WHAT DOES PAUL MEAN BY WHAT HE SAID IN 1 CORINTHIANS 7:39

1 Corinthians 7:39 "A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord."

This verse of the scripture has been used severally by the churches to buttress the point that God hates divorce and a married women is bound by law to her husband till death do them part.

 Let me clarify further here there are two types of death that are applicable in marriage;

Physical Death and
Emotional Death

Also let’s look at the world “lives” here. It means when one is alive to God or Conscious of God and alive in the spirit. One can also be living but not unto God. In Gen 2:17, God told Adam the day he shall eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil he shall surely die. He did dead but not physically. It was his human Spirit which corresponds with the nature of God that was dead. He lost God’s consciousness and gained self consciousness. He lost the power to do good and gain the power to do evil. Instead of becoming like God they became unlike God. 

It is not necessary for partners to live to make marriage survive. If emotion is already dead,.. when love and respect no longer exist, then, union is no longer possible. Whenever emotional death is present, then, the term “till death do us part” is already applicable. It means the end of marriage.

However, even if the other partner died physically, if love and commitment is still present on the other person, then marriage is still valid. It is much more difficult for the living to move on because he or she is still committed to his/her emotions. In short, for that specific case, the term “till death do us part” is still not applicable because emotional death is not yet achieve and the feeling remains.

The end of a commitment happens only after emotional death. Whether both parties are alive or not, when emotional death is achieved, marriage technically will also die.

These, I believe are the compelling reasons why marriage between a living and a deceased is allowed. The term “till death do us part" actually refers to emotional death. It is the reason why Love, Relationship and Commitment last a lifetime and sometime,…….. even survive Death.