For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
Parallel translations
- WEB For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
- KJV For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?
- BSB How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
- NASB For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
- NLT Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A believing spouse cannot be sure whether staying will lead to the other's salvation. It matters because, read either as hope or as humility, it shapes how a believer regards an unbelieving partner.
Overview
This verse is read two ways by faithful interpreters: as a hopeful reason to stay (you may yet win your spouse to Christ) or, in context with verse 15, as a humble admission that one cannot guarantee the other's salvation, so peace may mean release. Either way, it acknowledges the limits of our control and entrusts the unbelieving spouse's salvation to God. The believer is called to faithful witness, not anxious certainty.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 1 Pet 3:1–2In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word;
- 1 Cor 9:22To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.
- Rom 11:14if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
- Luke 15:10Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”
- Jas 5:19–20Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,
- 1 Tim 4:16Pay attention to yourself, and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
- Prov 11:30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 7:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.