Exposing THE PAULINE PRIVILEGE
Divorce
rates in our country and in the Lord’s church have sky rocketed to astronomical
numbers in the last 50 years. Some
recent studies reveal that 1 out every 2 marriages end in divorce. Because of the high divorce rate today, some
brethren are seeking new and creative ways to divorce and remarry while still
remaining right in the sight of God. In
such an unstable marital climate, Christians must understand that the Word of
God teaches a person can only remarry if their spouse commits fornication or
they die (Matt. 19:9;
Before we think about divorce and remarriage, we need to look closely at God’s purpose and design for marriage. Marriage was created by God:
1. To provide needed companionship for man and woman (Gen. 2:18-20). 2. For reproduction purposes (Gen. 1:28, 9:1; 1 Tim. 5:4). 3. To prevent fornication (1 Cor. 7:2-5; Prov. 5:18-21).
God has always intended for marriage to be permanent (Mat.
19:6;
In Matthew 19:3 The
Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful
for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to
them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them
male and female,' 5 "and
said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?
6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." 7 They said to Him, "Why then
did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her
away?" 8 He said to
them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to
divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 "And I say to you, whoever
divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another,
commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits
adultery." (See also Mk. 10:2-12).
In this context, the Pharisees are
once again trying to trap Jesus. They
simply want to know if they can divorce their wife for any reason. Judging from
our high divorce rate today, it would seem that the world would answer this
question with a “yes”, but Jesus does not.
He basically tells them no, because what God has joined together let not
man separate. They immediately ask him
why Moses allowed it and Jesus tells them this was only permitted because of
the hardness in their hearts. But notice
the last part of verse 8. Jesus informs
them that from the beginning of time it was never God’s intention for man to
divorce his wife. This teaches us that
God has a universal law when it comes to marriage and divorce which applies to
all people. This is important for us to
comprehend because some try to twist verse 9 into saying that it only applies
to Christians, thus the non-Christian is not affected by Jesus’ Words. However, verse 9 makes itself clear that it
encompasses every single person. Notice it says “whoever divorces”. The word “whoever” means every single person
Christian or non-Christian. Please note the following example.
Mat. 5:21… “whoever
murders will be in danger of the judgment.”
Clearly we can see the
word “whoever” applies to everyone. To
further illustrate this point, take a look at the following companion passage
of Mat. 19:9.
Matthew 5:32 "But I say to you that
whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to
commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.
It should be easy to see that Jesus is stating that
whoever (every single person) divorces his wife for any reason except for
sexual immorality/fornication causes her to commit adultery and whoever (every
single person) marries a women who is divorced commits adultery. Another point that needs to be made here is
from the word “except”. When Jesus used
this word it automatically eliminates all other reasons for getting divorced
and being able to remarry. Please
understand that only sexual immorality/fornication can constitute a biblical
divorce where the innocent party can remarry without living in adultery. Lets
examine another passage that clearly shows the exclusive nature of this word
“except”.
John 14:6 Jesus said
to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me.
It is easy for us to see that the only way to the father
is through Jesus. If we can see the
exclusiveness of this passage then we should be able to see it in Mat. 5:32,
19:9. When Jesus tells us the only
exception that will allow someone who is divorced to remarry scripturally is
sexual immorality/fornication, then we need to accept that no other way
exists. This is extremely important for
us to understand because whatever interpretation is applied to 1 Cor. 7:15 it CANNOT add another reason for a scriptural
remarriage after a divorce or it will contradict what Jesus said in Mat. 5:32,
19:9. I don’t know of any serious
Christians that would ever try to add another way to the father in John 14:6 so
what makes some Christians think they have the right to add another way for
remarriage in Mat. 5:32, 19:9? This
within itself shows that 1 Cor. 7:15 should not be
interpreted as an additional way to scripturally remarry after one is divorced.
Before we specifically examine 1 Cor.
7:15 I want to point out few more things.
There are some that would argue that Jesus was only reinterpreting
Moses’ Law and that Mat. 5:32, 19:9 doesn’t apply to Christians today. However, there is a major problem with this
view because under Moses’ Law an adulterer was put to death.
Deuteronomy 22:22 "
If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them
shall die -- the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put
away the evil from Israel. (See also Lev. 20:10; John 8:4-5).
Whatever law Jesus was talking about certainly did not belong to Moses’ Law
because He simply calls for the adulterer to be put away and not killed. Therefore, Jesus was teaching something that
applies to everyone today and He was not simply reinterpreting Moses’ Law.
Some
also like to say that Mat. 5:32, 19:9 doesn’t
apply to non-Christians. Notice the
following example. Let’s say a person
gets divorced and remarried 10 times for some other reason besides sexual
immorality/fornication. Now if Mat. 5:32, 19:9 doesn’t apply until someone
becomes a Christian then this would mean the person from our example could
remain married to their tenth mate when they become a Christian. Then once they become a Christian they would
be held accountable to Mat. 5:32, 19:9 from
that point forward. In other words they
would never have to repent of their adulterous marriage they were in. This view
has some major problems. I have already
shown that “whoever” in Mat. 5:32, 19:9
includes both Christian and non-Christian. This view also implies that it would be
impossible for a non-Christian to be held accountable for adultery or
fornication. However, the Word of God
emphatically states there are sexual immoral people of the world (1 Cor. 5:9-10) and that non-Christians were guilty of
adultery among many other sins before they became Christians (1Cor.
