Tertullian, On Monogamy 11

If you really want to marry "in the Lord" according to the Law and the Apostle, what kind of marriage are you after, when the very people you petition—a monogamous bishop, presbyters and deacons of the same sacrament, widows whose sect you rejected in yourself—are forbidden to have it? They will hand out husbands and wives as casually as morsels of bread, for their rule is: "Give to everyone who asks you" (Luke 6:30). They will join you in the Church, that virgin, the unique bride of the one Christ, and then you will pray for your husbands—new and old alike. Choose which one you will offer yourself to as an adulteress; I suspect it will be both. But if you have any sense, you will keep silent about the deceased one. Let your silence serve as your repudiation of him, already inscribed in another woman's marriage contract. That is how you will produce a new husband: by forgetting the old. You ought to please this new man more, since you chose not to please God for his sake. (1 Corinthians 7:39)

The Psychics want to prove that the Apostle approved this arrangement—or simply never considered it—when he wrote: "A woman is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord." From this passage they defend the license for a second marriage, indeed for as many as you like once you allow a second; for what has ceased to be once is subject to every number. But the sense in which the Apostle wrote will become clear only if we first establish that he did not write it in the sense the Psychics exploit. That will be established if anyone recalls the things that clash with this chapter—in doctrine, in will, and in Paul's own proper discipline. If he permits second marriages, which did not exist from the beginning, how can he affirm that all things are gathered up again in Christ from the beginning (Ephesians 1:10)? If he wants us to repeat marriages, how does he defend our lineage in Isaac, authored by one husband? How does he constitute the entire order of the Church from monogamists, if that discipline does not precede among the laity, from whom the Church's order arises? How does he call those still in marriage away from its fruit, saying "the appointed time has grown short" (1 Corinthians 7:29), if through death he recalls them back into marriage after they have lapsed from it? If these things contradict the chapter in question, it will stand proved, as we said, that he did not write it in the sense the Psychics use. For it is easier for that one chapter to have some rationale that harmonizes with the others than for the Apostle to appear to teach contradictory things. We can discern that rationale in the subject matter itself. (1 Corinthians 7:39)

What was the occasion for the Apostle to write such things? It was the training of the new and especially the rising Church, which he was still feeding with milk, not yet with the solid food of stronger doctrine—so much so that, in that infancy of faith, they did not yet know what to do about the necessity of flesh and sex. We can see the very shape of these issues from his replies. When he says: "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife" (1 Corinthians 7:1-2), he shows there were those who, caught in marriage by faith, feared it was no longer permitted for them to use their marriage, because they had believed in the holy flesh of Christ. Yet he concedes this by permission, not by command—that is, indulging them, not prescribing it. Moreover, he preferred that all be as he himself was. So also, writing back concerning divorce, he shows that some were thinking along those lines as well—especially because they did not think they should persevere in pagan marriages after faith. They sought counsel about virgins (for there was no command of the Lord), that it is good for a man to remain as he is; certainly, just as he was found by faith. "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" (1 Corinthians 7:27-28): because, having been freed from a wife before faith, a second wife after faith will not be counted as a second, since she is the first after faith. For from faith onward, even our life itself is reckoned. But here he says he is sparing them: otherwise the pressure of the flesh would follow, and those who refuse the burdens of marriage because of the distress of the present time would be hindered—rather, one should have solicitude for the Lord, to secure it, than for a husband. And thus he revokes what he permitted. (1 Corinthians 7:25-28)

So then, in the very chapter where he defines that each one ought to remain in the calling in which he was called, adding: "A woman is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is free; let her marry whom she wishes, only in the Lord"—from this he also demonstrates that the woman to be understood here is one who has been found free from her husband just as a man is free from his wife: certainly through death, not through repudiation, the divorce having been made; because he would not permit the divorced to marry, against the former command. Therefore, if a woman marries, she does not sin, because neither will a second husband be reckoned to her, who is the first after faith; and it is so precisely that he added: "Only in the Lord"—because he was dealing with a woman who had a pagan husband and, having lost him, believed; lest she also presume that she can marry a pagan after faith—though the Psychics do not care about this. Let us know plainly that the authentic Greek does not read as it has come into use through the clever or simple reversal of two syllables: "If her husband dies," as if it sounds like the future, and thus seems to pertain to her who has already lost her husband in the faith. For if it were so, the license would extend infinitely—as many times as a husband is lost, she could marry without any shame, even to pagans. But even if it were so, as if about the future: "If a woman's husband has died," it would pertain equally to her whose husband will die before faith. Take whatever reading you will, as long as you do not overturn the rest. For when even those sentences yield—"Were you called as a slave? Do not be concerned about it. Were you called uncircumcised? Do not become circumcised. Were you called circumcised? Do not become uncircumcised" (1 Corinthians 7:21, 18)—to which is added: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife" (1 Corinthians 7:27)—it is sufficiently clear that these pertain to those who, established in a new and recent calling, were seeking counsel about the very things in which they had been caught by faith. This will be the interpretation of that chapter to be examined—whether it fits the time, the cause, both the preceding examples and arguments, and the subsequent sentences and senses; and first, whether it agrees with the Apostle's own counsel and institution: for nothing is more to be guarded against than that someone be found to be at odds with himself. (1 Corinthians 7:39, 1 Corinthians 7:25-28)