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1 Corinthians 7:13-14
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. (NASB)
This verse alone brings a number of questions about holiness, and sometimes we face these questions and situations when we wonder what this means and how does this apply to the household of a believer.
One like mine, where both my wife and I are Christians and we strive to raise our 1 and 3quatar year old child in the faith we have known, learned and experience daily. The few questions we ask ourselves when faced by this verse are
How does a couple make each other holy; especially in the case where a believing wife makes an unbeliever holy or vice-versa? Is it not the Lord who sanctifies a believer?
Are children born holy?
There may be other portions of the Bible that say yes to these questions when we ask the question from this verse in the above manner. But the fact of the matter is the Bible, especially Pauline letters are not written to be read as single verses as Paul have used context based writing throughout his letters.
So the context, the 1 Cor. 6 and Chapter 7 are related to the day to day life of a believer. Especially one in the Corinth. There are greek works that state that ‘to Corinthianize’ means to live a promiscuous life. I am no history expert and while the experts debate over the fact that there were 1000+ prostitutes in the city during Paul’s time, temple prostitution was still an accepted cultural thing. This is why there is a strict warning against such practices in the chapter 6.
In the seventh chapter, Paul is being a father again, to the church. This is the point we fail to notice when we read pauline letters. We read these letters as if it were written directly to us. The primary recipients of this letter was the people of that time. This means that we need to see the letter through their eyes. Why does Paul talk about marriage just after prostitution? They asked about it. The first verse says it. The church asked Paul should sex be allowed for Christians at all - I am assuming here ‘in the context that sex is being used just to fulfil pleasure as with prostitution’.
This is where Paul begins. He says in the last chapter that the person who sleeps with a prostitute is one with her. Imagine a situation where you are the believing husband of a woman who prostitutes herself or vice-versa. You have kids and now you came to the Lord and now your world has changed. Should you leave your unbelieving husband (or wife) as he (or she) is one with you and also someone else? This is where the verse comes to action.
Paul says to such believers that their marriage is not a sin, and that they don’t have to leave their husbands or consider their children as illegitimate or unholy (as in a result of their lives that they lived before) but rather as holy, even their marriage as holy and pursue Lord, hoping and praying for their partners sanctification as they too may (v.16) be able to convert an unbelieving family and so must not divorce them but rather love them.
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