SOBÓR I PAWEŁ O WSPÓLNOCIE MAŁŻEŃSKIEJ
THE VATICAN COUNCIL AND SAINT PAUL ON THE MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP

THE BIBLICAL ROOTS OF THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE IN 1 COR 7

Summary/Abstract: The present article offers a concise comparison between the Vatican Council’s and Saint Paul’s teaching on marriage. Starting with the constitutions Gaudium et spes and Lumen gentium, the author demonstrates the council’s personalist approach to the marriage partnership understood as both spiritual and physical community of life characterized by equality between man and woman. The marriage transcends the purely natural order being established by the Creator himself and guarded by his laws. The Council stresses its indissolubility and sacramental character which reflects the love of Christ toward the Church and involves the grace that consecrates the spouses and enables them to fulfill their parental obligations. In the next part, the author shows how the teaching of Saint Paul in 1 Cor 7 prepares the ground for the council’s theology of marriage. The point of departure are the problems which the Christian marriages face in Corinth and which are quite similar to the contemporary challenges. Paul, referring to the command of the Lord, promotes the indissolubility of the Christian marriage (7,10-11) and its personalist character, imposing mutual and equal obligations on men and women (1 Cor 7,3-6). In 1 Cor 7 one can spot the emerging sacramental theology of marriage. The apostle differentiates it from the pagan marria-ges (1 Cor 7,12-16) and describes as stipulated “in the Lord” (1 Cor 7,39). The purpose of marriage is the mutual sanctification of the spouses and their offspring (1 Cor 7, 12-14). The sacramental vision of marriage emerging in Cor 7 will be further elaborated by the Pauline school in Eph 5,21-33.

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