First Corinthians 7:39f
‘Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosened! Are you loosened from a wife? Do not seek a wife — but if your (re)marry, you have not sinned…. The wife is bound by the law, as long as her husband lives. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be (re)married to whom she will – (but) only in the Lord…. She is happier, if she so abide!’ First Corinthians 7:27f,39f.
Calvin comments: “Paul adds…we ought not to be so influenced by the advantages of celibacy, so that people who are united by the marriage bond should break free from it!… Anyone who is impressed by Paul’s recommendation, may not consider celibacy seriously and be contemptuous of marriage without giving a though to his own need…. Not only does he forbid the breaking of the marriage bond by these words, but he seeks to put a stop to those aversions which usually creep in to a marriage — so that everyone may continue to lead a happy and peaceful life with his wife!…
“‘(Have you been) loosed from a wife?’… He does not grant…everyone the choice of life-long celibacy…. If a man is free from any compelling need, he should not be so rash as to put himself in bonds…. ‘But even if you do (re)marry’…, Paul…allows widowers freedom to (re)marry and says that those who (re)marry are not sinning. The word ‘even’ seems to be emphatic…. It brings out that…(even) those who are single, are not debarred from marrying whenever they like….
“‘A wife is bound by the law (– as long as her husband lives. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, [but] only in the Lord. But she is happier if she so abides).’ What he had said before, applied equally to men and women…. He now teaches that women are as free as men to enter on a second marriage, after the death of their first partner…. The Apostle condemns arbitrariness…, and says that no barrier must be put in the way of widows’ marrying — if they want to do so….
“The law certainly affirms that the union of husband and wife is indissoluble…. If a wife is bound to her husband for the duration of his life, she is set free by his death. After she has been released, she ‘may marry anyone she likes.’ When the verb…’sleep’ is used for dying, the reference is not to the soul but to the body…. Certain (Anabaptist) hotheads therefore are only showing their ignorance when they quibble about this little word, in order to ‘prove’ that after our souls are separated from our bodies — they are deprived of feeling….
“(She [the widow] is at liberty to be [re]married to whom she will, but) only in the Lord’…. They (such widows) must not enter on the yoke of marriage with unbelievers…. I acknowledge the truth of that…. They should enter on this second marriage reverently, and in the fear of the Lord….
“‘But she (the widow) is happier if she remains as she is.’ Why?… It will mean fewer distractions, and more freedom from worldly cares.”
When a husband dies, his wife is free to remarry. The husband, too. Where will you go, when you die?
