Dear Jeffrey,<\/p>\n
I committed adultery with a married woman while I was married to my wife.\u00a0 I told my wife, and she forgave me.\u00a0 Is our marriage still right with God, or do I have to terminate our marriage?<\/p>\n\t
“And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery<\/em>” (Matthew 19:9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jesus’ statement is not a requirement. The basic statement is that if two conditions are met then adultery occurs. Those two conditions are:<\/p>\n
\n
- Divorce that is not because of fornication on the spouse’s part<\/li>\n
- Marrying another person<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
While the innocent spouse may choose to divorce the spouse who is committing adultery, it is not a requirement. In fact, the better situation would be for the spouse who committed adultery to repent of his sins and return to faithfulness to God and his spouse. Sadly some people will not leave their sin and in such a case the other spouse has the option<\/strong> to end the marriage.<\/p>\n
In the same way, just because a person decides to end his marriage, there is no requirement that they get married again.\u00a0 The general rule is that they must remain unmarried (I Corinthians 7:10-11) until they can reconcile with their spouse. The only way they can marry again and that marriage not be adultery is because the divorce was due to fornication on the other spouse’s part.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Dear Jeffrey, I committed adultery with a married woman while I was married to my wife.\u00a0 I told my wife, and she forgave me.\u00a0 Is our marriage still right with God, or do I have to terminate our marriage? Answer: “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries…<\/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],"class_list":["post-4440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"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":4440,"position":0},"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":18479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-divorce-for-any-reason-other-than-fornication-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":4440,"position":1},"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":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":4440,"position":2},"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":2268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-a-wife-do-when-she-finds-out-her-husband-lied-about-committing-adultery-against-his-former-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":4440,"position":3},"title":"What does a wife do when she finds out her husband lied about committing adultery against his former wife?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This question is in reference to a friend. She grew up in the church, and she was baptized. She entered into a marriage with someone, but her spouse committed adultery against her. My friend remarried sometime later and was under the assumption that she was entering into a scriptural\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":4440,"position":4},"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":15940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-familiar-with-jerry-bassetts-teaching-on-marriage-divorce-and-remarriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":4440,"position":5},"title":"Are you familiar with Jerry Bassett’s teaching on marriage, divorce, and remarriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was talking to a preacher and he told me several things I had never heard before regarding marriage, divorce, and remarriage. I would like to go into detail about this, but I am still studying what he told me. But I would like to ask you a question\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\/4440","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=4440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}