9. What Does “Not Bound” Mean?

• The phrase “not bound” in 1 Corinthians 7:15 is difficult because Christians ask whether it means only “not forced to keep living together" or whether it also means “free from the marriage bond and free to remarry".
• The stricter view says Paul allows separation but does not clearly give permission for remarriage.
• The broader Protestant view says Paul means the abandoned believer is free from the marriage bond and may remarry in the Lord.
• The Orthodox pastoral view usually treats such cases with great caution and does not reduce them to a simple rule.
• The Coptic Orthodox view is usually stricter than many Protestant views because Coptic tradition holds strongly to Christ’s teaching that marriage is lifelong and divorce is limited, especially to adultery.
• The safest conclusion is that Paul allows the believer to accept the separation when the unbelieving spouse leaves.
• The question of remarriage must be handled according to the Church’s canonical and pastoral tradition.

10. Paul Teaches That God Has Called Us to Peace

• Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:15 that “God has called us to live in peace.”
• This sentence is very important because marriage should not become a place of endless war, terror, manipulation, or spiritual destruction.
• Peace does not mean silence in the face of evil.
• Peace does not mean allowing abuse.
• Peace does not mean pretending adultery is not serious.
• Peace does not mean forcing a person to stay where there is real danger.
• Christian peace is not false peace. True peace is joined to truth, repentance, holiness, and safety.
• Therefore, the Church must protect marriage, but the Church must also protect the person who is being destroyed by serious sin.

11. Paul Teaches That Marriage Is Binding

• In Romans 7:2–3, Paul uses marriage as an example of a binding relationship.
• Paul says that a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if the husband dies, she is released from that law.
• Paul’s main point in Romans 7 is about the believer’s release from the Law through Christ, but his example shows how seriously he understands the marriage bond.
• Marriage is not presented as a weak agreement that can be cancelled easily.
• Marriage is a binding covenant.
• This supports Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7:10–11, where separation should lead either to reconciliation or remaining unmarried.
• Paul’s general principle is clear: marriage is not disposable.
• A Christian should not treat marriage as a temporary arrangement based only on personal happiness.

12. Paul Teaches That Death Ends the Marriage Bond

• In 1 Corinthians 7:39–40, Paul says that a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is free to marry.
• This means widowhood releases the person from the marriage bond.
• Paul allows remarriage after the death of the spouse.
• But Paul adds “only in the Lord", meaning that Christian remarriage should be with a believer and inside faithfulness to Christ.
• Paul also says that remaining unmarried may be better for some people, depending on their calling and spiritual circumstances.
• This shows Paul’s balanced view. He allows remarriage after widowhood, but he also honours celibacy and spiritual dedication.

13. Paul’s View of Remarriage

• Paul clearly allows remarriage after the death of a spouse.
• Paul clearly warns separated Christian spouses not to rush into another marriage but to remain unmarried or be reconciled.
• Paul’s teaching about abandonment is the debated area.
• Many Protestant traditions say abandonment may allow remarriage.
• Catholic and many Orthodox traditions are more restrictive.
• Coptic Orthodox teaching is also restrictive and usually connects church divorce strongly to adultery.
• Therefore, a careful Christian answer must not pretend that all churches read Paul in exactly the same way.
• What all serious Christian traditions agree on is this: remarriage must never be treated lightly, selfishly, or without spiritual examination.

14. Paul Teaches That Marriage Is an Icon of Christ and the Church

• In Ephesians 5:21–33, Paul gives his deepest theological view of marriage.
• Marriage is not only two people living together.
• Marriage becomes an image, icon, and living sign of Christ and the Church.
• Paul says that husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.
• This destroys every selfish understanding of male authority.
• The husband is not called to dominate his wife.
• The husband is not called to humiliate his wife.
• The husband is not called to control his wife for his own pleasure.
• The husband is called to die to himself for her good.
• Christ loved the Church by sacrifice, not by abuse.
• Christ gave Himself for the Church, not to crush her, but to sanctify her.
• Therefore, any husband who uses Paul to justify cruelty has not understood Paul.

15. “Submit to One Another” Comes Before the Household Teaching

• Before Paul speaks to wives and husbands, he says in Ephesians 5:21 that Christians should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
• This verse sets the spiritual atmosphere for the whole passage.
• Christian marriage is not built on pride.
• Christian marriage is not built on competition.
• Christian marriage is not built on one person always taking and the other person always giving.
• Christian marriage is built on reverence for Christ.
• The wife’s submission is not slavery.
• The husband’s headship is not tyranny.
• Both husband and wife stand under Christ.
• Both husband and wife must serve Christ.
• Both husband and wife must crucify selfishness.
• Both husband and wife must seek holiness.

16. Paul Commands Husbands Not to Be Harsh

• In Colossians 3:19, Paul commands husbands to love their wives and not be harsh with them.
• This short command is very powerful.
• It means Christian husbands must not be bitter, cruel, violent, insulting, controlling, or emotionally abusive.
• A husband cannot say he is “head of the family” while acting harshly against his wife.
• Headship in Paul must be read through the cross of Christ.
• The cross means self-giving love.
• The cross means sacrifice.
• The cross means service.
• The cross does not mean domination.
• Therefore, from Paul’s teaching, abuse is not Christian leadership. Abuse is a sin.

