1 Corinthians 7:14 - Exposition

Is sanctified; literally, has been sanctified, the status has been rendered (so to speak) theoretically clean. By the wife; literally, in the wife . The bond is still holy; its holiness rests in the believing wife or husband. The reasoning would remove any scruples which Jewish Christians might derive from Deuteronomy 7:3 , etc. By the husband; rather, in the brother. The liberty implied by these remarks, contrasting so strongly with the rigid rules laid down in the days of Ezra ( Ezra 9:1-15 .; Nehemiah 9:1-38 .) recall the change of dispensation. Unclean ; i.e. not placed in immediate covenant relation to God. But now are they holy. This does not necessarily imply that they were baptized as infants, but only that they were hallowed as the fruit of a hallowed union. See the remarkable words of Malachi ( Malachi 2:15 ). "If the root be holy, so are the branches" ( Romans 11:16 ).