1 Corinthians 7:15
1 Corinthians 7:1515But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.
JWs restrict biblical grounds for divorce and remarriage to porneia (sexual immorality) alone, based on . The organisation does not recognise abandonment or abuse as grounds that free the innocent party to remarry. A Witness who divorces an abusive but sexually faithful spouse and later remarries faces a judicial committee for adultery. First Corinthians 7:15 is acknowledged but read narrowly: the "freedom" refers to freedom from the marriage obligation of cohabitation, not freedom to remarry.
Paul adds abandonment as a recognised ground for marital freedom: "if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases" (). The phrase "not under bondage" (ou dedoulotai) uses the same root as the "bound" (dedetai) of verse 39 — if a wife is "bound" while her husband lives, being "not under bondage" means the bond is dissolved. Historic Reformed and Protestant teaching holds porneia () and abandonment () together as two biblical grounds for divorce with freedom to remarry. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) codified this reading. The Watchtower's restriction to porneia alone has a pastoral cost: it traps abuse victims in marriages they cannot exit without congregational discipline. A doctrine that punishes the abused spouse while the abuser faces no consequences unless caught in a sexual act inverts the moral logic of Jesus' teaching on mercy ().