Will you please explain the fifteenth verse of the seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians? Does it mean if they were married before she accepted Christ, and then he depart, or does it mean if both were in Christ? Would she in the first case be an adulteress?
G. A. M. D. The verse reads: "But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace." By reading the context, we learn this from verse 11,—that a wife, if she can not live in peace with her husband, and separates, should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to the husband. The next verse tells us that if a brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is pleased to dwell with him, he is not to put her away or leave her. In verse 13, similar instruction is given regarding the wife. Then verse 15 says, "If the unbelieving depart"—does not want to stay with the believer—let him go. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. If the unbelieving departs, the believer has no right to marry again without a legal separation, and Scripturally he would have no ground for a legal separation in a mere matter of belief or unbelief.