WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT THE FAITH OF BELIEVERS SANCTIFYING THEIR UNBELIEVING SPOUSES

In 1 Corinthians 7:14, the Bible says that an unbelieving husband or wife is sanctified by their believing partner if they continue to live together. In addition, their continuing to live together makes their children holy. What does this mean?

To answer your question we must begin with the scriptural prohibition against Christians marrying non-Christians (2 Corinthians 6:14). In light of this, the only way a believer should ever be found married to an unbeliever is if his or her conversion occurred subsequent to marriage.

Second, if two unbelievers are married and one deserts the other over their spouse’s conversion to Christ, then the Bible teaches that the deserted Christian is “not under bondage in such cases,” because “God has called us to peace” (1 Corinthians 7:15). In other words, Christians who find themselves in such a situation should always choose the forfeiture of their marriage and loyalty to their Savior over the forfeiture of their newfound faith and loyalty to their Christ-rejecting spouse.

Now, should the scriptural prohibition against being unequally yoked together with unbelievers and the scriptural justification of divorce in the case of desertion by an unbelieving spouse be interpreted to mean that all new converts should divorce their unbelieving spouses who refuse to convert to Christ? Absolutely not!

According to the Apostle Paul, no Christian should divorce an unbelieving spouse who is content to stay with the believer following their conversion to Christ (1 Corinthians 7:12-13). One reason for this is that God may use them to save their unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7:16). Another reason is that the believer’s marriage (spouse) and home (children) are sanctified by the believer; that is, perfectly within the parameters of God’s will and Word (1 Corinthians 7:14).

It is not that unbelieving spouses and children are saved by the faith of believing spouses and parents, but that unbelieving spouses and children may well be saved by God through the influence of believing spouses and parents (1 Peter 3:1-6; 2 Timothy 1:5). Unlike the unacceptability of a believer’s marrying of an unbeliever, the refusal of a believer to divorce an unbelieving spouse following the believer’s conversion is acceptable to God and sanctified by Him.