---
title: 1 Corinthians 7:15
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-7-15/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-7-15.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 7:15
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 7:15

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.

## JW Usage

JWs restrict biblical grounds for divorce and remarriage to porneia (sexual immorality) alone, based on Matthew 19:9. The organisation does not recognise abandonment or abuse as grounds that free the innocent party to remarry. A Witness who divorces an abusive but sexually faithful spouse and later remarries faces a judicial committee for adultery. First Corinthians 7:15 is acknowledged but read narrowly: the "freedom" refers to freedom from the marriage obligation of cohabitation, not freedom to remarry.

## Protestant Usage

Paul adds abandonment as a recognised ground for marital freedom: "if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases" (1 Corinthians 7:15). The phrase "not under bondage" (ou dedoulotai) uses the same root as the "bound" (dedetai) of verse 39 — if a wife is "bound" while her husband lives, being "not under bondage" means the bond is dissolved. Historic Reformed and Protestant teaching holds porneia (Matthew 19:9) and abandonment (1 Corinthians 7:15) together as two biblical grounds for divorce with freedom to remarry. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) codified this reading. The Watchtower's restriction to porneia alone has a pastoral cost: it traps abuse victims in marriages they cannot exit without congregational discipline. A doctrine that punishes the abused spouse while the abuser faces no consequences unless caught in a sexual act inverts the moral logic of Jesus' teaching on mercy (Matthew 9:13).

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Low JW Divorce Rate Is a Statistical Artifact of Exit, Not a Sign of Healthy Marriages](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-divorce-statistical-artifact.md) — When unhappy spouses leave the religion instead of the marriage, the numbers lie [Practice]
- [The Watchtower's Narrow Reading of Matthew 19:9 — and Its Pastoral Cost](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-remarriage-matthew-19.md) — Porneia, abuse, and the spouses who cannot leave [Practice]