I have a question for you. It involves a complex matter, but I trust your biblical response after having read your web page.<\/p>\n
I am married currently and was also married twice before this marriage. I have since repented and grieved over all of my wickedness when I saw biblically what I had been. My first husband also remarried and has a third wife. I sense much shame and remorse as I write. I know the way of righteousness now but way too late. Besides all of this my current husband’s wife, his first one, died about fifteen years ago. My first husband had committed adultery after adultery and had been found to have molested my own sister. So I divorced him. My second husband was divorced by his first wife, and he then married me. She had divorced him. About ten years he returned to his first wife and their children. I then remarried for the third time. Sinful wickedness and insanity, yes.<\/p>\n
The dilemma?\u00a0My current husband and I were just informed that biblically we are adulterers currently and ongoing, and our eternal security is at risk because we are ongoing adulterers.<\/p>\n
We have spent the last few days in devastation and grief because we believe that according to the Holy Scriptures we must now divorce as my first husband is still alive. And because\u00a0my current husband\u00a0is married to me, he is also in adultery because my first husband is still alive.\u00a0Again, my current husband’s wife died years ago. Please help me if possible, according to the Holy Scriptures.<\/p>\n\t
Let’s start with your husband. Regardless of what his marital situation was, the fact is that his original wife is dead and that ended his covenant with her. Even if his marriage to you was adulterous from his end, it changed with her death. “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress;\u00a0but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man<\/strong><\/em>” (Romans 7:2-3).<\/p>\n You divorced your husband because of his sexual sins. That left you free to remarry. “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). He wasn’t free to remarry and his current marriage remains adulterous.<\/p>\n I assume your second husband did not have a right to another marriage either since his wife divorced him. I’m assuming that the divorce was not over adultery or if it was, he was the guilty party. As a result, he did not have a right to marry you. His return to his first wife was the proper thing to do. “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). Therefore, the second marriage doesn’t count since it was invalid in its foundation.<\/p>\n You had a right to marry when you took your third husband. He has a right to marriage now. Therefore your current marriage is valid. You are not living in adultery.<\/p>\n\t I just received your response to my question, a very hard and complicated one indeed. Thank you very much. I so appreciate your helping hand and your most heartfelt interpretation of the Scriptures for such a hard and complex issue. Having a Berean heart for the Holy Word of the Lord, I really believe in my heart that this is an accurate interpretation in my personal matter here. The Word of God must rule in all of the matters of our lives indeed or at best we are not true sons and daughters of the Most High God. I truly thank you for helping me out in this! May our Lord richly bless you and yours.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I have a question for you. It involves a complex matter, but I trust your biblical response after having read your web page. I am married currently and was also married twice before this marriage. I have since repented and grieved over all of my wickedness when I saw biblically what I had been.…<\/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-30942","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":23910,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-married-a-man-who-was-divorced-because-of-his-adultery-is-our-marriage-ok\/","url_meta":{"origin":30942,"position":0},"title":"I married a man who was divorced because of his adultery. Is our marriage ok?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do you do if you are a Christian, have a second marriage, and realize only too late that it was not the will of God?\u00a0 My spouse was a called man of God, but he committed adultery in his first marriage.\u00a0He is no longer preaching, and I am\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":24503,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-a-woman-in-an-adulterous-marriage-have-the-right-to-remarry-after-a-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":30942,"position":1},"title":"How could a woman in an adulterous marriage have the right to remarry after a divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have read through your articles and thoroughly enjoyed them, and even taken a few sermons and re-worked them into sermons that I preached here. However, when I came across\u00a0an answer to a question you made concerning divorce and remarriage, I was a bit taken aback because of you\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":29698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-recently-found-out-my-ex-wife-was-married-before-we-married-is-my-second-marriage-proper\/","url_meta":{"origin":30942,"position":2},"title":"I recently found out my ex-wife was married before we married. Is my second marriage proper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I was married to a woman I recently discovered was married previously. She never told me that she was married, for if she had, I would not have married her. In less than a year, she divorced me for irreconcilable differences. About two years later, I married again.\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":16443,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-divorced-my-first-wife-and-am-married-but-my-wife-says-we-are-not-married-in-gods-sight-is-that-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":30942,"position":3},"title":"I divorced my first wife and am married, but my wife says we are not married in God’s sight. Is that true?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been married for twelve years. I have been married before my current wife and I divorce my first wife and ask God for forgiveness. My current wife told me I'm still married to my first wife in God's eyes. I want to know if that's true? My\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":31558,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-committed-adultery-divorced-my-husband-and-married-my-lover-am-i-still-in-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":30942,"position":4},"title":"I committed adultery, divorced my husband, and married my lover. Am I still in adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My first husband committed adultery in our relationship through pornography. I also committed adultery against him, divorced him, and married the man I committed adultery with. The man I committed adultery with left his spouse to marry me also. My first husband died a few years ago, which I\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":49580,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-we-married-when-he-never-divorced-his-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":30942,"position":5},"title":"Are we married when he never divorced his wife?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have a question. My boyfriend and I were in love, we loved God and wanted to be married, but he was married before. He married this woman, she cheated on him, he wanted a divorce but could not find her. They had been separated for seven years,\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\/30942","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=30942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n