Christian Marriage Issues
1 Corinthians 7:8-16 · Roger Henderson · May 15, 2016
1 Corinthians, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926532566839

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well today, as I mentioned last week, chapter 7 is all about marriage and different aspects of marriage and different issues concerning marriage. Today we're going to talk about marriage issues from three perspectives, about the unmarried and the widow, about the married believers, and about what's called mixed marriages where you have an unbelieving spouse and a believing spouse. And then it's going to continue on The following weeks we're going to talk about marriage in terms of God's desire that we maintain the position we find ourselves in. And it seems like the Lord goes to great lengths to communicate to us that His desire is that we don't get too anxious about changing things.

That we accept where we're at, assuming there's not sin involved. We accept where we're at and we maintain that position. maintain the status quo. We have a lesson about that. So we'll see what that means. And then the last section, 25 through 40, is some other considerations. So this is an outline that I got from Chester McCauley.

And last week, we talked about general teaching concerning marriage, staying single and getting married, obeying God within marriage. And today, we're going to talk about these three areas I mentioned. talk about the unmarried and the widow, talk about married believers, and then talk about this mixed marriage where we have a believer and an unbeliever. And it seems like what he's addressing here is the case where two people are married, both unbelievers, and one comes to know the Lord. And so what is the one who comes to know the Lord to do? And what's the instruction to the one that is a believer in terms of the the unbelieving spouse. And then in the days to come we're going to talk about what's been labeled the doctrine of the status quo. And then lastly, some additional considerations. And to be honest, this is an area that's a tough area. There are many believers and many unbelievers that struggle with marriage, that have issues with marriage. I wouldn't take this lightly.

This is what God tells us. One thing to remember, this is instruction to Christians. This is not instruction to the unbelievers. So if I go out tomorrow and tell people this is what they ought to be doing on the streets of Denver, I would be talking to the wrong people. I should be talking to believers who know the Lord. And so this is an instruction to them.

But it's going to involve unbelievers in the sense that when unbelievers come into a marriage relationship with a believer, then God's word comes into play. So can I get someone to read this passage, 7.8-7.16. You can read it from your Bible or your handout or whatever. to the unmarried, and to the widows, that it is good for them if they remain even as I, but if they do not have self-control with the married, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to us, and that the husband should not divorce his wife. But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband.

For otherwise her children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. 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?

OK. Well, you can see this is a pretty interesting topic. These issues are real issues that happen and have happened. So let's just kind of go through them methodically here. So first of all, we start off with what I say to the unmarried and to the widow.

So in this case, the word unmarried refers to one not currently married, whether they have never been married or once married, This definition actually came out of Vine. So it actually includes all unmarried people even to the point of those who have been divorced.

I had a hard time, I tried to look through the different usages of the word, I had a hard time seeing that. But the one thing that does come across in this case, it has a masculine definite article, so in this case it's a male. So he's here in this case speaking to a male, but later on he's going to expand that and we'll see that shortly. It can be an unmarried woman as well. And then it also speaks to the widow, one who is bereaved of her husband. And so anyway, let's just look here at a couple of cases where it uses this word unmarried.

We see it here in 7.8. We see it. And actually, let me just go through it for you. If you look in 7.11, chapter 7, verse 11, it talks about, but if she does not leave, let her remain unmarried. So that's speaking about a woman. Then if we go to 7.32, it says, But I want you to be free from your concern.

One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. I'm not sure whether that's necessary. It could be both there. And then certainly down in 37, it says, 34 it says, and his interests are divided, and the woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

So one thing we're going to notice through here is that is that Paul is going to present again his position or his belief about not being married. Even in the midst of this whole section about being married, he's going to say, you know there are cases when not being married can be advantageous. But he's going to be realistic and say, I realize that the sexual desires of a man or a woman can override that. And if that's the case, then I want you to marry. But he's going to present his case. In this verse, he's going to say it may be better if you're unmarried or a widow to stay in that situation. But he's going to qualify that with addressing the issue of sexual passion.

