One of the simplest statements Jesus ever said is:
Matthew 5:31-32 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
31 “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
I have wondered why fallible, mistake making humans are held to perfection in this one area of choosing a spouse.
I was as mistake prone there as most of my other endeavors primarily because of my ignorance.
Matthew 5:31-32 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
31 “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
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There is much to comment on about this. I will not be able to do it justice but I will try to add some wisdom. It is Easter Season. I am a believer.
Now, those things being said I will continue. The statements made about the believers writing down the words of the Apostles after they were gone it likely true, that there are errors in what they said or important things they said that are not recorded is too possible, but, we have what we have. To now try to pick apart and decide what is truth and what is not is impossible unless we have someone authorized by Christ Himself to make those changes, I'm not trying to be mean or disrespectful but I don't think the Pope is that.
I don't begin to promote myself as knowing more than others but, I do read the words of scripture and decide for myself what they mean. I'm not an idiot, I have changed what I think some things mean over time but I am for the most part unwilling to blindly accept what someone else says something means as Gospel just because they went to “Seminary”. Many of the ministers of various churches went to “Seminary” yet they teach different truths.
Now to get to the subject, divorce. I do not believe in the society of the United States that women get the short end of the stick in divorce. They get the short end of the stick when they have children with a man they are not married to and he leaves.
I am prejudiced. I have been divorced and I remarried a woman who has been divorced. I don't believe we are adulterers. My first wife went crazy. It may not have been anything she could help. After spending many tens of thousands of dollars on Dr's and Counselors we finally said enough is enough. Her father kept a secret family on the side and it ate her up, one Dr. said there was no way I could ever make the marriage work because of her past. I kept it together for 26 years. I felt I had God's blessing when I finally called it quits. My new wife was married to a man who suddenly decided he wanted to wear her clothes, he still dresses as a woman and has given himself a new woman's name. Paul is now Pauline. If you think Christ would judge her as unjustified in leaving Pauline then I think you are not being truthful.
If we sinned in our divorces, if we sinned in our remarriage then we like any other sinner can and hopefully should be forgiven.
Taking a sentence or two attributed to The Savior and then applying it to multitudes of situations does not always work.
On Sunday we celebrate Mary going to the tomb and finding it empty, then seeing the risen Lord. This is the most important, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in the history of the world.
Happy Easter!
Let's say a guy's wife wants to be rid of him.
Can she behave in an unchaste manner to provoke him into divorcing her, and then, since he has divorced her for an apparently legitimate reason, is she free to take up with another man and he with her?
Divorce was permitted for “fornication” if the husband found uncleaness in his betrothed (that is, “wife”, but before they had come together to consumate the marriage).
It was for this reason that Joseph considered putting Mary away, since she was pregnant and he knew that the child could not possibly be his, since their marriage night had not yet taken place.
After consumation of marriage, “fornication” is not the sin that takes place. The bible calls that sin “adultery”. Under these grounds the adulterous member can be put to death. Divorce is not necessary to dissolve the marriage.
After the death of the spouse, the surviving spouse is free to remarry without committing adultery.
See Romans 7:1-4.