Divorce, remarriage, what does the Bible really say?
Tue Dec 18, 2012
EDITOR: This is the 4th article in the series. May the Lord do for you what he did for his disciples in Luke 24:45: “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptureâ.{{more}}
Adultery is having sexual relations with someone other than your husband or wife.
Jesus also said in Mt 5:28 that a man who looks at a woman to lust after her already committed adultery in his heart, without committing the physical act.
In Mt 5:32 and Mt 19:9 Jesus said whosoever marries her that is put away commits adultery. The reason is that a woman who has only been put away without having been given a certificate of divorce is still married.
Would a lawfully divorced person who marries another who has never been married or who has also been lawfully divorced be guilty of adultery?
No. The lawfully divorced person does not have a husband or wife.
What is biblical proof a person does not have a husband or wife?
The best example of this truth is what God recorded in the analogous situation with Hosea and Gomer, “she is not my wife, neither am I her husbandâ Hosea chapter 2: 2. In Jeremiah 3:8, where it is recorded that God put away Israel and gave her a certificate of divorce.
Does a man have any authority over an ex-wife? No. A man has no authority over a woman who is divorced from him. The law of the husband includes, for example, the authority to disallow it, then he shall make her vow of no effect, Numbers chapter 30:6-8, and in the following verse 9 “But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced shall stand against herâ.
Likewise in the New Testament, if a woman is married she is bound by the law of her husband, and while she is married to her husband (not divorced from him) if she marries another, she shall be called an adulteress â Roman 7: 2-3.
Understand two things here: the only way a woman is not bound by the law of her husband is if she is divorced or if her husband is dead, not former or ex-husband liveth; but if her husband, not former husband, be dead, she is at liberty to be married to who she will; only in the Lord, 1 Cor 7:39.
The wife is bound by the law of her husband, not ex-husband who has no authority over her. If she is divorced, she is no longer his wife, she does not have a husband and as in the example in Numbers 30:9, above is not under his authority or law.
“For a woman which hath a husband is bound by the law of her husband as long as he livethâ. (Rom 7:2). As God recorded in Hosea 2:2 “She is not my wife, neither am I her husbandâ. Stay true for article 5.
On the ground observer
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