So here he is. He said this before back in 7.2. It is good for them if they remain even as I, Good is advantageous or profitable. The same as in verse 1. So he makes his case for the single life. And then, as we go on to the second part, starting in verse 9, he has the exception of that. But, if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

So he tries to be realistic. He tries to say, well, you know, some may have the disposition and the mindset to be single. And some people do. And maybe they could argue, well, nobody ever came along that was right for me and so I've been shortchanged or whatever. I think what he's trying to point out is that don't shortchange being single.

That's one of his points. Don't shortchange that. something that can be advantageous to you. You can focus on the Lord. You can focus on a ministry the Lord may give you. So don't shortchange that. But he does say, but be realistic. Don't be such that you say, well, I'm suffering here so much. He says, if it's difficult for you, go ahead and get married. And that's this thing of self-control. To be content, temperate, to have self-control.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 9.25. Could someone read that? And this is used in a different context.

Let's read 1 Corinthians 9.24-25. If someone could read that.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Okay, so actually yours uses the word temperate. It's the same word as self-control. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control or temperance. So, you know, Imagine a runner. A runner, if he isn't self-controlled, let's say he says, I'm going to win this race no matter what. And he goes out full steam ahead, right? Well, he's going to run himself to exhaustion. So self-control is something that we learn in many different ways. And what God is saying here through Paul, He's saying that self-control in a sexual context is an important thing.

That's an important thing. He comes back to that many times. We saw it earlier in the chapter. He repeats it again. So that's an important thing to consider. And in this case, he says, if that's too difficult for you, and he basically said that back in 7.2. And let me see here.

Because of immorality, let each man have his own wife and each man have her own husband. So he recognizes that there can be issues with that and he wants us to go ahead. But you could argue, some have argued, That seems like a poor reason for getting married. If that's the only reason you get married, that seems like a poor reason. And that is a poor reason for getting married. And marriage is to be so much more than that.

That's certainly part of it, and God realizes that. But that shouldn't be the only reason. But it seems like in here, he's willing to say, hey, I'd rather have you maybe have the wrong motive for getting married than to go on and be in a sinful situation. So it's interesting. A lot of these things almost seem like God is compromising me.

But I don't believe He is. I believe He's realistic to what man is. He knows man's nature. We're going to find down the road here, He's going to talk about a wife leaving her husband. And He's going to offer two options for that. If she does leave her husband, Either one probably isn't too good as far as the wife's concerned, but there are options there. It says, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. And the Amplified Bible has it, for it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion and tortured continually by ungratified desire.

All right, so any questions here? It's difficult going through this. I'm sure you realize that. This is not easy, but it's God's Word. God has spoken about it. Actually, in a way, I'm excited that God wants to communicate that He understands where man is at. It's not like God is unconcerned about us. He understands where we're at. He understands the passions that we have as human beings.

And He wants to convey this through Paul. And these are issues that came up because the Corinthian church had problems. It seems like they thought, well, I can be more holy and pure by abstaining from sexual relationships. But Paul says, no, that's not what you should do. That's not the answer. To be an ascetic is not the answer to your issues. So verse 10. So we address the unmarried and the widow. Those were addressed in verses 8 and 9. Now he's going to address the married. But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband. So he said, I give instructions. It's a command or a charge, if you will.

I like what Constable says, of course God's instructions through Paul are just as inspiring as they are through the Lord Jesus. If you think about the amount of scripture we have, we have a small amount in the Gospels of what Christ has spoken, and then we have a much larger amount of the other writers of scripture in the New Testament. So they're also inspired. And Paul will refer to that.

Sometimes he'll refer to it like, well, the Lord didn't talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it because you've asked me a question. And I'm going to give you, he says, my opinion or my judgment. So we shouldn't think of that as being, well, he's kind of giving me the, you know, he's giving you what God would have you know. we need to treat it that way.

So the word married here, which is interesting, is in this thing called the perfect tense, and we're going to see it at least one more time here. It's the idea of past completed action with abiding results. And it's the idea that marriage, since it's God's institution, and I always like it I had the opportunity, I'm invited to different weddings sometimes, either as a father, or my daughter most recently, but I always like when they include in the marriage that marriage is God's idea, or this is God's institution. That is so critical because man kind of thinks, well marriage is something that I kind of made up.

