We’re living in troubling times. Divorce and
remarriage among Christians is at an all time high. Why is this? I go to Christian book stores and I see
scores of books on the shelves concerning divorce and yet, it still is at an
all time high. What is going on? What’s
wrong with our teaching and preaching on this subject?
You know what I find interesting? All the marriages in the Old Testament were
rotten marriages – all of them! You got husbands committing polygamy and having
concubines. Yet, try as you can, you
will not find one example of anyone getting a divorce. There are no examples of divorces in the Old
Testament, especially among the Patriarchs.
Why do things change when we come to the New Testament?
Aren’t we told that Jesus is the “same yesterday, today and tomorrow” (Heb.
13:8)? James says that with God “there is no variation, or shifting shadow”
(James 1:17). In other words, God does not change.
So, if there are no examples of divorce in the Old
Testament, then why does it appear that the New Testament permits divorce and
then also encourages remarriage? Is not this a change?
Another
thing I find troubling is how we tend to categorize our sins or bad decisions.
We say, “I got divorce BEFORE I accepted Jesus,” as if to suggest that the
Bible’s teaching on divorce didn’t apply then.
Or, “I committed adultery before I became a Christian, therefore, I did
not know any better.”
The
problem with this is that the Bible does not categorize our sins to those that
occurred “before Christ,” and those that occur “after Christ.” Jesus’ teaching
on divorce applies to the saved and unsaved.
Indeed, now that you’re saved, your sins of the past are forgiven and
wiped clean by the blood of Christ, but they were nevertheless still sins with
results that carry on over to your Christian life.
Today,
it is not uncommon to find people in the church who have been divorced and
remarried two or three times. All this despite the teaching we read about in
Ephesians 5 about the close “one flesh” union between Jesus and His Bride, the
Church!
I
am not sure we understand the full significance of what the Bible says about
marriage and the need to hang in there at all cost. I know I don’t fully
comprehend its full and powerful significance. Hence, the reason I am doing
this study.
Could
it be that the Bible teaches divorce to be the absolute last thing one should do,
and if it is done, then the person has to remain unmarried? The only exception is when the spouse dies.
As
I dive into this study on divorce and remarriage, I am going to approach it
with this thought in mind: If a man
divorces his wife, even for the cause of adultery, he still must remain single.
If he does remarry, he will be an adulterer, and the woman he marries will become
an adulterer, and the man who marries the divorced woman will be an adulterer as well as she.
Allow
me to point out to you the various Bible passages that appear to support this conclusion. I will also try to explain the “exception
clause” in Matthew’s account.
I
do not want to suggest that I have a full handle on this. I still do (at this present time) believe that remarriage should
occur where there is adultery involved by the other spouse or willful desertion
(when an unbeliever chooses to leave a believer). But I may be wrong. Perhaps, remarriage is
not allowed at all except only in the death of a spouse.
If
this conclusion is true, then it will radically reshape my view of divorce and
remarriage and place me in the minority.
What
does the Bible teach?
End
of Part 1
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