1 Corinthians 7:14b, Now Your Children Are Holy

1 Corinthians 7:14b … else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

The Apostle Paul tells us that the children born in a marriage where one partner is a believer is holy in the sight of God. It does not mean that they are without sin but that God has set them in apart by virtue of their believing parent. The believing father or mother provides a sanctifying influence by influencing the children in the things of God. The believing parent prays for the children, reads Bible stories, reads the Bible, shares with them the gospel at the earliest age that they may be saved.

Sharing with the child the gospel is the most crucial. Without spiritual life, the child is what the Bible calls the natural man. The child from young can be led to know Christ. His birth, His teachings, His death and resurrection so that the child can in a personal way accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour at the earliest possible age. This process is done with much prayer and supplication for God’s wisdom and blessing to inculcate the truth to the child.

The child is taught how man is created for God’s glory. How men fell into sin and become evil and unprofitable. How all have sinned, none is good and the wages of sin is death and the death sentence is upon all men. How the child needs to be saved, how he cannot save himself, that salvation is s free gift and Christ has purchased salvation for him. The child must personally believe and receive Jesus as Saviour. This is the greatest privilege of believing parent, to lead your own children to Christ, securing their souls for eternity.

Indeed, else were the children unclean but now are they holy. Amen.

Then the apostle adds: “otherwise your children would be unclean; but now they are holy.” We have already mentioned that in the OT the children were to be put away as well as the heathen wife. Now Paul explains that in the dispensation of grace, children born of a marriage where one partner is a believer and the other is not are holy. The word holy comes from the same root word translated sanctified in this verse. It does not at all mean that the children are made holy in themselves, that is, that they necessarily live clean and pure lives. Rather it means that they are set apart in a place of privilege. They have at least one parent who loves the Lord, and who tells them the gospel story. There is a strong possibility of their being saved. They are privileged to live in a home where one of the parents is indwelt by the Spirit of God. In this sense, they are sanctified. This verse also includes the assurance that it is not wrong to have children when one parent is a Christian and the other is not. God recognizes the marriage, and the children are not illegitimate.