (Mt 5:24). So also in the parable of the debtor of ten thousand talents. He did not punish the one who owed ten thousand talents.

He says this so that the believing wife will not fear becoming unclean if she lives together with such a husband. But one may ask: he who joins himself to a harlot, becoming one body with her, becomes unclean (cf. 1 Cor 6:16). Clearly, he who joins himself to a pagan woman also becomes one body with her. If the first is unclean, how does the latter not become unclean? In the case of fornication, it is indeed so. When fornicators have communion with one another, their mingling contains uncleanness, and therefore both are unclean. But the matter is different when the believing half lives with the unbelieving. The unbelieving husband is unclean by his unbelief. But the wife has communion with him not in unbelief, but in the marriage bed. In this communion there is no uncleanness. For it is a lawful marriage. Therefore the believing half does not become unclean.

And if a woman has an unbelieving husband, and he is pleased to live with his wife, let him live with her.

The Apostle said this about the case in which both were pagans, and one of them first came to believe. Since unbelievers hated the worship of God, and believers felt the same toward the impurity of their former errors, the Apostle therefore instructs believing spouses in this matter. If they agree to live with those who have not changed, then let them also agree to remain faithful beside them.

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. Indeed, he prescribes the exact opposite. Thus, shortly after this, when laying down a law for widows, he added: "only in the Lord" (1 Cor 7:39). That is, let her enter marriage with a believer, piously, chastely, and honorably. But here he spoke of 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 and to care for that person's salvation.

The Apostle is not speaking about marrying an unbeliever, but about remaining with an unbeliever.

Married people must not divorce even in those cases when one of the spouses is an unbeliever. For the Lord's will in general is that each should remain in the state in which he was called to Christianity. What is external means nothing in the matter of salvation (1 Cor 7:12-24). "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy." Here is the first reason why mixed marriages in particular must not be dissolved. But how are unbelieving spouses sanctified for the sake of believers? Certainly only in the sense of the lawfulness of cohabitation.

Having set forth the essential thoughts concerning marriage and celibacy, the Apostle now teaches the indissolubility of marriage, whether both spouses are Christians or only one of them. With respect to Christians, this teaching is proclaimed as the Lord's commandment, already known in the Old Testament. For persons in a mixed marriage, it is given as personal counsel, since the Lord's commandment could not have binding force for an unbelieving person. By commanding the wife not to leave her husband and the husband not to put away his wife, the Apostle Paul seems to give preference to the husband. Yet clearly this is nothing more than the customary way of presenting the form of divorce then in practice.

"The phrase 'I say' means: I did not find this law written in the Holy Gospel, or handed down by the Lord, but I now establish it. That apostolic laws are the laws of the Master Christ is clear to those versed in divine things. For the Apostle said: 'Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me' (2 Cor 13:3). He also said: 'Not I, but the grace that was with me' (1 Cor 15:10), and again: 'By the grace given to me' (Rom 12:3). So here too he gives a law, because the Holy Spirit speaks through him" (Theodoret). What, then, is the substance of the ordinance? "If," he says, "a wife has an unbelieving husband, or a husband an unbelieving wife, they must not leave one another" (Chrysostom).