Some say that Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:27 is speaking about divorced persons, and verse 28 permits sinless remarriage after divorce. Is that what these verses mean?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘The Christian Philosophy of Man’ (1994).

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. (1 Corinthians 7:27–28)

I could comment on it as follows. As far as I am aware, those verses have nothing to do with divorce or remarriage, except in this. Paul is still answering the question, 'If you are a Christian, is marriage something that you should try to get out of because it is not a truly spiritual thing? Or, if you are now converted and your husband is still unconverted, or the other way round, are you obliged to get rid of your partner?' And the answer is, no.

'Are you bound to a wife?'—don't seek to be free, and certainly not by divorce. Carry on in the condition in which you were called (1 Corinthians 7:27). 'Are you free from a wife?'—some people want to say that means 'have you been recently divorced from a wife?' In other words, has your wife divorced you?

But that seems to me to be certainly not a necessary translation of the Greek, nor yet a likely one. People can be loosed from a wife by death, for instance. And if a man's wife has died, isn't he now free from the marriage law of the wife and husband? What shall he do in those cases? Does it mean that if your wife has died you should never marry again?

In 1 Corinthians 7:25–28 Paul is saying, 'Well, in my humble estimation, my advice would be that it is a good thing not to get married again, but if you do get married again you have not sinned. Here is a thing which the Lord leaves for your decision. Whichever way you choose, having lost your wife or having lost your husband, whether to get married again or not, whichever way you choose is not sinful.' Paul's advice would say, 'In certain circumstances you might be wiser not to get married again but the Lord leaves it to you.'

But to say that the end of 1 Corinthians 7:27, 'are you free from a wife?' means 'have you been divorced from a wife?' seems to me to be going beyond the necessary meaning of the term.