\n| Whoever divorces his wife<\/td>\n | for fornication<\/td>\n | and marries again<\/td>\n | does not commit adultery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Therefore based on Matthew 5:32<\/p>\n \n\n\n| Whoever divorces his wife<\/td>\n | for any cause (except fornication)<\/td>\n | and she marries again<\/td>\n | causes her to commit adultery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Whoever divorces his wife<\/td>\n | for fornication<\/td>\n | and she marries again<\/td>\n | causes her not to commit adultery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n\t Answer:<\/h2>\n“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).<\/p>\n“But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery<\/em>” (Matthew 5:32).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nNoticed that the last phrase in Matthew 5:32 is left out and “she marries again” is added. Whoever marries the divorced woman regardless of the reason her husband divorced her, regardless of the reason she was divorced. This helps solidify the truth being stated.<\/p>\n For ease of discussion, we will do as Jesus did and assume that it is the husband who divorces his wife. If he does so for reasons that do not include fornication, his action can lead cause others to sin. His former wife will be committing adultery if she chooses to marry again. Also, anyone marrying her will also be committing adultery with her. Jesus’ point in Matthew 5:32, is that the person ending the marriage is responsible for encouraging another person to sin.<\/p>\n But what if the husband does divorce his wife because she was committing fornication, then the husband is not causing her to commit adultery if she decides to marry again. Why? Because she\u00a0already<\/em>\u00a0was in adultery — that is why the divorce took place! The implication is that her former husband is not responsible for encouraging her into further sin.<\/p>\nThe mistake being made is that in Matthew 5:32 the person tried to switch the right half of the implication from the husband to the wife. This is not about her state but what he caused to happen. In other words, the “not” is in the wrong place. It should say, “does not cause her to commit adultery.” (For grammarians, it is the verb being negated not the preposition).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: This was purposed to me, and I was wondering your thoughts. The idea is the exception clause would have to work both ways since both are mentioned. I was wondering your thoughts about it. I am still studying the aspects of it, but it looks like a good challenge for me. Based on Matthew…<\/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":[167,708],"class_list":["post-36384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce","tag-matthew"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16856,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-remarry-if-their-spouse-commits-adultery-after-the-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":36384,"position":0},"title":"Can a person remarry if their spouse commits adultery after the divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to ask you about two people who have divorced. I understand they are supposed to remain unmarried, and if one of them does get married later, he is living in adultery. Is the other person free to marry, since in God's eyes they are still connected 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":49679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-person-is-divorced-for-fornication-does-that-mean-he-cannot-reconcile-with-his-former-spouse\/","url_meta":{"origin":36384,"position":1},"title":"If a person is divorced for fornication, does that mean he cannot reconcile with his former spouse?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, I talked about the subject of divorce and remarriage with a preacher. I listened to what he said carefully but couldn't prove him wrong. I don't want to let my biases get in the way, but we're not in agreement. I told him I won't preach on\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":18479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-divorce-for-any-reason-other-than-fornication-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":36384,"position":2},"title":"Isn’t divorce for any reason other than fornication a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where is the Scripture that God allows divorce for any reason other than fornication,\u00a0such as\u00a0drug addiction, or abuse? I Corinthians 7:10 is not giving permission to divorce.\u00a0It is a command not to.\u00a0 If disobeyed, however, I Corinthians 7:11 says she must remain unmarried.\u00a0There is only one scriptural cause 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":13180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-status-of-a-person-who-married-a-person-who-had-no-right-to-marry-but-later-divorced-that-person\/","url_meta":{"origin":36384,"position":3},"title":"What is the status of a person who married a person who had no right to marry, but later divorced that person?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If someone has been scripturally divorced, but her previous spouse was not eligible for marriage because of a previous marriage. What is the status of that person? Answer: When a person's marriage ends in divorce for some reason other than fornication, or if the marriage ended in divorce because\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":10862,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-god-makes-them-one-how-can-there-be-divorce-for-any-reason\/","url_meta":{"origin":36384,"position":4},"title":"If God makes them one, how can there be divorce for any reason?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The one thing that I noticed was that you said that there are biblical grounds for remarriage due to an unfaithful spouse. This, however, is not true from my understanding. I do see where a widow or the death of one spouse gives a biblical grounding for remarriage. But\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":36384,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36384","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=36384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
| |