To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
The general truth is that God wants married people to stay together. But some situations are really bad. Is there any direction given about those kind of specific situations?
Two situations are given, and both of them have to do with mixed marriages (between a believer and an unbeliever), which could have the potential of being very difficult. No information is given about the conditions that the partners faced in dealing with the other. The unbeliever may have been kind or reprehensibly cruel. Such information is absent.
The issue dealt with in the marriage is the unbelievers willingness or refusal to remain in the marriage. If the unbeliever is willing to stay in the marriage, the believer should stay. If the unbeliever is not willing to stay in the marriage, the unbeliever should not feel bound to the unbeliever (even though God generally doesn’t want people to break up). No out is given for the believer if (s)he is unhappy or having difficulty. If the unbeliever wants to stay married, the believer should not leave.
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