ReMarriage After Divorce
Satan's "Christian" Trap
Ask most Christians, and most agree that divorce is anti-Biblical. Jesus clearly stated that God does not condone divorce.
Mark 10
2And some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began questioning Him whether it was lawful for a man to [a]divorce his wife. 3And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” 4They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send his wife away.” 5But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6But from the beginning of creation, God CREATED THEM MALE AND FEMALE. 7FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER[e], 8AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate.”
10And in the house the disciples again began questioning Him about this. 11And He *said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; 12and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”
However, there is a convenient clause found in Matthew 19:9 that Christians fall back on… a release scripture if you will, they feel allows them to remarry if abandoned by a non-believing spouse for adulterous reasons.
Matthew 19
8He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Most Biblical translations say that one can put away their spouse for the cause of “immorality”, or even just “unfaithfulness” via the NLT. The original Greek word used for “immorality” in Matthew 19 is “porneia”, where we get the word “pornography”. If we seriously used the common translation for “immorality” and “unfaithfulness”, all a spouse would have to do is take immediate action for divorce when the husbands eyes drift for a moment or the woman reads a lewd romance article… then bam! The escapee spouse has their exit. It’s not quiet that easy.
Pulling out the KJV, it has an older defining term of consideration. It states that the only allowance for divorce is if “fornication” has been found in the spouse.
Why did King James era translators use the word fornication instead of adultery? Simply stated, fornication is premarital while adultery concerns at least one party being married. While I don’t hold to strictly the King James Version, I do think they had a better grip on Hebrew Culture when translating.
It was the custom of the Jews that when parents would arrange the marriage of two young people, they would come to terms of a dowry and betrothal (kiddushin) agreement. The two people would then embark upon a sanctifying period before consummating the marriage. If one spouse fell sexually during this trial period, it was considered fornication. As were the case of Joseph’s near divorcement of Mary.
Matt 1:9
And her [Mary’s] husband Joseph, since he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her, planned to send her away (divorce her) secretly.”
Joseph had assumed, by Mary’s pregnancy, that she had fornicated against him before their marriage was consummated, and was using this clause of fornication properly until he was corrected by the angel that what he obviously assumed was not true.
Joseph was considered a just man for his actions against Mary, although his actions were in ignorance. Nowhere in the Bible do we find justification for someone to divorce, much less remarry, in the case of post-wedding contract.
Let’s reread Matthew 5:32 once again with our new understanding…
“But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication [premarital sex with another man], causeth her to commit adultery [tempts her to remarry] and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committed adultery [is having sex with a technically married woman]”
Once two people have been married, God allows NO allowance for separation of a married couple. Marriage is one of the founding institutions of marriage since the Creation and cannot, under no circumstances, be undone.
Question: “What if my spouse becomes a non-Christian and divorces me? Doesn’t the 1 Corinthians 7 say I’m held accountable?”
Unfortunately, the scripture is advising the Christians who are married to non-Christians to hold to the promise of marriage. If the non-Christian leaves the Christian, they are to allow them to leave. However, the previous verse, verse 10, says to remain unmarried.
1 Corinthians 7
12But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 15Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such [cases], but God has called us to peace. 16For 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?
<< 10But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.