But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
The apostle Paul is writing to a congregation in the ancient Greek city of Corinth, answering their questions about marriage and relationships. In this verse, he addresses a scenario where a Christian wife has already separated from her husband. His guidance is direct: if she has left, she should either remain unmarried or work toward reconciliation — divorce is not the prescribed path. He then turns to husbands with the same call: a husband should not divorce his wife. Paul is not addressing every possible circumstance here — he makes qualifications elsewhere in this same chapter for situations involving abandonment and unbelief. But the baseline posture he commends is one of either staying in the marriage or, if separated, remaining open to reconciliation.
God, you are the God who pursues — who stayed when we walked away. Give me the humility to hold open doors I've been tempted to permanently close. Where restoration is possible, give me courage. Where it isn't, give me peace. Amen.
There's a specific kind of person Paul is writing to here — someone who has already left. The marriage didn't end in death. The spouse didn't abandon her. She left. And rather than condemning her or simply blessing the exit, Paul holds open a third door: reconciliation. It's one of the more quietly countercultural things in the New Testament — this stubborn insistence that the story might not be over yet. This verse doesn't fit neatly onto a motivational poster. It's not comfortable. For some readers, it may stir up guilt, grief, or something still unresolved. But Paul's word here isn't a hammer — it's a door left ajar. And somewhere in it is a question worth sitting with honestly: Is there something in your life — a relationship, a fractured trust, a conflict you've declared finished — where the door you walked out of might not be as permanently shut as you've decided it is?
Paul gives essentially the same instruction to both the wife and the husband in this passage. What does that symmetry tell you about his view of marriage and shared responsibility within it?
Have you ever been in a situation where you believed a relationship was over, but reconciliation later became possible? What made the difference?
This verse doesn't address abuse, coercion, or infidelity — situations Paul addresses elsewhere in Scripture. How do we read a difficult verse like this carefully, without misapplying it to situations it wasn't meant to cover?
How does remaining open to reconciliation in marriage shape the way you think about conflict in other relationships — friendships, family, even your relationship with God?
Is there a relationship in your life where you've quietly closed the door to reconciliation? What would one small step toward openness look like — even if full restoration isn't possible or safe right now?
Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Isaiah 50:1
But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Matthew 5:32
And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Mark 10:12
And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:
1 Corinthians 7:10
For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
John 4:18
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Genesis 2:24
And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
Mark 10:11
When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Deuteronomy 24:1
(but even if she does leave him, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should not leave his wife.
AMP
(but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
ESV
(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
NASB
But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
NIV
But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.
NKJV
But if she does leave him, let her remain single or else be reconciled to him. And the husband must not leave his wife.
NLT
If a wife should leave her husband, she must either remain single or else come back and make things right with him. And a husband has no right to get rid of his wife.
MSG