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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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1 Corinthians 7:11
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If there is a separation ‘let her remain unmarried’; the marriage bond is still there. This may be cover the situation that has arisen because some people have left their pagan husbands even before the apostle was asked this question, and before he gave his reply. Alternatively, it may refer to cases where one party has felt it necessary to depart for a time from the marriage. So the deed is done. We are not being offered a choice. That would make the Scripture completely contradictory. ‘Let not the wife depart from her husband, but and if she depart.’ That is not how Scripture works. It is not a choice. ‘Let not the wife depart from her husband’, but if it has happened; that is what is in mind, ‘let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband’, and let not the husband put away his wife. So the bond can only be broken by certain things: adultery and a form of abandonment. That is tragic, but that breaks the bond of marriage. In other cases the bond is still there, and the hope must be that there will be reconciliation. Certainly there must be no new marriage which would finally destroy the old marriage and would necessarily involve adultery (Matthew 5:32).
Application
That is an extreme position. The pastoral effort must always be to keep people together, unless there is adultery, unless there is abandonment, or unless there is cruelty or intolerable violence, in which case it is criminal and it is not safe. But in all other circumstances our first aim is to try – they are professing Christians, after all – to try to reach the point of repentance and change, of reconciliation and harmony, if it can possibly be done. That is always the first aim of the church of Jesus Christ.
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