December 5, 2004

A SANCTIFYING RELATIONSHIP

1 Corinthians 7:6-17

   "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the un-believing wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean, but now they are holy" (1 Cor. 7:14). At first sight, it might be a shock to see unbelievers called "sanctified"! How can this be?

   Paul had addressed widowers and widows (7:7-9), and believing couples (7:10-11) and proceeded to "the rest," that is, to mixed couples where only one of the couple was a believer. He does not assume that a believer would knowingly marry an unbeliever. Here he addresses the case of couple already married wherein one of them becomes a believer. How shall this situation be handled?

   Sosthenes and others converted from the synagogue next door might have remembered reading the Old Testament how Israel had "trespassed against...God...and had taken...wives from among the people of the land (i.e., Canaanites, Gentiles)." They were commanded to "put away all the wives and, and such as are born of them..." (Ezra 10:2-3). Shall believers in the church at Corinth do the same? By no means. To these couples Paul wrote as above, "the unbeliever...was sanctified (set apart)" by the believing partner. Children of this mixed marriage were also sanctified! Does grace abound over law here also?! Thus the mission field begins at home!

   The church, the body of Christ, is one body made up of believers from many nations. We are not to seek purity of blood line, but purity of teaching and sharing it with every one. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. The "sanctification" of these unbelievers might sound strange at first, but Paul is speaking of them being "set apart" outwardly, to a sphere of blessing in a family where one spouse knows the Lord Jesus Christ. To the wife he wrote, "knowest thou...whether that shalt save thy husband," (7:16), and it is the same for the husband! What a prospect! They are to share the saving grace of God with loved ones!

   When an unbeliever does not appreciate the new way of life and "departs," the believer is not bound in such cases. Believers are never free to unite with unsaved in marriage. (See 2 Cor. 6:14-18.)

Ivan L. Burgener