is presumably the main reason for religiously mixed marriages in Corinth—many of the Christians were first-generation converts out of paganism and were married before they became Christians.34 Now that they found themselves in a marriage with a spiritually incompatible husband or wife, what were they to do?35 Paul’s answer is that the believer should stay with the unbeliever unless the unbeliever is the one who dissolves the marriage covenant by leaving (7:10–13). In other words, Paul grants an exception