1 Corinthians 7:14

1 Corinthians 7:14 . For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife — That is, so far that their matrimonial converse is as lawful, holy, and honourable, as if they were both of the same faith: and in many instances the unbeliever, whether husband or wife, hath been converted to God by the instrumentality of the believing partner. The former sense, however, and not this latter, seems to be the primary meaning of the apostle. Else were your children unclean — And must be looked upon as unfit to be admitted to those peculiar ordinances by which the seed of God’s people are distinguished; but now are they holy — Confessedly; and are as readily admitted to baptism as if both the parents were Christians: so that the case, you see, is in effect decided by this prevailing practice. So Dr. Doddridge, who adds, “On the maturest and most impartial consideration of this text, I must judge it to refer to infant baptism. Nothing can be more apparent than that the word holy signifies persons who might be permitted to partake of the distinguishing rites of God’s people. See Exodus 19:6 ; Deuteronomy 7:6 ; Deuteronomy 14:2 ; Deuteronomy 26:19 ; Ezra 9:2 ; Acts 10:28 , &c.

And as for the interpretation, which so many of our brethren, the Baptists, have contended for, that holy signifies legitimate, and unclean, illegitimate, (not to urge that this seems an unscriptural sense of the word,) nothing can be more evident, than that the argument will by no means bear it; for it would be proving a thing by itself, (idem per idem,) to argue that the converse of the parents was lawful, because the children were not bastards; whereas all who thought the converse of the parents unlawful, must of course think that the children were illegitimate.” Thus also Dr. Whitby: “He doth not say, ‘else were your children bastards, but now they are legitimate,’ but ‘else were they unclean;’ that is, heathen children, not to be owned as a holy seed, and therefore not to be admitted into covenant with God, as belonging to his holy people. That this is the true import of the words ακαθαρτα and αγια , will be apparent from the Scriptures, in which the heathen are styled the unclean, in opposition to the Jews, who were in covenant with God, and therefore styled a holy people. Whence it is evident that the Jews looked upon themselves as δουλοι Θεου καθαροι , the clean servants of God, Nehemiah 2:20 ; and upon all the heathen and their offspring, as unclean, by reason of their want of circumcision, and the sign of the covenant. Hence, whereas it is said that Joshua circumcised the people, chap. 1 Corinthians 5:4 , the LXX. say, περιεκαθαρεν , he cleansed them.

{9} For the unbelieving husband is {h} sanctified by the {i} wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the {k} husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they {l} holy. (9) He answers an objection: but the faithful is defiled by the company of the unfaithful. The apostle denies that, and proves that the faithful man with good conscience may use the vessel of his unfaithful wife, by this, that their children which are born of them are considered holy or legitimate (that is, contained within the promise): for it is said to all the faithful, I will be your God, and the God of your seed. (h) The godliness of the wife is of more force to cause their marriage to be considered holy, than the infidelity of the husband is to profane the marriage. (i) The infidel is not sanctified or made holy in his own person, but in respect of his wife, he is sanctified to her. (k) To the faithful husband. (l) The children are holy in the same sense that their parents are; that is they are sanctified, or lawfully espoused together, so the children born of them were in a civil and legal sense holy, that is, legitimate. (Ed.)

14 . is sanctified ] In both members of the sentence the original has hath been sanctified , i.e. by the conversion of the believer to Christianity. The sacred character imparted by Christianity has, since it imparts union with Christ the Lord of all, a power to overbear the impurity of the non-Christian partner in wedlock. Meyer’s note is very striking here. He says that “the Christian sanctity affects even the non-believing partner in a marriage and so passes over to him that he does not remain a profane person, but through the intimate union of wedded life becomes partaker (as if by a sacred contagion) of the higher divinely consecrated character of his consort.” And this is because matrimony is “a holy estate instituted of God.” For the much stricter view under the Law, Dean Stanley refers to Ezra, ch. 9, and Nehemiah 9:2 ; Nehemiah 13:23-28 . But these marriages were contracted in defiance of the prohibition in Exodus 34:16 ; Deuteronomy 7:3-4 , a prohibition rendered necessary by the surrounding idolatry and its attendant licentiousness. They stand upon a different footing to marriages contracted before admission into covenant with God. else were your children unclean, but now are they holy ] This principle applies also to the children of such a marriage.

The sanctity, i.e. the consecration, of the parent possessing the life of Christ, and living in holy wedlock with an unbelieving husband or wife, descends to the child, which from its birth may be regarded as ‘holy to the Lord.’ “Which we may not so understand as if the children of baptized parents were without sin, or grace from baptized parents derived by propagation, or God by covenant and promise tied to save any in mere regard of their parents’ belief: yet to all professors of the name of Christ this pre-eminence above infidels is freely given, that the fruit of their bodies bringeth into the world with it a present interest and right to those means wherewith the ordinance of Christ is that His Church shall be sanctified.” Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity , Book v. lx. 6. This holds good, however, only of such marriages as were contracted before conversion. Christians were forbidden in 1 Corinthians 7:39 and in 2 Corinthians 6:14 , to contract such marriages.

