Does Christ’s law about divorce and remarriage apply to non-Christians?

Question:

I met a lady who is not a Christian (or proclaims to be a denominational Christian) and she has been divorced for a while (not by the approved way of Christ). If she became a true Christian and remarried, would she still be guilty of living in sin or does the Bible refer to Christians who marry and get a divorce?

Answer:

God's laws apply to everyone. That is why Paul told the Greeks, who were not Christians, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30). If God's laws did not apply to non-Christians, then there would be no need for people to repent because they would not be in sin. Sin only exists when a law is broken. "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness" (I John 3:4). This is why Paul argued that law existed before Moses brought the Jews God's law. "For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come" (Romans 5:12-13). Paul's argument is that sin cannot exist (or at least count) if there is no law. Yet sin existed before Moses, as witnessed by the destruction of the world by the Flood. Therefore, there was law even before Moses.

One of the arguments made by Jude is that there is only one law in existence. "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). While the law was delivered to Christians, it was delivered "once for all." That means for all time and for all people. Whether people accept that law, doesn't matter. Everyone will be judged by the words of Christ. "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day" (John 12:48).

The reason a person is lost outside of Christ is that they have not been obeying God's law. When they become a Christian, they are acknowledging that God's law applies to them. But the terms do not change. Lying is wrong for the Christian and the non-Christian. Stealing is wrong for the Christian and the non-Christian. Adultery is wrong for the Christian and the non-Christian. Jesus stated, "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery" (Matthew 19:9). There is nothing stating this is applicable only to Christians; therefore, it is applicable to Christians and non-Christians alike.

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