1 Corinthians 7:15 Commentary and Bible Study

There is, in this case, abandonment or desertion in some form: We follow the Westminster confession position that this means the marriage is broken and the person is therefore free to remarry. The bond is ended. Not all see it that way. There are many who see the bond as being absolutely unbreakable, so there cannot be remarriage under any circumstances, but we follow the divines of the Westminster confession in interpreting verse 15 as an end of the marriage. In this case the one who departs is the unbelieving spouse, and therefore Paul has nothing to say to them as he did in verse 11 when it was a believing husband or wife who departed. There he could exhort them to return to the marriage, but here, although they are accountable to God, they are not part of the church over which the apostle has jurisdiction. His instruction is for those who have submitted to Christ, but this one has not. That leaves a believing husband or wife without their spouse. What are they to do? Is the marriage still there? No, not in this case. The unbeliever has departed, perhaps because they are not willing to live with a Christian. The assumption is of course that there are no just grounds for the unbeliever departing from the marriage, and that the believer has done their utmost to save the marriage. They must examine their conscience about that. But they cannot go so far as to deny the faith which may be the one thing that the unbelieving party is demanding.So, unlike in verse 11, in this case the brother or sister is not under bondage; the marriage bond has been dissolved by the desertion of the unbeliever. To let them depart is to abandon all further attempts at reconciliation, whereas in verse 11 he had told the separating wife to remain unmarried or else be reconciled. Neither of those requirements are relevant in the case of the departing unbeliever. What is Paul’s basis for this ruling? It is that God has called us to peace. This is added as a justification for abandoning the marriage, not as a caution against doing so. The peace referred to is not the peace that would come from repairing the marriage, but the peace what God has given to every one of his children through the work of their Redeemer. The sinful behaviour of the unbeliever cannot be allowed to take away that peace. Peace is God’s gift to us even in a fallen world.