Is my fiance in sin by marrying someone else?
Question:
My fiancé left me for another woman and got married to her. Is it right for me to have someone and marry? Is he committing sin with the wife he married?
Answer:
An engagement is an intention to marry, but it is not a marriage. A marriage is formed by a covenant -- part of which are the wedding vows a person takes. "Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant" (Malachi 2:14). I'm sorry that it did not work out between you two, but he committed no sin by marrying someone else and neither will you.
Question:
Thank you for your response. My ex-fiance got married traditionally but not at a church vowing to each other. Does God recognize their wedding even though they never did a wedding ceremony in a church? I advised him to get married in church by a priest to be known to God.
Answer:
There is no requirement to be married in a church building. To make such a claim you need to show the passage where God said He would only recognize marriages in a church building. All marriages are recognized by God that based on a covenant before God. If a wedding had to be done in a church building, then
- People married before becoming Christians would have to be married again. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy" (I Corinthians 7:14). Paul is saying such marriages are recognized as legitimate.
- The early Christians would have had serious problems because the more common meeting places were homes and rented facilities.
Nor is there a class of Christians who are priests. All Christians are priests. "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9).
