Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
if . . . depart--that is, wishes for separation. Translate, "separateth himself": offended with her Christianity, and refusing to live with her unless she renounce it.
brother or a sister is not under bondage--is not bound to renounce the faith for the sake of retaining her unbelieving husband [HAMMOND]. So Deuteronomy 13:6; Matthew 10:35-37; Luke 14:26. The believer does not lie under the same obligation in the case of a union with an unbeliever, as in the case of one with a believer. In the former case he is not bound not to separate, if the unbeliever separate or "depart," in the latter nothing but "fornication" justifies separation [PHOTIUS in Æcumenius].
but God hath called us to peace--Our Christian calling is one that tends to "peace" (Romans 12:18), not quarrelling; therefore the believer should not ordinarily depart from the unbelieving consort (1 Corinthians 7:12-14), on the one hand; and on the other, in the exceptional case of the unbeliever desiring to depart, the believer is not bound to force the other party to stay in a state of continual discord (Matthew 5:32). Better still it would be not to enter into such unequal alliances at all (1 Corinthians 7:40; 2 Corinthians 6:14).
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
1 Corinthians 7:16
Galatians 1:6
Colossians 3:15
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