All we have to know is 'sanctified' here has nothing to do either way with the relationship to God of the unbelieving spouse and kids.
The point is, we are not made unclean by having an unbelieving spouse when we get saved. God declares your spouse and your kids clean in that situation. You are not defiled by them and cut off from fellowship with God because of your relationship with them. God declares them clean for contact by reason of you being married to them =QUOTE].
Hi, Ralph, Post makes "NO" claim a believer, unbeliever or the children are made unclean by association:
1 Corinthians 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
Point 1: sanctified & saved are not the same thing; nor are they interchangeable.
God sanctified (set apart) the whole Nation of Israel. This does not mean every person was automatically saved.
Chapter context of 1 Cor 7:14 is marriage, divorce, the children & their sanctification ""Not Salvation"".
This epistle's is written believers. Although most in Corinth were gentile. Paul is also speaking here in 1 cor 7:14 to Jewish converts. That had been deeply steeped in Mosaic Law.
OT covenant laws were clear. Don't intermarry with the heathen/gentiles. Your offspring would be, unclean, outside covenant seals. (Deut 7:3-4)
The main context is speaking about the children of a marriage between a believer & an unbeliever. The Apostle is teaching the Jewish converts.
That the New Covenant believers Faith supersedes the unbelievers lack there of.
Chapter context key: """Else were your children unclean""" (1 Cor 7:14)
The unbelieving husband or wife IS NOT SAVED through the Believing partner. However, the children are sanctified and covered by/through the Believing parents Faith. The covering is dissolved when the child is old enough to choose for themselves.
At this point the child like everyone else (including the unsaved spouse) are saved only by:
Placing their FAITH in the Redemptive, Sin Atoning Death, Burial & Resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
Additional scripture support:
Romans 11:16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
Matt 10:5 Messiah sent forth the 12 & commanded them. To not go the Gentiles or into any city of the Samaritans
(NOTE: Gentiles were outside of covenant seals. The Samaritans were Jews that had inter-married. This was forbidden under Mosaic law. They were seen a half-breeds. Also, living outside covenant seals & considered unclean same as gentiles).
The 2nd message here is: The marriage relation, through the BELIEVING spouse is sanctified so that there is no need of a divorce. If either husband or wife is a believer and the other agrees to remain, the marriage is sanctified and the unbelieved need not be set aside.
A great scripture example is Timothy:
Acts 16:1 Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
Timothy's mother was Jewish his father a Greek/gentile.