Well no, that's God's institution. And I can remember in one particular one where the the person who was conducting the ceremony mentioned that, I think it was five times. I was so excited every time he mentioned it. I got excited because he's saying, this is God's institution. This is God's institution.

And that's true. And that's why Paul is writing it. And that's why it's so important for what he's saying. If it's God's institution, then if we modify that or change that or do something to bring it down or injure it, that's a serious thing. This is God's institution, He established it, and we should respect it as such.

So in this case, the verb tense here just emphasizes the permanence of marriage, just in the very verb tense there. Here's a passage that emphasizes that as well, in Matthew. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate." So that's the thing we talked about last week a little bit. The fact that we're one flesh. That a man and a woman are one flesh. And one affects the other in a married situation. So if one leaves, that affects the other. To be a oneness in that, that's a very serious effect on that.

And then Jesus taught on this in in Matthew and Luke. So let's look at a couple of those. Could someone read Mark 10, 11 and 12? And he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman, commits adultery against her, and if she herself divorces her husband, I think the Luke passage is very similar to that Luke 16, 18. I can go ahead and read that if you want. Luke 16, 18, very similar passage. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

So I want to point out here, actually Verne has covered some of these topics. He puts out these little papers occasionally, and he'll hand them out. So he's covered this, especially the teaching of Jesus and the Gospels. There are some additional considerations there about this. He talks about these, and I'm not real, I haven't studied like Verne has. I would recommend, if you're interested in this, There's a paper, I'm going to try to get Vern to get it, and I can bring it next week and pass it out. It talks about some of the considerations of the culture of that time, and there are certain situations where what Jesus taught has to be taken in the light of what the cultural considerations were. It's not to lessen what God believes marriage is, it's to understand that better. It talks about the issue of whether there's been adultery by one of the parties and considers that. There are other situations that are a consideration too. I didn't really try to delve in beyond that. I just wanted to point that out to you. Then basically the same thing for the wife. The wife should not leave her husband. Now here, this is what's interesting. So he basically says, in verse 10, he says, basically that the wife should not leave her husband.

But then, and this is pretty unusual, this doesn't happen too many times in scripture, but he says, but if she does, so he already recognizes that may happen. But if she does, he's going to add some additional information here. But if the wife does leave, McCauley, I decided to put this in here. This verse shows that while the Word of God holds forth the highest standard, it is also realistic about man. The teaching of the Word of God on the subject of marriage is unique. We don't often see, don't do this, but if you do that, then here's some other information. That's pretty unusual.

So option A. Option A is she remain unmarried. Option B, she be reconciled to her husband. So you may think, well, I don't like either of those options. But these are the options that he presents in this verse. And then basically the same applies for the husband. This was the case that the If the wife leaves, she should remain, but it applies to the husband as well.

So the husband should not divorce his wife. So God's standard is to maintain the marriage relationship. We're going to see that he's going to go into this idea of mixed marriage, and he wants that marriage to be maintained as well. The believer in a mixed marriage situation is to see that this is God's institution, and this marriage is to be maintained. If the unbelieving spouse decides to leave, that's a different issue. But the believer's view on marriage is that this is God's institution, I'm going to maintain it if at all possible.

Many different options here. Say again. There's many different options. Well, there's different options. You mean scenarios. OK, go ahead. So let's say the wife does divorce the husband. OK. Then is the husband free to marry? I mean, he doesn't go into these different.

There's so many. There are actually. And I thought about those, too. And I thought, well, you know, and the problem we have there is, you know, It's difficult, and I'm not sure I'm prepared to answer all those other options. I have the options that we have here, and I thought of that question too.

I wonder if the underlying principle is we're not under the law. As far as this is being almost like a Pharisee, what you can do and what you can't do, we're not under the law. Actually, to your point, we're going to see here in a second that if the person does leave, the believing spouse is to let them leave. If you have a believing spouse and an unbelieving spouse, the one who leaves, the believer doesn't have to maintain that relationship. That's their choice.

