When is the marriage covenant broken? When a married person actually commits the sexual act outside of marriage or when his spouse divorces him?<\/p>\n\t
Covenants are vows that last for the lifetime of the parties entering into the covenant. “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband<\/em>” (Romans 7:2). Here, “law” is being used as a synonym for “covenant.”<\/p>\n The question, then, is what is meant by “broken.” Do you mean that the terms of the covenant were violated or that the covenant is no longer in place?<\/p>\n When was the Law of Moses broken? When the Israelites sinned (Isaiah 59:1-2) or when God rejected them (Isaiah 50:1)? The point in Isaiah 50:1 is that God did not formally divorce Israel and so could call them back to Himself, but the problem that caused the separation had to be settled first. “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD<\/em>” (Isaiah 31:31-32). The sins of Israel broke the terms of the covenant. As a result, God declared He would replace the covenant with a different one. But that implies that until the covenant was replaced, the old covenant remained in place. It was under the terms of that old covenant that God punished Israel for her sins by sending them into exile.<\/p>\n Adultery breaks the terms of the marriage covenant between a husband and wife. But an act of adultery does not remove the covenant. People cannot nullify a covenant put in place by God. “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate<\/em>” (Matthew 19:6). Later, Jesus stated that if a person commits adultery and is divorced, the other spouse could enter into another marriage covenant, but the adulterer could not because he is still bound by the covenant he entered into (Matthew 19:9). This is the only allowance for releasing someone from a marriage covenant that God set. Even if a couple divorces for other reasons, they have to remain unmarried until such time that they reconcile their differences (I Corinthians 7:10-11). Thus, neither adultery or divorce completely end a marriage covenant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: When is the marriage covenant broken? When a married person actually commits the sexual act outside of marriage or when his spouse divorces him? Answer: Covenants are vows that last for the lifetime of the parties entering into the covenant. “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is…<\/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":[66,825,167,64],"class_list":["post-19260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-convenants","tag-divorce","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28224,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-who-married-a-person-who-had-no-right-to-marry-divorce-and-marry-someone-else\/","url_meta":{"origin":19260,"position":0},"title":"Can a person who married a person who had no right to marry, divorce, and marry someone else?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a man marries a woman who was not supposed to remarry because she and her husband had committed adultery, can the man in the second marriage divorce her because of her continued adulteries during the second marriage and be able to marry again? Answer: When a person marries\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":25491,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-break-up-a-wrongful-second-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":19260,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to break up a wrongful second marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a non-Christian divorces his wife for reasons other than marital unfaithfulness, then remarries, then joins the Church, should his second marriage be broken up? I ask the question because I'm considering doing an internship with a church that disfellowshipped another church presumably because they would not break up\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":56990,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-adultery-dissolves-a-marriage-why-cant-the-guilty-party-remarry\/","url_meta":{"origin":19260,"position":2},"title":"If adultery dissolves a marriage, why can’t the guilty party remarry?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, I have a question that has been on my mind for some time. I'm hoping that you can shed some light, with scripture, to help me better understand. I know where I used to stand on this subject, but then I changed my mind. I still look\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":69752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-separate-instead-of-divorcing\/","url_meta":{"origin":19260,"position":3},"title":"Can you separate instead of divorcing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, First, thank you for your patience, guidance, knowledge, and service. To God be the glory, and may His will be done always. I have a question and need guidance. Recently, a fellow Christian couple realized that they were in an unscriptural marriage. The option of going back to\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":42599,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-adultery-to-marry-a-guy-who-has-a-child-but-was-never-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":19260,"position":4},"title":"Is it adultery to marry a guy who has a child but was never married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I am talking to a guy who has never been married but is a single father, having a child from a previous relationship. Would it be considered the sin of adultery if I were to ever marry him? I ask because the Scriptures talk about two joining together\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":22082,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-someone-is-in-an-adulterous-marriage-what-happens-if-his-original-spouse-dies\/","url_meta":{"origin":19260,"position":5},"title":"If someone is in an adulterous marriage, what happens if his original spouse dies?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've got a scenario concerning divorce and remarriage for you: Jack and Jill are scripturally married. Jack commits adultery, and Jill puts him away for adultery. Both of them remarry, but Jill dies before Jack does. Question: Is Jack's marriage no longer adulterous according to Romans 7:2-3, and\u00a0would this\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\/19260","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=19260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}