(14) The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife. —Any scruple which a Christian might have felt as to whether matrimonial union with an unbeliever would be defiling is here removed, and the purity of the former teaching justified. In contrast to that other union in which the connection is defiling ( 1Corinthians 6:16 ), the purity of the believing partner in this union, being a lawful one, as it were, entirely overweighs the impurity of the unbeliever, it being not a moral, but a kind of ceremonial impurity. The children of such marriages were considered to be Christian children; and the fruit being holy, so must we regard as holy the tree from which it springs. It must be remembered that the “sanctification” and “holiness” here spoken of is not that inward sanctification which springs from the action of the Holy Spirit in the individual heart, but that consecration which arises from being in the body of Christ, which is the Christian Church ( Romans 9:16 .)

1 Corinthians 7:14 . Ἡγίασται ) has been sanctified , so that the believing party may hold intercourse with the other in the exercise of holiness, and ought not to put him or her away: comp. 1 Timothy 4:5 . A very significant word is here used, because Scripture wishes to guarantee to us conscience being left everywhere unencumbered.— ἐν τῇ γυναικὶ ) [ by the wife ] in respect to the wife , with whom he willingly remains; so ἐν , 1 Corinthians 14:11 .— πιστῇ , the believing , is not added to γυναικὶ , in accommodation to human modes of thought [ κατʼ ἄνθρωπον ]: for an unbelieving husband does not know what faith is.— ἐπεὶ ἄρα , otherwise ) For [otherwise] the children would follow the condition of the unbelieving parent. The marriage is Christian, and so also are the offspring.— τέκνα , children ) who are born of a believing and an unbelieving parent.— ἀκάθαρτα , unclean ) as those who are born of parents, who are both unbelievers, although they be not bastards.— ἅγιά ἐστιν , they are holy ) ἡγίασται differs from this expression as, to become holy , from to be holy; but the holiness itself of the children and of the unbelieving parent is the same. He is speaking of a purity, which not only makes the children legitimate, not bastards, such as those also have, who are born from the marriage of two unbelievers; but which also imports a degree of nearer relationship with the Church, and a more open door to faith itself, just as if both parents were Christians. Comp.

Romans 11:16 . Timothy is an example, Acts 16:1 , who was the bearer of this epistle, and there might have been many such among the children at Corinth. [ A husband is in other respects preferred; but the faith of the wife has more influence than the unbelief of the husband .—V. g.]

Verse 14. - Is sanctified; literally, has been sanctified , the status has been rendered (so to speak) theoretically clean. By the wife; literally, in the wife . The bond is still holy; its holiness rests in the believing wife or husband. The reasoning would remove any scruples which Jewish Christians might derive from Deuteronomy 7:3 , etc. By the husband; rather, in the brother. The liberty implied by these remarks, contrasting so strongly with the rigid rules laid down in the days of Ezra ( Ezra 9 ; Nehemiah 9 .) recall the change of dispensation. Unclean ; i.e. not placed in immediate covenant relation to God. But now are they holy. This does not necessarily imply that they were baptized as infants, but only that they were hallowed as the fruit of a hallowed union. See the remarkable words of Malachi ( Malachi 2:15 ). "If the root be holy, so are the branches" ( Romans 11:16 ). 1 Corinthians 7:14

14. sanctified—Those inseparably connected with the people of God are hallowed thereby, so that the latter may retain the connection without impairing their own sanctity (compare 1Ti 4:5); nay, rather imparting to the former externally some degree of their own hallowed character, and so preparing the way for the unbeliever becoming at last sanctified inwardly by faith. by … by—rather, "in … in"; that is, in virtue of the marriage tie between them. by the husband—The oldest manuscripts read, "by the brother." It is the fact of the husband being a "brother," that is, a Christian, though the wife is not so, that sanctifies or hallows the union. else … children unclean—that is, beyond the hallowed pale of God's people: in contrast to "holy," that is, all that is within the consecrated limits [Conybeare and Howson]. The phraseology accords with that of the Jews, who regarded the heathen as "unclean," and all of the elect nation as "holy," that is, partakers of the holy covenant. Children were included in the covenant, as God made it not only with Abraham, but with his "seed after" him (Ge 17:7). So the faith of one Christian parent gives to the children a near relationship to the Church, just as if both parents were Christians (compare Ro 11:16). Timothy, the bearer of this Epistle, is an instance in point (Ac 16:1).