But many times, I would say, if you married the person in the first place, you must have cared about them at some level, so it seems like you want them to know the Lord. And that's where you're going to see it in a minute here. We're going to see that the desire of the believing spouse is for the unbelieving spouse to know the Lord. I mean, it seems just natural that you would, if you care about that person enough to marry them, why wouldn't you want them to know the Lord? I mean, it just seems like this. Now, of course, you know, Things can be very difficult. Maybe over time things have changed or whatever. But what's going to be taught here in these verses is that the desire is to have that person come to know Christ.

And then we have the issue about children of that marriage. What happens to them? There's some unique statements about what happens to the unbelieving spouse and the children. There's some statements that are made and I don't have an answer for what it exactly means. So we'll see here very shortly.

That's a good question. So basically here we've covered that this is a married situation. God wants to maintain the relationship, but if one party leaves, then his view is, well those two options, either stay unmarried or be reconciled. Now there might be issues of how the, you know, in terms of the conduct of the spouses in that marriage. And that's where you get into what some people call the exception clause for unfaithfulness. And some of those are allowed in Scripture. Unfaithfulness does seem to be allowed. And there are other situations that are, quote, exceptions.

And I'm not prepared to go through all those ones, so I'm just covering the ones that are here. So like I said, Vern's paper can add some more light to that, and I'll try to get you a copy of that. Okay, so let's go on here. So now he's going to talk about this group called the rest. But to the rest I say, not the Lord. But to the rest I say, not the Lord. Let's just look at that phrase.

So the rest, people have labeled the mixed marriage. So this isn't the unmarried or the widow. It isn't the married. This is the rest, the rest in the sense of being a mixed marriage. And here's where Paul says, I say not the Lord. So in this case, the Lord has not addressed this issue. But Paul, as I mentioned before, he speaks with authority of God. And we can see that, and it's probably kind of important to see that.

Could someone read 1 Corinthians 14.37? If any man thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritualist, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. Yeah, that's a pretty bold statement. I mean, you know, if I were to say that, you would say, well, Roger, as long as you're reading scripture, you're probably right. But when you go outside scripture, you can't. Paul, you know, Paul could say that. And because he was, he was called as an apostle, he was, he was an author of scripture, the Holy Spirit, carried him along to write the words of scripture so he could say those kind of things.

So what Paul is saying here, the Lord Jesus really didn't address what's been called a mixed marriage. Okay, so back to some cases again. I apologize, it's case one, case two. But this is what it basically says. Case one, if any brother has a wife who's an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. So what God's going to say is, His view in marriage is he wants marriages to stay together. And he wants them to stay together regardless of whether, in this case, there's an unbeliever involved. He wants it to stay together with no divorce. You know, a more light-hearted move, you could say, don't throw out the babe with the bathwater. Okay. Okay, Tom. All right. All right. And then the other case is the opposite.

And the woman who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. And consent here is the idea to think well of, to take pleasure with. So what's interesting is the action of the unbelieving spouse is what determines whether the marriage will stay together. If the unbelieving spouse is able to live with the believing spouse, then the believing spouse should go ahead and maintain the marriage. If the unbelieving spouse decides to leave, then we'll see shortly here that the believing spouse is to go ahead and let that happen, and not to fight that.

Even though I would say, if you cared for the spouse in the beginning, I can't see why you wouldn't be concerned if you want that person to know Christ. Unless somehow it's turned so bad that you have no feeling for each other anymore. I would think you would want the person to come to know Christ. Actually, that one in Luke is another usage of that word consent. It just talks about consenting I'm not sure it's all that helpful at the moment. So we'll pass by that. So here we come. We're going to have a couple of statements here.

And these are going to be tough here. But actually, they're tough, but they're very encouraging. Because God's going to say something about the unbelieving spouse and the children of this mixed marriage that's pretty amazing. It says, For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife.

So just to stop right there. You can look at the papers already. So when I say sanctified, what does that mean? Set apart. Okay, good. Set apart. And that's what I have on the chart too. Actually I have it a little more expanded. It's actually from the word Haggios for holy. It's literally to set apart and typically it's for a purpose. Once again, we have another perfect tense here in the passive voice.

