1 Corinthians 7:40

“The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth.” The word for bound, déō, means to tie, bind or fasten. Paul uses it for the tie of marriage, which holds as long as both husband and wife are alive. He says the same thing in Romans: “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband” (Romans 7:2). Jesus taught that what God has joined together, man must not separate (Matthew 19:6), and this verse rests on that same lifelong design. It also rounds off what Paul has said about faithfulness and the permanence of marriage earlier in the chapter.

Corinth was a Roman city, and Roman law allowed divorce fairly easily. Jewish tradition, and the teaching of the first Christians after it, held marriage in higher regard as a bond meant to last. Paul’s words here belong to that higher view.

“But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty.” The word eleútheros means free, unrestrained, able to go where one pleases. Death is the natural end of a marriage, and when a woman’s husband dies, the first marriage places no further claim on her. She may marry “to whom she will”, and Paul names no particular man, so the choice is hers. In Paul’s day a widow often faced hardship, both in her standing and in money, and for some women marrying again was a practical necessity. Paul grants the freedom their society already allowed, and widows and widowers who marry again today can do so with a clear conscience, because God’s word gives them this liberty.

Paul attaches one condition to the widow’s freedom: she is to marry “only in the Lord.” The word kýrios, Lord, means one who is supreme in authority, a master, and here it is Jesus Christ. To marry in the Lord is to marry someone who belongs to Christ and lives under him as Master. This is the heart of the verse, and the same rule holds for every believer who marries. Paul gives its reason elsewhere when he warns believers against being unequally yoked together with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). Marriage is the closest of human bonds, and when it rests on a shared faith, husband and wife can follow God’s purposes together.

In Corinth, as in much of that world, social rank, wealth and family alliances often decided whom a person married. Paul puts Christ first in the choice, which set believers apart from the people around them.

“But she is happier if she so abide.” The word makários means blessed or happy. The New Testament uses it even of God himself, “the blessed God” (1 Timothy 1:11, 6:15). Paul uses its comparative form, makariōtera, “more blessed” or “happier”. To “so abide” is to stay as she is, a widow.

The reasons run through the whole chapter. Paul has spoken of “the present distress” (1 Corinthians 7:26), most likely persecution or the urgency of the gospel in those days. He has also said that the unmarried are freer from the cares of this world and can give the Lord undivided devotion (1 Corinthians 7:32–35). A widow who stays single can give herself to the Lord’s service with fewer of the cares that marriage brings, and Paul counts her better off for it.

This counsel came to a church pulled two ways. Some Corinthians were pressing for self-denial even within marriage (1 Corinthians 7:1–5), while others were unsure what their faith meant for the marriages they were in or the single lives they led. Marriage was expected of nearly everyone, and for a woman it was often her main source of security. Widows could be vulnerable, though some also had more freedom to manage their own affairs than married women had. Into that setting Paul presents singleness as a state God blesses, a good path in its own right for those who can receive it.

“After my judgment.” The word gnṓmē means opinion, counsel, purpose or resolve. Paul uses it for his considered advice, which he keeps distinct from a command. Throughout the chapter he marks this difference. He passes on some things as the Lord’s own command (1 Corinthians 7:10), and others he says “by permission”, as in 1 Corinthians 7:6, where he speaks the same way about marital relations, setting his counsel beside a commandment (epitagē).

“And I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” In English “I think” (dokō) can sound hesitant, but in Greek it can be a modest and still firm way of stating a strong conviction. The word pneûma means breath or wind and, by extension, a spirit, and “the Spirit of God” here is the Holy Spirit. Earlier in this letter Paul explains that the Spirit searches the deep things of God and reveals them, so that he speaks God’s wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:10–16). His personal judgment comes with the Spirit’s guidance, and he says so humbly and with confidence.

Paul uses this same law of marriage as a picture of salvation. A wife is bound while her husband lives and free when he dies, and in the same way believers have died to the law through Christ: “ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Romans 7:4). That freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1) is the liberty behind every right choice we make, marriage included.

Marriage itself points to Christ and his church (Ephesians 5:22–33), and Scripture looks ahead to the day when “the marriage of the Lamb is come” (Revelation 19:7). “Only in the Lord” fits that picture, because the church belongs to Christ alone, her Bridegroom. The undivided devotion Paul commends in verse 40 has its perfect example in Jesus, whose meat was to do the will of the Father who sent him (John 4:34) and who was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). Whether we marry or stay single, we belong to the Lord who bought us with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20).

If you have lost a husband or wife, these verses give you real freedom. You may marry again with a clear conscience, and you may also stay single and find in that life a blessing Paul himself commends. Either way, the Lord is with you in the choice.

If you hope to marry, Paul’s three words “only in the Lord” are the first thing to weigh. Look for someone who belongs to Christ and lives for him, so that your marriage can be a partnership in faith that glorifies God.

And whether you are married or single, your happiness rests in God’s purposes for you. Paul’s own life, and his counsel to widows, show that a life given wholly to the Lord is a blessed one, and his Spirit is ready to guide you as he guided Paul.