My question is this:<\/p>\n
When studying with someone who is not in the Lord and they have remarried and their first marriage was ended and not for fornication or death; is it right to refuse that person study unless they leave their present husband since their first marriage wasn’t for biblical reasons? Or, are we suppose to bind on people these statutes? It seems to me we should teach people where they are and let God work through them and if they accept God, confess their sins, repent and are baptized; wouldn’t that previous sin be wiped away? I’m concerned that there may be people seeking the Lord and being turned away because of marriage, divorce and remarriage issues that I’m not sure applies to them.<\/p>\n\t
There is no reason to refuse to study the Gospel with anyone, except when the person doesn’t want to listen to the truth. “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature<\/em>” (Mark 16:15). The Gospel is for everyone and is already bound on all people. We don’t bind it; we make people aware of its existence. “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel<\/em>” (Romans 2:14-16).<\/p>\n Past sins, which are repented of, are washed away in baptism. “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord<\/em>” (Acts 22:16). But not all sins are one time acts, some sins are ongoing. If a drug addict wanted to be baptized, you could say that his past drug usage was forgiven and washed away in baptism, but what if he hasn’t given up drugs? Then the truth is that he hasn’t really given up his sin, there is no repentance, and thus no forgiveness.<\/p>\n When a person commits adultery, is adultery only committed the first time they have sex with someone to whom they are not married, or is adultery continuing to happen as they continue to live with someone to whom they are not married? The later is actually the case. “So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress<\/em>” (Romans 7:3). Paul didn’t say she was an adulteress, he said she will be (continuing) called an adulteress.<\/p>\n Yes, there will be people with whom you study who will not give up a particular sin that they are involved in. That simply means they need to study the issue further, learn why it is a sin and fear the consequences enough to abandon their sin. A person baptized while hanging on to sin isn’t saved. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin<\/em>” (Romans 6:6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: My question is this: When studying with someone who is not in the Lord and they have remarried and their first marriage was ended and not for fornication or death; is it right to refuse that person study unless they leave their present husband since their first marriage wasn’t for biblical reasons? Or, are…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,167,451],"class_list":["post-20143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-divorce","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20304,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-divorce-a-sin-so-how-can-a-preacher-insist-that-two-people-who-had-divorced-and-remarried-to-get-divorced-before-they-can-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":20143,"position":0},"title":"Isn’t divorce a sin? So how can a preacher insist that two people, who had divorced and remarried, to get divorced before they can be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This one is about marriage and divorce: Everyone is confused about this.\u00a0The problem is a few people have been baptized and before they were baptized they had been divorced and remarried again.\u00a0I have heard preachers telling them to get divorced. I personally do not see how that would be\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":20143,"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":2636,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-your-stand-on-marriage-divorce-and-remarriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":20143,"position":2},"title":"What is your stand on marriage, divorce, and remarriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is your stance on marriage, divorce, and remarriage as taught by Ron Halbrook, Tim Haile, and others? Answer: I find the current controversy on marriage, divorce, and remarriage sounding much like what Paul warned against. \"As I urged you when I went into Macedonia -- remain in Ephesus\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":41488,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-wife-is-leaving-me-after-only-seven-months-of-marriage-where-does-this-leave-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":20143,"position":3},"title":"My wife is leaving me after only seven months of marriage. Where does this leave me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am 19 years old and recently married my high school sweetheart.\u00a0 Now seven months later she wants a divorce, and it's not for adultery. Should I refuse to sign for the divorce?\u00a0 And if she continues with the divorce, without my agreement, and later remarries someone else, where\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":27298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-someone-not-like-the-esv\/","url_meta":{"origin":20143,"position":4},"title":"Why would someone not like the ESV?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why would someone not like the ESV? What is wrong with the ESV? I saw \"Which Translation Should I Use?\"\u00a0concerning\u00a0I Corinthians 7:15: \"The ESV is the clearest that it is talking about slavery\" I Corinthians 7:15 seems to be talking about marriage to me, not slavery. Answer: \"But if\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":14597,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-far-should-a-persons-past-be-checked-before-baptizing-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":20143,"position":5},"title":"How far should a person’s past be checked before baptizing them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When you have an open Bible study with a family, and they come to the knowledge of the truth, and you find out that a previous marriage has taken place earlier in years, and show them the truth of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, and they feel like they are\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\/20143","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=20143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}