Basically, it's going to say, you, and you is the unbelieving spouse, so by the very fact that you're married to a believer, the unbelieving spouse comes into this relationship of being set apart, which is pretty amazing. You were set apart in the past and continue to be set apart up into the present and on into the future. And that actually speaks of your permanently set apart. Your relationship in that marriage is one of being set apart. And actually, in a way, that's why it is very important for that marriage to continue. Because you'll still have God's promise of being set apart. And the $64 question is, what does that mean? So what is the unbelieving spouse set apart to? So do you guys have some ideas here? I don't think I wrote anything down about that. I wrote down what Constable said. I put some verses down.

Tom? The unbelieving spouse is set apart to grow in familiarization of the grace and knowledge of the Lord. And it's still up to her or him to make the decision, but at least the exposure factor is there, the Holy Spirit is there. Give them a chance. Okay, okay. That's good. Other thoughts? I mean, we don't exactly have what they're set apart to, we can infer that. I think we can do probably a pretty good job, but we don't exactly have a verse to go to that says the unbelieving spouse is set apart to this.

What I was going to do, what I've done here, I listed some verses on sanctified So I thought it might be good to look at the big picture. What does scripture say about the word sanctified? It talks about a variety of things that are sanctified. And sanctified can be a very, not a very impressive thing. In the Matthew passage here, we have to turn to it right now, but in the Matthew passage it talks about the articles of the temple are sanctified. God sanctified a golden bowl. or some object in the temple that was set apart for a purpose.

Maybe to hold the cup, to hold the wine or whatever. Things physically. I can have a water bottle set apart. I can have my pen set apart for a particular purpose. So it can be a very mundane thing. Or, believers were set apart in the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus is set apart as God's Son to die on the cross for us. So that word set-apart can go from the very mundane to the most wonderful concept in Scripture. So it's set-apart for a purpose, to accomplish something.

So the struggle we have is what is the unbelieving spouse set-apart to? And I think what you come down to is without the believing person being there, there would be no influence of Christ in that marriage. It wouldn't be there, right? With the believing spouse there, then you do have an influence of Christ. You do have the life of Christ living through the believing person in that marriage situation. So that seems to be the area you can kind of focus in on. So it seems to me that would be one reason why you want to maintain that marriage with the desire that the unbelieving spouse comes to know the Lord.

Let's just read the last one. In John 17, it talks about sanctified three times. That's just such a beautiful passage. Let's read the John 17 passage. John 17. Can someone read John 17, 17-19? Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. Right. So we see the word sanctify three times in this passage, right? First of all, it says, you know, Jesus is praying here to the Father. He says, sanctify them, set them apart in the truth. Thy word is truth.

And as thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sake, I set myself apart, if you will, that they themselves also may be set apart in the truth." So, like I said, the word sanctify can have the highest focus or the most mundane focus. But it's set apart for a purpose.

Okay, so that's the first part of this. Now we're going to move on to the children of this mixed marriage. And this statement, this is a tough one. It makes a statement about the children. It says, if the husband or the spouse, okay, it says for otherwise, if one of them wasn't sanctified, it says they are unclean. But now they are holy. So this is what's good stuff.

Okay, unclean is this idea of Most think in this context that they're talking about ceremonially unclean. I can't even say that very well. But I kind of wonder, and I was reading different things, I was trying to get a hold of, so what does it mean that the children are unclean?

Or it says, or otherwise, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified through the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. for otherwise the children are unclean. Do you think that the times at that influenced this a lot because the church is fairly new and so there are many unbelievers here and so forth and I think that very often in divorce and so forth One or the other of the spouses, or both, have very often been Christians. Raised in a Christian home or whatever. And he makes such a thing here of the unbelievers.

But I think a lot of times it's a case of somebody having wandered away, having been an opposition, but having wandered away from that. so that it doesn't influence somehow. I think the children are always hurt. Oh definitely, definitely. But they shouldn't be blamed. Right, not at all, not at all. So I don't know, I think the times just make this a little bit hard to... Okay.

