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Divorce Without Remarriage?
Sometimes a person in a marriage gone sour gets the idea that “divorce
only” is an option. “I’m simply divorcing her. I’m not going to get
remarried,” they say. They think, somehow, that divorce without
remarriage is God-approved. No, this is not correct. Such an “idea” is
not based upon Bible teaching.
The Bible teaches that marriage is for life. “For the woman who has a
husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if
the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband”
(Romans 7:2). This is fairly simple to understand. Two people joined
together in matrimony are to stay together until one of them dies. As a
rule, divorce is not an option. God “hates divorce,” and our Lord
Jesus said, “What God has joined together, let not man separate”
(Malachi 2:16; Matthew 19:6).
This “No Divorce” rule does have an exception. Jesus said, “Whoever
divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another,
commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9). But this is the only
exception. (Please note that there is only one.) A man whose wife has
been sexually unfaithful has the right to divorce her and marry another.
“But,” someone replies, “Jesus’ rule and the exception clause in Matthew
19:9 deal only with a man divorcing and remarrying. What about someone
simply divorcing his wife without remarriage?”
Well, look again at the passage cited above from Romans 7:2. One is “bound”
to their mate “as long as” that mate lives. Beloved, let those
words sink down into your hearts.
Please note as well that in Matthew 19, the Pharisees had come to Jesus
with the question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just
any reason?” (That’s the question under consideration in this short
article, isn’t it?) They did not ask about divorce
and remarriage, but simply divorce. How did Jesus answer? He
said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made
them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his
father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore
what God has joined together, let not man separate” (vss.3-6). Yes,
Jesus did go on to discuss divorce and remarriage, but His answer to
their original question shows that no, it is not “lawful for a man to
divorce his wife for just any reason.”
Further, one of our Lord’s ambassadors, the apostle Paul, said, “Now
to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to
depart from her husband... And a husband is not to divorce his wife”
(1 Corinthians 7:10).
Dear ones, divorce is sinful (unless enacted due to a sexually
unfaithful spouse). It breaks one’s marriage vow, making a liar out of
the one who said, “I do.” (Please see Revelation 21:8.) It places the
one who is put away in the position of being tempted to commit adultery
(Matthew 5:32). It is rebellion against God’s law.
--Mike Noble
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