6:9-11). Another great example to show
the universal law of divorce and remarriage can be found in the following
verses:
Mark
6:17 For Herod himself had sent and
laid hold of John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his
brother Philip's wife; for he had married her.
18 For John had said to Herod,
"It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."
What law is John
talking about? It can’t be the Law of
Moses because Herod was a Gentile and thus Moses’ Law would not apply to
him. The only reasonable explanation is
that his actions violated God’s universal law of marriage that started with Adam
and Eve as expressed by Jesus in Mat. 19:8. Both Christians and non-Christians
have the same set of rules. To say
otherwise would mean that God is showing partiality to the non-Christian (Rom.
2:11). Now let’s turn our attention to the following verses:
1 Corinthians 7:10 Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife
is not to depart from her husband. 11
But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her
husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife. 12 But to the rest I, not the
Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing
to live with him, let him not divorce her.
13 And a woman who has a husband who
does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce
him. 14 For
the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is
sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now
they are holy. 15 But if the
unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage
in such cases. But God has called us to peace.
16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your
husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
In this chapter the Corinthians had many questions in
regards to marriage and Paul answers these questions. Please keep in mind that these verses are the
only place that the supposed Pauline Privilege comes from. Now we could examine if verse 10 is talking
about married Christians or all married people.
We could even talk about the differing Greek words used for divorce and
departing in these verses. However, this
really isn’t necessary. Instead, I want
to keep this very simple and make some logical points. First of all the major theme of these verses
is to remain married to your mate if at all possible. There are two things you do not see discussed
in the verses, sexual immorality or remarriage.
Verse 10 – 11 teaches us that a wife is not to leave her husband. If she
does, she is to remain unmarried or she can go back to her husband and be with
him. This same rule applies to the husband.
In verse 12 – 13 Paul specifically deals with a Christian being married
to a non-Christian. Once again, we see a
similar response. A Christian, whether
male or female, is to stay in the marriage and not divorce. As he states in verse 16, we might end up
leading our spouse to Christ.
Hopefully we can see that neither sexual
immorality/fornication nor remarriage is under discussion in these verses. Yet those who advocate the Pauline Privilege
try to say that it is there. Now let’s
examine the one specific verse where this view comes from.
1 Corinthians 7:15 But if the
unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under
bondage in such cases.
The whole misconception of this verse comes from the
misunderstanding of the phrase “under bondage”.
Before we look at this word from the Greek, I would like to make some
practical points.
1. Where does this
verse say anything about remarriage? It
only states that if the unbeliever wants to leave then let them leave.
2. I have already shown
from Mat.
5:32, 19:9
that there cannot be another exception for a divorced person to remarry other
than sexual immorality/fornication.
3. Why would Paul make
it acceptable for a Christian to remarry after a non-Christian departs yet in
verse 10-11 he forbids the married couple from divorcing or from
remarrying? He wouldn’t because that
would show partiality.
4. Why would Paul make
it acceptable for a Christian to remarry after a non-Christian departs yet
Jesus says whoever (Christian or non-Christian) divorces his wife and marries
another except for sexual immorality/fornication commits adultery? He wouldn’t because this would contradict
Jesus’ teaching.
These four points illustrate that
“under bondage” cannot possibly be referring to the marriage bond or stating
that one is free to remarry under this circumstance. To really drive this point home we need
examine the phrase “under bondage” from the Greek. The Greek word used here is “douloo” and means “to make a slave of”. This word can
only be found in eight different verses.
For instance, it is used to describe being a slave to wine (Titus 2:3),
the world (Gal. 4:3), and to righteousness (Rom. 6:18). Please take note
that this word is never used to describe the marriage bond nor should it
because marriage is not slavery. The
word used for a marriage bond is the Greek word “deo”
which can be seen in (1 Cor. 7:27, 39; Rom.
7:2). So, the question becomes if Paul
was wanting people to understand that he had the marriage bond in mind in 1 Cor. 7:15 then why did he use a Greek word that was never
used to describe the marriage bond?
Doesn’t it make sense that he used this word “douloo” so that people would understand
that he had something else in mind instead of the marriage bond? To further illustrate this point we need to
examine the Greek tense of the phrase “under bondage” which is “verb indicative
perfect passive 3rd person singular”.
The perfect tense form of this word means that its present state
resulted from a past action. In other words, grammatically we can say that the
person was not under bondage in the past nor are they under bondage in their
current state. So you see if “under bondage” is referring to the marriage bond
then Paul is stating that these Christians were not under the marriage bond in
the past and are not under the marriage bond right now. If this is the case then why did Paul tell
these same people not to divorce their non-Christian mates if they will stay
with them in verse 12-13? If they were
never bound to the marriage then why on earth would Paul ask them to keep
it? It should be easy for us to see that
“under bondage” cannot possibly be talking about the marriage bond.
So, what does “not under bondage” mean? The best explanation that fits what Paul is
teaching here is that a person is not a slave to their marriage. If a non-Christian decides to leave we should
not try to force them to stay nor should we compromise our faithfulness to God
in order to save the marriage. No matter how a person decides to interpret what
“not under bondage” means, hopefully you have learned from this paper that it
cannot possibly refer to the marriage bond.
This also means there is no way for a person to find the Pauline
Privilege in 1 Cor. 7:15. Let God’s Word be your guide.