I think, you know, what I have read and tried to understand about this passage is that It's believed that during that time period many people were married and one of the spouses came to know the Lord. And that actually happens quite a bit in our culture too. Somebody will hear something and they want to drag their husband or their husband wants to drag their wife and many times the other spouse is not too interested. And many times the spouse does come to know the Lord, but many times they do not. So it seems like, especially in this area here, he's trying to address a situation where they started out as unbelievers and one came to know the Lord. And then, so what do I do in that situation? What does the believing spouse do? And he's giving instructions of what they are to do in that situation.

So he makes this statement here about, for otherwise the children are unclean. So one thing I read, and looking through this, does anyone have any idea about this uncleanness? It's a tough one. The thing is, you might want to think about this. Outside of Jesus Christ, everything is unclean. And that's actually probably one of the helps to this.

If outside of Jesus Christ, imagine a family that neither knows the Lord. Then they're all unclean. Both spouses are unclean and the children are unclean in the sense that they don't know Christ. Well, they're not sanctified because in order to be sanctified, you have to be washed clean. I mean, that's the kind of the concept of clean is being white as snow. You're sanctified. Well, if you're not a believer and you're, you know, sure, you're not white as snow. Exactly.

And that sort of seems like maybe that's the logic behind this is that that in the case where there's at least one believing spouse, the children have the opportunity to know the Lord. If there's none, they have an opportunity as all mankind does. But in the particular case where there's one believing spouse, that puts them in a very unique, and God can use that.

He basically says that they'll be sanctified. We're going to see in the next verse here, He's going to talk more about that. He said, but now they are holy. And once again, holy is the same word. It's set apart. But now the children are set apart. So the unbelieving spouse was set apart and now the children are set apart too. So what a wonderful thing. Here's a marriage that has problems, a believer and unbeliever, but both the unbelieving spouse and the children in that marriage are both set apart.

Allowing, you know, If you will, God took... I have a quote here. Let's see, what was my quote? And both Zodiacs, they both talk about ceremonial unclean. I don't know, I didn't... I'm not sure I really thought that was appropriate. So what are the children... Same question, what are the children set apart to? And this is somewhat what we kind of talked about, I think. Likewise, the children in such a marriage would enjoy special treatment from God. This probably involves their protection. in the mixed home and the supply of His grace.

So God can work in that home in a way He couldn't work. He has a foot in the door, if you will. He has one of His people. I've got one of my people inside your home. I've got a believer in your household. If there's a household with no believer, we have the Holy Spirit working, but God has one of His chosen in your household. That's pretty powerful. And that's kind of, I think, the context of all this.

The unbelieving husband is sanctified and it says now the children are holy. Are you saying that the same word is used for sanctified and holy? Holy, they both have the same root word, Haggios. Haggios is, if you look back up in the previous chart, Haggios, that's the root word. The root word for sanctified is Haggios as well.

So when you see holy, Don't. Holy is set apart. Sanctified is set apart. There are similar. The root concept of both those words are the same. So when it says the children, now the children are holy. You could say that children are set apart. Why would you don't have an answer to this, but why would they translate the children is holy and the husband is sanctified.

That's exactly the problem with translations, right? Imagine you're a translator, right? And yeah, I'm trying to translate this into Spanish. And I say, if I just said hagios, they're both forms of hagios. You have to get it right with the right verb tense. But they're both hagios. If I said, the husband is hagios to his wife, and the unbelieving is Haggios who are a believing husband, otherwise they are children of unclean, but now they are Haggios. It's the same root word.

Roger, do you think it has anything to do with, he doesn't say young adults, he says children. And there are other places in the Bible that talk about that children until the age of a count of four are I mean, go to be with the Lord. I mean, that is implied that they, until the age of accountability. So do you think that possibly this has something to do with that? I don't know. I didn't go down that path. I haven't thought about that.

And that's true. There does seem to be an age of account when the Lord is gracious and it seems like he doesn't he allows a child to grow and understand who he is and what he's done. And he allows his parents or other people to influence him. And at some point. But this is children. This is children. Children is a different word. Right. Right. Right. Children is there's actually a word for young, young man or young person.

