DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE
How does God regard divorce and remarriage? Let the Bible speak. According to the Scriptures, the first marriage consisted of one man (Adam) and one woman (Eve).
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).
"One" cannot be separated; one can be broken into two pieces, but you cannot divide one.
As time went by, people's hearts became hardened and Moses made a writing of divorcement which gave man permission to divorce the woman he had married if he found some uncleanness in her.
"When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife" (Deut. 24:1-2).
When questioned about the divorce writings of Moses, Jesus said:
"...Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication [sex before marriage], and shall marry another, committeth adultery [speaking of the man]: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery" (Matt. 19:8-9).
Paul wrote:
"For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man" (Rom. 7:2-3).
"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh" (I Cor. 6:16).
According to Webster's Dictionary, a harlot is a prostitute. A man cannot scripturally divorce a woman for any reason. But, you may say, they (those divorced and remarried) have been married for many years. It is doubtful that many people have been married to divorced wives or husbands longer than King David was married to Bathsheba (the wife of Urias), but it seems that God never accepted Bathsheba as David's wife.
"And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias" (Matt. 1:6).
However, Jesus was born many generations later through the union of David and Bathsheba.
What should a person do who has married a divorced person -- divorce the one they now live with and go back to the first marriage partner? No.
"Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD..." (Deut. 24:4).
"Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right...he is just, he shall surely live [he is promised life], saith the Lord GOD" (Eze. 18:4-9).
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him" (I John 5:1).
It is scriptural for two people who cannot live together to live separately but, instead of marrying someone else, to be reconciled to each other.
"And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife" (I Cor. 7:10-11).
These rules apply to pastors, also. The pastor is to be the husband of one living wife -- not to just one wife at a time (this is the devil's doctrine).
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach" (I Tim. 3:2).
