I've been married twice. First time was a first marriage for both of us that lasted almost 4 years ended by death. Second time I was a widower before age 28 and met a divorced Christian woman raising two teenage kids alone. Her husband ended their marriage by leaving and taking another woman which technically by age should have put him in jail. He was also physically abusive.
During out dating first as friends after we had met each other at work a love grew. Her pastor had told her it was OK for her to date and later remarry because her husband had broken the vows and ended their covenant and not her and he knew both of them well.
She became very seriously ill while we were dating an illness or a fluke that left her an incomplete quadriplegic. She afterward would need care for the rest of her life and the kids needed a parent and before this happened we planned to marry in about a year. We entered into the marriage in the hospital actually 3 months into a 6 month stay for her and I took the kids home with me until she got out. We did receive counseling from her pastor before he agreed to marry us. We were married in a hospital overseen by the Catholic church in the church chapel and hosted by the Nuns who served in their mission there. We got to know them very well. One was a black belt. The Nuns had hid her and protected her for 3 months at that point.
Divorces happen for a reason and most certainly both parties need to address why honestly with themselves before remarrying so the first marriage issues do not follow them into the second one. Nearly two years ago after 29 years our vows were fulfilled and our marriage ended by her last heartbeat and breath.
How did Jesus deal with the woman at the well? Or the one who was fixing to be stoned? Adultery is adultery whether by action or by thought of which one must ask GOD's forgiveness. You can't undo it but you can be forgiven of it it you repent. Repent means change your heart. It is the heart and what is in a persons thoughts that defile someone. That is why Jesus and Paul gave specific instructions for Communion. It is for forgiveness. You forgive others then ask GOD to forgive you. You are not worthy for communion because of your physical deeds but rather because of faith in Christ shedding of His Blood for us. If you sin you ask GOD and anyone else involved if anyone else forgiveness,pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again. We all fail. If we break even one of God's Commandments we break them all. Our life's goal should certainly not be to keep on sinning but rather seeking to separate ourselves from sin which we alone can not accomplish.
If persons obeyed the teachings in The Bible fully but made adultery a sin which forever cuts off one from communion there indeed would be very few worthy by those standards if people were honest with themselves as instructed to be before taking communion and defining adultery as Jesus defined it.
Paul wrote about widows and widowers as well and how some could accept remaining such after loosing a spouse and it being better for some to remarry. In the beginning when GOD created man and woman he did so because both physical and emotionally needed each other. Procreation did not figure into it until after the fall of man. GOD also defines marriage as between man and a woman. Man to man or woman to woman is not recognized in The Bible so that would not even come into this debate.
Among the many things Christ did condemn the Temple leaders harshly over was placing legalisms and burdens upon persons that they themselves could not withstand and there as such was no forgiveness. Marriage should be entered into prayerfully and try to keep it Christ centered. It takes two and it takes work.
they are looking at a strict definition of adultery limited by the 10 Commandments not to commit physical adultery.
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28
Christ clarified the meaning of the commandment to include the mental as well as the physical.
There's not a person on this forum, if they're honest, who can deny they've committed adultery. Now our catholic friends have probably invented some rule that redefines what this means.
In the sight of God the one who looks after a woman with lust is just as guilty as the person who physically committed adultery. It shows how truly sinful we are.
And I'll bet you lunch there isn't a catholic on these threads who've cut their hand off or who've gouged out their eyes as Jesus noted below.
Do we have record of Peter, Paul or any other follower of Christ in the NT ever doing this?
No.
Why? They understood the context and the manner in how Jesus was saying this. My coach used this kind of "exhortation" all the time to motivate us to focus in a game.
29“If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30“If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell. Matthew 5:29-30
If catholics want to take John 6:52-58 as literal they have to take this passage from Matthew as literal. That they don't is telling.