Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilgrim's Progeny  Yet even in the case of adultery it is the hard of heart that put away the unfaithful spouse. Therefore, would it not follow that this is not necessarily endorsed but merely permissable. Divorce in this case is an admission of hardness of heart. |
Pastor Paul,
I would respectfully disagree. Just as Jesus said he requires mercy and not sacrifice with respect to the sabbath law, so I believe it would be unmerciful to force a christian to stay in a marriage with an unrepentantly unfaithful spouse, or to deny that same christian remarriage if he or she was abandoned by their spouse.
I would emphasize of course, that just as many have said on this thread, I am talking about completely a unrepentant spouse. So maximum effort ought to be expended to save the marriage, and a christian always ought to be willing to forgive a repentant spouse, no matter how terrible that spouse's sins might be.
However, if the spouse cannot be recovered, I believe there is no fault of the christian in divorcing and seeking to remarry.
When Jesus condemns the pharisees for hardness of heart in Matt 19:8 he is making reference to their earlier statement in v3 asking him if divorce was allowable
for every cause. Jesus condemns their doctrine and in v9 he gives his position "
And I say unto you...".
He then gives an explicit allowance for a man to to put away his wife and marry another and not fall under the condemnation of committing adultery if the cause was fornication.
Also, in 1 Cor 7, Paul in v15 tells us that if an unbelieving spouse departs the christian is 'not under bondage'. In v27 we see that in Paul's use of language to not be 'bound' to a wife is to be 'loosed' and to be 'loosed' is to be free to marry, ie the position of a legitimately divorced person is identical to that of a single person.