1 Corinthians 7:10, Let Not the Wife Depart From Her Husband
1 Corinthians 7:10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:
The Apostle Paul encouraged the heart of wives who may be contemplating leaving their husband, breaking the marriage covenant, to honour their vows before God. God will bless them in being faithful to the vow they have made.
Rev David Engelsma of the First Protestant Reformed Church wrote, “Every pastor knows how serious is the threat to marriage in the Church today. That marriage is in trouble in the world hardly needs to be pointed out: many live together without marrying, or fornicate promiscuously like beasts – holding marriage in contempt; many others divorce and remarry – there were almost one million divorces in the United States in 1974. But marriage is under attack also in the Church. No denomination or congregation is exempt. The attack on marriage in the Church is made through divorce: two who have become one in marriage split up again into two. Either the wife leaves the husband, or the husband puts away his wife, or they file for a full, legal divorce. More and more, all the members of the congregation notice the threat in the Church, because a thing was unheard of, even unthinkable, before. The pastor knows how much more danger there is behind the scenes, where trouble in the marriage is not suspected by the membership of the Church.”
Rev David Engelsma further observed the causes for marriage breaking down, “Every pastor also knows how snarked and horrible some marriages become, through the sins of the husband and the wife – marriages in the Church. Although they live together under one roof at least, at least, some husbands and wives so sin against each other, over a long period of time, that their marriage is a mockery of the close, delightful bond, described in Scripture. Either the husband is a cold, unfeeling brute who rules tyrannically, or the wife is a contentious shrew, always contradicting her husband. Or the marriage is constant criticising and bickering. Or they pretty much go their own ways.”
He also shared his counselling challenges, “Every pastor has had the feeling in his difficult labour with the marriage that the only way out is divorce, that it would, in fact, be an act of mercy to counsel them to divorce. Woe to him if he follows his feeling instead of the Word of God, but this is his feeling. What is said…about divorce cannot be ascribed to the writer’s ignorance of how complicated marriage situation can become in the Church or of how fearfully sin can strain and tear the marriage bond. Although sin complicate matters, the Word of God give clear instruction concerning marriage and divorce.”
This is the sense of the text before us. May God’s people take heed to the Lord’s command to be faithful to their marriage covenant. Amen.