Paul, I don't think Paul addresses this, but what if one of the children become a believer and neither the parents are believers? I mean, they have to be clean at that point. Well, actually, now that's interesting. Now, of course, in that situation, Ruth works with the child evangelism. A lot of times neither parent. Our believers have been when a child becomes a believer. Paul doesn't really address that. You're talking about we have two unbelieving, a mom and a dad are unbelievers, the child becomes a believer, and then they have an influence.

That is not talked about here, but you would think it would be kind of a similar situation because now I'm going to use this idea of God has one of his own in the family, which I think is kind of a cool way to look at it. God has a person and he's going to do some wonderful things. He has skin in the game. He's here in our household and he's going to accomplish as God works through that believer.

So let's keep going here. So now we're going to talk about the setting apart. The unbelieving spouse being set apart and the children being set apart. Now we're going to talk about yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. McCulloch just points out again that this is information to the believer, not the unbeliever. So basically, this verse says, a brother or sister is not in a position of slavery, namely, bound to the unbelieving husband or unbelieving wife in dissolvable union in cases such as these. So, once again, it seems like God allows the believer an option here. There's an option here that he may allow his unbelieving spouse to leave.

And he can be totally fine with that. It says, God has called us to peace. So I had the idea, what is he talking about peace here? And it seemed to me that that's a believer knowing the Lord Jesus should be one for having harmony in the relationship. It seems like that's, even though it may not be a harmonious thing, maybe there are difficulties, he should be one, he should be a peacemaker.

And the last verse says, for how do you know For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? And it has the same instructions, how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? So they don't know. One can pray for the salvation of their partner, but they're not guaranteed of that.

But I do like, could someone read, there's a really great passage, and you probably already know it. Could someone read 1 Peter, 3 in verse 1, 1 Peter 3 verse 1. This talks about the desire of your unbelieving person to know the Lord. 1 Peter 3 and verse 1.

In the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands So that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be one without the word, a behavior of their lives. Right. So God has given, you know, there's a wonderful passage about just by the one, and here again we have one of God's own in a married situation.

And her, without speaking a word, her very life can make a difference and bring a person to know the Lord. So I was just kind of thinking about, you know, It's interesting you know with loved ones so many times. We're so wanting them so wanting them to know the Lord I have a sister who doesn't know the Lord, and I've talked with her over the years She's four years younger than I am I talked with her over the years different times She's gotten mad at me.

She's you know we've had our ups and downs and so right now. We're in a pretty good relationship and But anytime I bring up the issue, it's always, well, that's fine for you, Roger. And she goes on. So I never seem to make much progress. And she's getting older. She has health issues. And I think, well, how long, Lord? She may die. Shouldn't you get busy, Lord? Shouldn't you get busy here?

Amen, and that's exactly my point. Thank you. You have done, you've shared, you've heard it. Now it's up to the Holy Spirit. And you know what? As she gets older and her health gets worse, believe me, she's going to be thinking about it. What if Roger is right? What if the Lord is right? That's exactly the point.

Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you are saved through faith, not of your own. It's a gift of God. So it's by God's grace. It's not by what family you grew up in, whether you grew up in a mixed marriage. Your believing spouse wants you to know the Lord, but they can't make that happen. They can pray for you. They can be a witness with their life. John talks about the blood.

It's not the family line we came in and that sort of thing. It's a free gift of God. Eternal life is a free gift of God. It's God's free gift. They have to interact with God in some way. If they don't interact with God, if they don't accept His free gift, there has to be interaction. You can want that, desire that, but at the basic level they have to interact with God and realize who Jesus Christ is and what He did. As much as we want to make it Grease those kids, so to speak. Make that easy. Slide them down the ramp. As Mike would say, we have to trust the Lord. It's come to that. You have to trust the Lord. Well, thanks guys.

It's a difficult area. If you have questions, and Vern is trying to address some of those. And I think each married situation is such a special situation, and if there are difficulties in there, and if you have concerns about that, come and talk with Vern and Mike and myself, and we'll try to take you through what we understand. It's not easy, it's hard, and it's not to say that...

And I hope you see through this God's great care for us, and that He has great care and concern, and He realizes the frailty of man. And so, okay. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your word, Father. Thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.