Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 7:10

"But unto the married I give charge, [yea] not I, but the Lord, That the wife depart not from her husband" — 1 Corinthians 7:10 (ASV)

And unto the married. This verse commences the second subject of inquiry: namely, whether it was proper, in the existing circumstances, for those who were married to continue this relationship, or whether they should separate.

The reasons why some might have supposed it best to separate could have included:

1. that their troubles and persecutions might be so severe that they might judge it best for families to be broken up; and,
2. that probably many supposed it was unlawful for a Christian wife or husband to be connected at all with a heathen and idolater.

I command, yet not I, but the Lord. Not I so much as the Lord. This injunction is not to be understood as mere advice, but as a solemn divine command, from which you are not free to depart.

Paul here professes to utter the language of inspiration and demands obedience. The express command of 'the Lord' to which he refers is probably the precept recorded in Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:3–10. These precepts of Christ asserted that the marriage tie was sacred and inviolable.

Let not the wife depart, etc. Let her not prove faithless to her marriage vows; let her not, on any pretext, desert her husband. Though she is a Christian and he is not, let her not seek, on that account, to be separate from him.

The law of Moses did not permit a wife to divorce herself from her husband, though it was sometimes done ; however, Greek and Roman laws allowed it—Grotius. But Paul here refers to a formal and legal separation before the magistrates, not to a voluntary separation without the intention of being formally divorced.

The reasons for this opinion are:

1. that such divorces were known and practiced among both Jews and heathens.
2. It was important to settle the question whether they were to be allowed in the Christian church.
3. The claim would probably be made that it might be done.
4. The question of whether a voluntary separation might not be proper, where one party was a Christian and the other not, he discusses in the following verses, 1 Corinthians 7:12–17.

Here, therefore, he solemnly repeats the law of Christ: that divorce, under the Christian dispensation, was not to be in the power of either the husband or the wife.