How do you interpret 1 Corinthians 7:14 in the King James Version? For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean, but now are they holy? Does it mean that the unbelieving spouse somehow shares in the believing spouses inherent holiness? Okay. This was an excellent question, Susan. And I'll admit, I had to go look that up.
I didn't feel like I had an idea of what the Christians believed on this, the early Christians, but this one, I needed to go do some research of my own. There's not a lot written about it in the pre-Nicene Christians. I prefer to go to them, but my fallback guy, if I can't find something in the pre-Nicene Christians, my fallback guy is John Chrysostom. And usually, I'd say 90% of what he says, if not more than that, very much reflects what the early church said. It's the same reasoning.
Even if he's discussing something that we don't find discussed in the pre-Nicene Christian, he always reasons the same way that you see in the pre-Nicene Christians. There's only one or two topics where his views would be noticeably different. So anyway, let's look at that passage because the passage helps to give, I think, the answer to the question.
1 Corinthians 7:12 through 14, Paul says," But to the rest, I, not the Lord, say, if any brother has a wife who does not believe and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her, and a woman who has a husband who does not believe. If he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.
Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy." So I'm going to just go ahead and read what Chrysostom says. I don't want it to sound like it's coming from me like this is my wisdom when I turn to him for his answer. And this is his comment on it. So unless a woman, of course, the same would apply to a husband, fear that she would become unclean because of relations with her husband.
He says," For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband." And yet someone may say," Well, if he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her, it is quite clear that the woman who is joined to an idolater is likewise one body with him." Chrysostom answers very well. They are one body. Nevertheless, she does not become unclean. For the cleanness of the wife overcomes the uncleanness of the husband.
Similarly, the cleanness of the believing husband overcomes the uncleanness of the unbelieving wife. I thought that was such an excellent answer. So this is what he's talking about. The unbelieving spouse doesn't sanctify the other one in the sense is going to save them or something just by being married. But because you are one flesh, you don't have to worry about, oh, my spouse is not a believer. I'm one flesh with an unbeliever. Does that make me an idolater or whatever else?
Am I somehow made unclean because of that relationship? And he's saying, Paul is saying no, that the believer is going to sanctify that relationship. And so as a result, their relations and their life together is going to be pure because of that sanctity. And then the question, well, what about the children? Well, he says, not only are they clean, he says they are holy. So the children start off with a clean slate. They don't start off being somehow marked because one of the spouses is an unbeliever.
It doesn't mean they can't become unholy later on, but they start off with a holy slate, the same as the infants of a Christian couple.
In the KJV Paul writes: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy." A Christian married to an unbeliever need not fear that the marriage defiles them - the marriage stands holy before God and the children are counted holy, not unclean.
Not in the sense of being saved by the marriage itself. Following John Chrysostom's comment on the verse, the lesson explains that although husband and wife are one flesh, the believer's cleanness overcomes the unbeliever's uncleanness - the believing spouse is not made unclean by the union, yet the unbelieving partner still needs to come to faith.
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