When is a divorce final? If a man or a woman discontinues the marriage, is the divorce final in God’s eyes? Or is it not final until the courts decide the outcome?<\/p>\n\t
God didn’t establish details for what constitutes a marriage beyond the fact that a covenant creates it (Malachi 2:14). The terms for the covenant or the accompanying ceremonies are not specified. We find a variety of practices with people getting married in one day (Isaac and Rebekah) to a wedding feast that lasts a week (Jacob and Leah). The variation doesn’t make the marriage any less or more real. In such a case, the laws of the land and the customs of the people dictate the specifics, so long as a covenant takes place.<\/p>\n
Similarly, while “divorce” is mentioned (Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18; I Corinthians 7:10-11) exactly how it is to be accomplished is not specified. So once again, it is the laws of the land and the customs of the people that set the details.<\/p>\n
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves<\/em>” (Romans 13:1-2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A couple is married until the conditions are met in which society no longer considers them as husband and wife. In the United States, covenants, like other contracts, have to be ended by court decree when the terms are not met. This provides an unbiased examination of what happened and whether what happened rises to the level of releasing the parties from their agreement. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of that in recent decades with the “no-fault” divorce laws. At least most states still retain a requirement of a waiting period to make sure the couple is certain they want the divorce and have a chance to reconcile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: When is a divorce final? If a man or a woman discontinues the marriage, is the divorce final in God’s eyes? Or is it not final until the courts decide the outcome? Answer: God didn’t establish details for what constitutes a marriage beyond the fact that a covenant creates it (Malachi 2:14). The terms…<\/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":[167],"class_list":["post-22304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52854,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-parents-annul-their-daughters-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":22304,"position":0},"title":"Can parents annul their daughter’s marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please Minister, Can it be right for a parent to annul the marriage of their daughter based on disrespectful behavior shown toward them by their son-in-law? Can a married woman divorce her husband based on the same reason? Answer: A marriage covenant is between a husband and wife (Matthew\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":91979,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-god-see-an-annulment\/","url_meta":{"origin":22304,"position":1},"title":"How does God see an annulment?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, I have been discussing annulment with someone. My question is: What is an annulment in the eyes of God? I know they can't remarry, and dating may be a sin as well. My other question is: If they try to reconcile later, would they need to go\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":45605,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/shouldnt-the-divorce-decree-mention-sexual-unfaithfulness\/","url_meta":{"origin":22304,"position":2},"title":"Shouldn’t the divorce decree mention sexual unfaithfulness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wrote to you years ago concerning my ex-wife, who divorced me for desertion while I was stationed in another country while in the military. She has since passed away. I've been a widower for years now and I've met a lady in the church. She has had two\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":17196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-divorced-person-remarry-if-adultery-occurred-after-the-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":22304,"position":3},"title":"Can a divorced person remarry if adultery occurred after the divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If two people are divorced for unbiblical grounds and there is no adultery at the time, yet one spouse after the divorce marries someone else or is sexually immoral is the other then free to remarry another? Answer: \"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except 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":19260,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-is-a-marriage-covenant-broken\/","url_meta":{"origin":22304,"position":4},"title":"When is a marriage covenant broken?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":22304,"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\/22304","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=22304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}