Bob Prichard

Topic(s): Bible Study, Divorce, Marriage

In an age when divorce becomes more common every day, what the Bible teaches about marriage has received too little regard. Jesus told of God’s ideal for marriage: “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6). God’s ideal is the union of one man and one woman for life.

Under the law of Moses, God did allow the Jews to divorce. When the Jews asked Jesus why Moses allowed this, He said, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). Moses allowed divorce only because of the “hardness” of their hearts. The giving of a decree of divorce was necessary to protect women from their hard hearted husbands, who totally controlled them. Jesus said, “but from the beginning it was not so,” indicating that He was calling men back to God’s original intention for divorce and remarriage. He continued, “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Matthew 19:9). In this verse Jesus gave fornication as the only scriptural grounds for divorce which God recognizes.

The word “fornication” has a very broad meaning, to include any sexual relations outside of legal, scriptural marriage. Fornication includes adultery by a married person, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, incest, and any other illicit sexual activity. We repeat*fornication is the one cause for divorce which God recognizes.

Who then, after a divorce has the right to remarry? Since the one cause for divorce in God’s plan is fornication, the person who divorces for another cause does not have the right to remarry. (For example, a woman may need the legal protection of a divorce to protect herself or children from an abusive husband, but she does not gain the right of remarriage by such a divorce.) Marriage should be according to God’s will, and any divorce and remarriage must be according to God’s will. Certainly the person who breaks the bonds of marriage by committing fornication (sometimes called the “guilty party”), does not have the right to remarry. Though the civil law may allow the remarriage, it is not according to God’s will. The only divorced person who has a right to remarry is the “innocent party,” the one who did not break the bonds of marriage by fornication.

Malachi the prophet wrote, “the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away” (Malachi 2:16). God hates divorce, and even when one of the marriage partners has committed adultery, it is not God’s desire that they be divorced. Marriage according to God’s plan is a wonderful thing. It is worth working to save, even after adultery. The consequences of divorce are never ending.