My sister has decided to leave her physically abusive, alcoholic husband. She doesn’t have plans to divorce him and is hoping that eventually, he’ll realize he needs help. She knows what a scriptural divorce is and that this does not constitute remarriage. I don’t think he will ever change, but it would not surprise me if he is unfaithful to her (she has no proof that he has been already) eventually. If he commits fornication while they are still married, but are not living together, and she remains faithful, would it then be a scriptural divorce? I know this seems like an attempt to weasel out of a bad marriage scripturally, but I’m afraid this is in the back of her unconscious mind and I want to know what to tell her should it become evident that she thinks this way.<\/p>\n\t
While we make a distinction in our country between a separation and a divorce, the Bible does not. That is why you find expressions such as “put away,” “depart,” and “send away” instead of “divorce” in some translations. Since she is leaving her husband because of his abuse and alcoholism, the following passage applies:<\/p>\n
“Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:10-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What happens after the departure isn’t under consideration. She cannot play a game of seeing who will give into temptation first and then claim the right to divorce and remarry. In fact, the verses prior, in I Corinthians 7:1-9, explain why this is wrong. If the situation is severe enough to leave, then she should do so knowing she can only remarry her husband when he gets his problems taken care of. Even if he later commits adultery, she had already made her choice and that choice limits her options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: My sister has decided to leave her physically abusive, alcoholic husband. She doesn’t have plans to divorce him and is hoping that eventually, he’ll realize he needs help. She knows what a scriptural divorce is and that this does not constitute remarriage. I don’t think he will ever change, but it would not surprise…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,167],"class_list":["post-14944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31571,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-husband-divorce-his-wife-ten-years-after-forgiving-her-of-an-affair\/","url_meta":{"origin":14944,"position":0},"title":"Can a husband divorce his wife ten years after forgiving her of an affair?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to help my sister in Christ. Situation:\u00a0 A woman cheats on her husband.\u00a0 Husband says he forgives her and stays with her for 10 years after the adultery.\u00a0 Over the 10 years, the husband never really gets over the infidelity. He eventually files for divorce and divorces\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34297,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-a-woman-do-who-suspects-her-husbands-prior-divorce-was-not-for-scriptural-reasons-like-he-originally-claimed\/","url_meta":{"origin":14944,"position":1},"title":"What should a woman do who suspects her husband’s prior divorce was not for scriptural reasons like he originally claimed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a very dear friend of mine who is afraid she may be in an unscriptural marriage. We are both members of the Lord's Church so we both understand what this means. She divorced her first husband due to adultery and remarried her current husband, who is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32354,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-advise-concerning-a-woman-who-left-her-husband-because-of-his-adultery-but-did-not-divorce-him-and-later-lived-in-adultery-herself\/","url_meta":{"origin":14944,"position":2},"title":"What do you advise concerning a woman who left her husband because of his adultery, but did not divorce him, and later lived in adultery herself?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Question: I have a bizarre situation. I met a woman, not a member of the church of Christ, who married an atheist when she was young at the urging of her grandmother to avoid fornication. However, she was not tutored properly about Christ's teachings on marriage. Some years down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12707,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-remarry-if-they-divorced-for-more-reasons-than-just-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":14944,"position":3},"title":"Can a person remarry if they divorced for more reasons than just fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can this person remarry?\u00a0 Her husband committed adultery, was addicted to drugs and became violent.\u00a0 She said the last straw was when he tried to catch their porch on fire and threatened to divorce her and take the kids.\u00a0 She said because of this threat, the adultery, and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-divorce-for-any-reason-other-than-fornication-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":14944,"position":4},"title":"Isn’t divorce for any reason other than fornication a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where is the Scripture that God allows divorce for any reason other than fornication,\u00a0such as\u00a0drug addiction, or abuse? I Corinthians 7:10 is not giving permission to divorce.\u00a0It is a command not to.\u00a0 If disobeyed, however, I Corinthians 7:11 says she must remain unmarried.\u00a0There is only one scriptural cause for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2894,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-it-matter-who-files-for-the-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":14944,"position":5},"title":"Does it matter who files for the divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When you say that someone may divorce their spouse due to fornication, does it matter who actually files the papers? A woman I know moved out of her house, filed divorce papers, and then started dating another man. Her husband didn't know for sure if she was committing adultery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}