1 Corinthians 7:10 - Exposition

And; rather, but. Unto the married; to Christians who have already married. I command. This is an injunction, not a mere permission as in 1 Corinthians 7:6 . Not I, but the Lord. Because the rule had been laid down by Christ himself. Let not the wife depart. By divorce or otherwise. The wife is mentioned, perhaps, because the Christian wife, in the new sense of dignity and sacredness which Christianity had bestowed upon her, might be led to claim this spurious freedom; or perhaps the Christian women of Corinth had been more impressed than their husbands by the Essene notions of purity. The exception of divorce being permissible in case of fornication is assumed ( Matthew 5:32 ; Matthew 19:9 ).