I found out three months after my husband and I got married in 2006 that he had a drug addiction.\u00a0 He would leave the house for days abandoning my daughter and me and would not answer his phone. Two weeks ago he moved out of state, leaving a note on the bed while I was at work stating he is trying to get his life together; however, I do not trust him and this abandonment has happened several times over the last two years. I would like to know if I have the rights to a divorce?<\/p>\n\t
Paul states that divorce is not a typical end for marriage for Christians. “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:10). The reference to the Lord refers to Jesus’ teachings on marriage and divorce. “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<\/em>” (Matthew 19:9). Jesus gave only one reason for a divorce which allows the innocent party to remarry and that is when the other person is committing fornication.<\/p>\n There might be other reasons that a person cannot continue in a marriage, but in those cases, the person doesn’t have the right to marry someone else. “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 7:11).<\/p>\n If you believe your husband’s drug abuse is causing harm to you or your children, then you might choose to divorce him, but you must understand that it is because living single is better than remaining married. Essentially, he has left you already; he just didn’t bother to formalize it. “But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:15). This abandonment doesn’t give you the right to remarry. The goal is to eventually turn your husband around so that he might be saved and that the two of you can restore your marriage.<\/p>\n If your husband is sleeping around with other women then you could choose to divorce him because of his fornication and have the right to marry another man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I found out three months after my husband and I got married in 2006 that he had a drug addiction.\u00a0 He would leave the house for days abandoning my daughter and me and would not answer his phone. Two weeks ago he moved out of state, leaving a note on the bed while I…<\/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":[167,372],"class_list":["post-16542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce","tag-drugs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37386,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-divorced-my-husband-because-of-his-drug-use-how-will-i-know-if-he-has-died-even-his-family-has-lost-track-of-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":16542,"position":0},"title":"I divorced my husband because of his drug use. How will I know if he has died? Even his family has lost track of him","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: OK, so my first marriage ended in divorce because of my husband's adultery. Then my second marriage ended in a divorce, the reason for this was because of my husband's drug use, alcohol addiction, stealing, and pawning everything we owned. I really tried to help him, but he refused\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":2640,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-divorce-only-acknowledged-when-it-is-done-for-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":16542,"position":1},"title":"Is divorce only acknowledged when it is done for fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do you think about this situation: Bob divorces Mary not for fornication (she gets fat, or ugly, or burns the cornbread). Bob and Mary have three children and she has always been a housewife with limited education. She begs Bob not to leave her, He leaves her and\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":3782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-husband-wasnt-honest-with-me-before-our-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":16542,"position":2},"title":"My husband wasn’t honest with me before our marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I married and discovered my husband was unable to perform his marital duties. He knew but did not disclose it. Further, he said he had a job but was laid off months prior. I made every attempt to live by the law. When I discovered he still wasn't working,\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":67183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-the-laws-for-remarriage-different-between-the-old-law-and-new-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":16542,"position":3},"title":"Why are the laws for remarriage different between the Old Law and New Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If the marriage law is universal, why is the remarriage law in Deuteronomy 24 different from Romans 7:2 in that the guilty party who gets married to a second spouse can go back to his\/her first husband? Answer: The two laws of God are different. \"Behold, days are coming,\"\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":16542,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":30228,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-make-things-right-after-our-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":16542,"position":5},"title":"Can we make things right after our adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I would like your advice on a matter that concerns me. I'm a young single woman who fell in love with a guy who was married. I'm not a Christian, but he is. He has children as well. When we first met he was married at the time,\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\/16542","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=16542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}