17. Paul and Adultery

• Paul does not discuss adultery as a divorce ground in the same direct way Jesus does in Matthew 19.
• But Paul strongly condemns sexual immorality throughout his letters.
• In 1 Corinthians 6:18–20, Paul teaches that Christians must flee sexual immorality because the body belongs to the Lord.
• This matters because adultery is not only a private mistake.
• Adultery wounds the body, the spouse, the covenant, the family, and the Church.
• From a Christian and Coptic Orthodox perspective, adultery is a grave violation of the marriage bond.
• This is why the Coptic tradition connects divorce most strongly with adultery, following Christ’s words in Matthew 19:9.

18. Paul and Abuse

• Paul does not use the modern word “abuse” in the same way we use it today.
• But Paul’s teaching clearly condemns the spirit of abuse.
• A husband who loves as Christ loves cannot abuse his wife.
• A husband who is commanded not to be harsh cannot be violent, cruel, humiliating, or controlling.
• A Christian home must not become a place of fear.
• If there is real danger, the Church must not hide behind religious words while ignoring suffering.
• The Church must protect life, protect children, call sin by its name, and seek pastoral and sometimes civil protection.
• This does not mean the Church makes divorce easy.
• It means the Church must not use marriage teaching to protect evil.

19. Paul’s Teaching and the Coptic Orthodox Perspective

• The Coptic Orthodox Church reads Paul within the wider teaching of Christ, especially Matthew 19:6–9.
• In Coptic Orthodox theology, marriage is a sacrament and not only a contract.
• This means divorce is not treated as a simple legal right.
• The Coptic Church traditionally teaches that divorce is strictly limited, especially to adultery, because adultery violates the one-flesh union.
• Paul’s teaching supports the seriousness of marriage because he commands reconciliation where possible and says the marriage bond continues unless there is grave cause.
• Paul’s teaching also supports pastoral care because he recognises abandonment and says God has called believers to peace.
• A Coptic Orthodox reading should hold two truths together:
  • The sacrament of marriage must be protected from casual divorce.
  • The wounded person must be cared for with truth, mercy, and pastoral wisdom.

20. Summary of Paul’s Full Teaching

• Saint Paul honours marriage as holy and good.
• Saint Paul teaches that marriage includes mutual responsibility, not one-sided duty.
• Saint Paul teaches that husband and wife must care for each other physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
• Saint Paul teaches that Christian spouses should not separate lightly.
• Saint Paul teaches that if separation happens between Christians, the goal should be reconciliation or remaining unmarried.
• Saint Paul teaches that a believer should not divorce an unbelieving spouse who is willing to remain in the marriage.
• Saint Paul teaches that if the unbelieving spouse abandons the believer, the believer is not bound in that situation, because God has called believers to peace.
• Saint Paul teaches that marriage is binding during life and is ended by death.
• Saint Paul allows remarriage after widowhood but says it should be “in the Lord".
• Saint Paul teaches that marriage is an icon of Christ and the Church.
• Saint Paul commands husbands to love sacrificially and not be harsh.
• Saint Paul does not support abuse, domination, selfishness, or easy divorce.
• Saint Paul’s teaching is strict because marriage is holy and pastoral because human sin can create painful situations.

Full NIV Bible Verses Used

1 Corinthians 7:3–5

• “The husband should fulfil his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
  The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife.
  Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

1 Corinthians 7:8–9

• “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say, 'It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.
  But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”

1 Corinthians 7:10–11

• “To the married I give this command—not I, but the Lord: a wife must not separate from her husband.
  But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.”

1 Corinthians 7:12–14

• “To the rest I say this—I, not the Lord: If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.
  And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
  For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”

1 Corinthians 7:15–16

• “But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
  How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?”

1 Corinthians 7:39–40

• “A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.
  In my judgement, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.”

Romans 7:2–3

• “For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.
  So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.”

Ephesians 5:21–33

• “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
  Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the saviour.
  Just as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
  and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
  After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—
  For we are members of his body.
  ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’
  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Colossians 3:18–19

• “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
  Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”

1 Corinthians 6:18–20

• “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.
  Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you have received from God?
  You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.”

Matthew 19:6–9

Supporting Teaching of Christ, Used to Read Paul Correctly

• “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
  “Why then", they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
  Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
  I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Endnotes

1. Paul’s main teaching on marriage, separation, reconciliation, abandonment, widowhood, and remarriage is found in 1 Corinthians 7:1–40.
2. Paul teaches mutual marital responsibility in 1 Corinthians 7:3–5. This is important because the husband and wife are both addressed with equal seriousness.
3. Paul teaches reconciliation where possible in 1 Corinthians 7:10–11. This supports the Christian view that divorce should never be treated lightly.
4. Paul discusses mixed marriages in 1 Corinthians 7:12–14 and teaches that a believer should not abandon the marriage if the unbelieving spouse is willing to remain.
5. Paul discusses abandonment in 1 Corinthians 7:15. The phrase “not bound” is interpreted differently by different Christian traditions.
6. Paul teaches that death ends the marriage bond in 1 Corinthians 7:39–40 and Romans 7:2–3.
7. Paul’s deepest theological teaching on marriage is in Ephesians 5:21–33, where marriage becomes an image of Christ and the church.
8. Paul’s command to husbands in Colossians 3:19 shows clearly that Christian headship cannot mean harshness, cruelty, domination, or abuse.
9. Paul condemns sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:18–20, which supports the Christian seriousness about adultery and sexual sins.
10. The Coptic Orthodox Church reads Paul through the teaching of Christ in Matthew 19:6–9, where marriage is presented as God’s union and divorce is restricted because marriage is holy.