Apart from Jesus Paul is the only other authority in the New Testament to have anything significant to say about divorce, and is it found in 1 Cor 7:10-24.
Paul's teaching on divorce here occurs in the context of a letter to the church in Corinth. The church was largely Gentile in composition, with many of her members coming from backgrounds of paganism and idol-worship. The church was also in trouble, with divisions among them.1 Paul's instructions on divorce occurs in a section of the letter in which he was responding to questions that the Corinthian Christians had put to him, apparently in a letter they had sent him earlier; "Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry" (v1). We shall not go into a detailed exposition of the chapter. We shall merely summarize the main points of Paul's teachings here.
Let us begin with the matter that the Corinthian Christians had written; "It is good for a man not to marry" (NIV). Two questions need first to be clarified.
1. Most modern English translations offer a more literal translation than the NIV: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (RSV, NASB, NRS, NKJ; even the KJV). The expression "to touch a woman" is a rather common one in Greek literature, and its meaning "can be resolved beyond reasonable doubt. 'To touch a woman' is a euphemism for sexual intercource".2 The question, then, is not the broader and more general matter of marriage as suggested by NIV.
2. Who made the statement and in what context is a question that many commentators have sought to resolve in order to understand more precisely the chapter. We have no need to resolve this question here, since Paul's teaching on divorce is clear whatever the solution may be. In response to the question, Paul begins by addressing the reciprocal responsibilities of the husband and wife towards each other (vv2-7). Next he turns his attention to the unmarried and widows (vv8-9). Then he addresses the question of divorce.
The first point Paul makes concerns married couples in the faith:
To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
Paul specifically refers to Jesus' teaching on divorce here as his own instruction: do not divorce your spouse. Paul, however, makes a concession, "But if she does." The grounds for such a concession is not stated; we can only presume that it is the exception of marital unfaithfulness reported by Matthew. In that case, Paul's understanding of Jesus exception is "divorce in the case of marital unfaithfulness but no remarriage"; "she must remain unmarried or esle be reconciled to her husband." Though this call to "remain unmarried or else be reconciled" is addressed to the wife, we can assume that it applies also to the husband. Why it is addressed to the wife here is unknown. It is possible that such a situation may have specifically be put to Paul by the Corinthians in their previous letter to him.
In vv12-15 Paul turns his attention to Christians married to non-believers. It would be a capital mistake to think that his parenthetical comment, "I, not the Lord," meant that Paul is merely offering his own personal opinion and may, therefore, be accepted or rejected as one pleases. Since Paul has specifically referred to a commandment that the Lord had given (v10) he is simply clarifying here that, on the present matter, Jesus had left no specific teaching. Paul's command here is as apostolic and, therefore, as binding on us.
The instruction here is simply this: the believing spouse is not to divorce the un-believing spouse (vv12-14). If the unbelieving partner chooses to divorce the believer, divorce then becomes inevitable and the believer "is not bound in such circumstances" (v15). Instead, the believer is to "live in peace." Paul seems to hold out in v16 the possibility that, in doing so, the believer may perhaps be reconciled to the spouse when or if he/she becomes a believer, or that the very act of peaceful submission to the divorce may spark the journey into faith for the unbelieving spouse.
The question that many of us would wish to know is whether Paul then permits remarriage after such a divorce. On this Paul does not provide a clear answer. The tenor of his reply to the Corinthians in this chapter, however, is such that the answer is very likely no. Three times in the rest of this section of his letter he urges "each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches" (v17, 20, 24). Though the examples Paul cites—circumcision and slavery—do not relate to remarriage, the context makes it indisputably clear that Paul's referent here is remarriage, or rather more specifically, no remarriage. By this rule, Paul suggests that being made divorced and single again because of one's faith is not a dreadful fate to be mourned but an assignment and a calling from the Lord to be lived out in full and joyful obedience.
This reading of Paul's teaching on divorce (and remarriage) is strenghtened by Paul's "judgment" to the virgins and the widows:
Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. (v27)
A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God. (vv39-40)
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2013