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DivorceDefinition: noun:1) the legal dissolution of a marriage contract,2) the opportunity to wreak holy vengeance on one's spouse and royally mess up the kids,3) an occasion to be isolated from one's church.Very few people agree on divorce and remarriage, so here are a few thoughts of my own to consider.
They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?" [Jesus] 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. (Matt. 19) The Law of Moses 1. Only men were allowed to decide to divorce under the Old Testament Law. 2. If a man kicked his wife out (sent her away) without a certificate of divorce in her hand, she would not be free to remarry. If she tried to marry another man, her first husband could claim she was still married to him and have her and her new husband stoned to death for adultery. A woman kicked out without a certificate of divorce was powerless. 3. Moses commanded that a man was not allowed to kick his wife out without giving her a certificate of divorce in her hand. She could appeal to a judge and the judge could force the man to give her a certificate of divorce so that she was protected from being called an adulteress later, if she remarried. Jesus Jesus appealed to a principle that came before the Law of Moses, to the creation account, to show that God never intended for divorce to be the norm at all. As far as Jesus was concerned divorce violated the whole creation of male and female in the beginning, and Jesus called divorce and remarriage "adultery". The Disciples The disciples said to Him, "If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry." Who would make such a statement? An unmarried person? A happily married person? No. Only someone who has been married and divorced would make such a statement. It is my belief, based on this statement, that many of Jesus' disciples were divorced and remarried. Today If A marries B and divorces, not for the cause of fornication, and marries C, then becomes a Christian, do they have to divorce C and go back to A in order to not be committing adultery? Today conservative Christians write articles and books about which steps are okay and which are not. Some believe that if a man lives with a woman for years, has children by her, leaves her, then marries another woman, he is not committing adultery. Whereas if he had married the first woman, he would have to divorce the second and remarry the first in order to not be committing adultery. There are no passages of scripture that discuss marriage and divorce in this manner anywhere in the New Testament. There were many who had been divorced and remarried. We do not read anywhere that they had to do anything other than stay with their current spouse. Deuteronomy 24 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD. These writers (of today) often ignore the Law that the Pharisees were quoting from that Jesus was commenting on at the time. Jesus did not contradict Deuteronomy 24 at all. Why then do teachers of today contradict Deuteronomy 24 and teach that Jesus was contradicting Deuteronomy 24? Other Principles in the Scriptures 1. "If the unbeliever leaves let him leave, the believer is not under bondage in such cases." I Cor. 7 2. Some are gifted to be single, others are not. Matt. 19 |
Read what Rubel Shelly taught about Divorce. As well as this article by Rubel Shelly.
Here is a short teaching on what Jesus meant when he taught about divorce from Edward Fudge.
And another by Edward Fudge. |