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 by her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy  (1 Corinthians 7:12-14).

This is a weird passage.

A quick read throws up two things that just don’t work: First, that Paul is contradicting Christ, and second, that your salvation can cover someone else.

Both ideas are wrong, and this is why you need to read more slowly sometimes.

So, the Paul contradicting Jesus part. When Paul says “I, not the Lord,” he is clarifying that, unlike the previous verses which came directly from Christ’s teachings, these words are his own. Inspired wisdom, yes, but not directly from Christ’s earthly teachings. Fear not, Beloved–Paul’s not going rogue.

Now for the weirder part.  Paul reaffirms that marriage is sacred. If a man comes to Christ and his wife is still an unbeliever, his vows still hold; he is not to leave her because of her unbelief.

OK, you’re right–that part’s not weird. But the next part is. Paul says that the unbelieving spouse is sanctified, and the children made holy by the believer. That doesn’t fit with anything we know about salvation by faith and faith alone.

True…but Paul didn’t say anything about salvation, did he? 

If I understand it correctly, Paul is saying that, because the husband and wife are one, God looks upon the unbelieving spouse and children as extensions of the believer, and considers them his people. They are not eternally saved by this relationship, but they are regarded as blessed.  It’s kinda like how, under the Law, ordinary objects could sometimes be made holy by coming into contact with items from the temple. Often it would be the opposite, and the secular  would corrupt the sacred. But sometimes…

This would be one of those times.

Happy Wednesday, Beloved