NOTES for Co1 7:14

For Paul, Christianity is above all life in the Kingdom and witness to the Kingdom. Therefore he does not give decisive importance to the external conditions and circumstances of a person's life. Christ's Kingdom is not of this world, and being in it does not depend on a person's status in this world. Only the external forms in which the life of the Kingdom is manifested change; the possible ways of witness change, but the life of the Kingdom itself in a person remains the same.

Of course, if there is an opportunity to change one's social position by adding external freedom to oneself, it is never superfluous to do so. But one should not consider such changes in themselves the goal and meaning of life. To use every opportunity that presents itself for witness to the Kingdom, however, is not only possible but necessary. Including, and even first of all, in one's own home. It is no accident that the apostle advises not to hurry with divorce even when only one of the two in the marriage is a Christian: who knows whether married life itself may not become the witness that will lead the husband or wife to Christ?

Of course, in all times, and the first Christian times were no exception, a spouse who had turned to Christ had the desire to begin all of life, including family life, from a clean slate. Divorce then seemed, and still seems to many, the simplest solution, especially since misunderstanding between a believing husband and an unbelieving wife, or the reverse, arises quite often, especially at first, immediately after conversion.

But the apostle proposes something else: to begin a new life not with divorce, not with the breaking of relationships, but with an attempt to renew these relationships and make them part of that life of the Kingdom which has become a reality for the converted spouse. Paul remains an apostle here too: the main thing is to open the reality of the Kingdom to as many people as possible. Including those who live with you in the same house.