OUR FATHER  WHO HATES DIVORCE

1 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 10 - 16 records the strictures pertaining to marriage that the apostle Paul got from the Lord. 

First, Paul instructs believing women never to leave their husbands and believing men never to leave their wives. If this restriction on divorce could not be followed, he tells the Corinthians that it was prohibited for the departing spouse to marry another person. In fact, the only permissible pathway to remarriage was to remarry the peron they divorced in the first place.

In the case of the believer who had an unbelieving spouse, Paul prohibits the believing spouse from divorcing the unbelieving spouse and he stated that the unbelieving spouse was  sanctified by the believing spouse so that the  resulting children would be holy rather than unclean.  However, if the unbelieving spouse wished to leave the marriage, Paul advised the believing spouse to let them leave and they were not bound to the departed spouse and were therefore free to marry a believing spouse.

In letting an unbelieving spouse leave, Paul decribes the calling of God as one of peace and as such, releasing a departing spouse in peace is prescribed and fighting to try save the marriage is discouraged because if they were compelled to stay, there was not assurance that the unbelieving wife or husband would be saved.

10 Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. 11 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.

12 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. 13 And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

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