Is it a sin to marry a woman who has committed adultery? She is not married and I’m willing to forgive her and start afresh with her.<\/p>\n\t
Technically, you have nothing to forgive her. When she committed adultery, she sinned against God, against the man’s wife, and against herself. “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:18). You weren’t in the picture.<\/p>\n There is no requirement that a person has to marry a virgin. Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute.<\/p>\n “When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the LORD”<\/em>” (Hosea 1:2).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The word translated “harlotry” is the Hebrew word\u00a0zanuwn<\/em>. It means to commit fornication. It is the word used of a prostitute — someone who is paid for sexual acts — but it isn’t limited to such. Anyone who had been sleeping around would be described by this word.<\/p>\n The phrase “children of harlotry” can either mean that Hosea was to take in the children she already had because of her harlotry or that he was to accept the fact that his children would have the stigma of having a mother who was known to sleep around. It would not be unexpected that marrying a woman known to commit fornication, people would wonder how many of the children would actually be Hosea’s.<\/p>\n What should be noted is that despite the life of trouble God just assigned to him, Hosea did as the Lord asked, without complaint.<\/p>\n This is an extreme example, but it does prove that marrying someone who is not a virgin is not a sin. However, it is a warning that it could lead to difficulties. The past isn’t nearly as important as the present. Has she changed? Does she despise her past sins and regret that she committed them? Does she now stand against such sins? (II Corinthians 7:10-11). If she has repented of her sins, radically changing who she is and how she behaves, then what she did in the past no longer makes a difference.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Is it a sin to marry a woman who has committed adultery? She is not married and I’m willing to forgive her and start afresh with her. Answer: Technically, you have nothing to forgive her. When she committed adultery, she sinned against God, against the man’s wife, and against herself. “Flee sexual immorality. Every…<\/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":[66,64],"class_list":["post-44592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13530,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-fornication-and-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":44592,"position":0},"title":"What is the difference between fornication and adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please enlighten me as to what the difference is between fornication and adultery.\u00a0 A few of us had quite a discussion about it after our midweek services this evening. Answer: The Greek word translated as fornication, or sexual immorality, is\u00a0porneia. The Greek word translated as adultery is\u00a0moicheia. In classical\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":23604,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-virgin-marries-a-non-virgin-will-he-be-condemned-to-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":44592,"position":1},"title":"If a virgin marries a non-virgin, will he be condemned to hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a pure man marries a woman who he thinks is a pure woman (virgin), and he finds out later she wasn't a virgin when they married, is he condemned to hell because it wasn't a pure and holy marriage, even though he is a member of the true\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":25403,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-hoseas-wife-a-harlot-and-were-some-of-her-children-not-his\/","url_meta":{"origin":44592,"position":2},"title":"Was Hosea’s wife a harlot and were some of her children not his?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to have your input about Hosea marrying a harlot.\u00a0 Some scholars seem to think that she was not really a harlot when she married Hosea but had the mindset of the people of that day and time which was idolatry.\u00a0 Because of that mindset, a while\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":33706,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-gomer-the-same-woman-mentioned-in-hosea-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":44592,"position":3},"title":"Was Gomer the same woman mentioned in Hosea 3?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Gomer the same wife of Hosea mentioned in Hosea 3 or did Hosea take another wife? Also is Romans 9:25 quoting Hosea 2:23? Answer: To keep what happens in Hosea clear, we have to follow both the story of Hosea and the illustration God makes using Hosea's life.\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":31147,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-fornication-include-adultery-or-are-people-only-looking-for-another-way-out-of-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":44592,"position":4},"title":"Does fornication include adultery, or are people only looking for another way out of marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I emailed you before regarding marriage and divorce and remarriage. I must admit I emailed hastily before reading your entire view on this. After reading more, I agree with most of what you said on this highly debated topic of the Bible. As a new Christian and one that\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":51204,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-become-distant-once-i-found-out-the-woman-i-am-dating-is-not-a-virgin\/","url_meta":{"origin":44592,"position":5},"title":"I’ve become distant once I found out the woman I am dating is not a virgin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have this lady I love so much, but since the day I heard she is not a virgin any longer, I became disconnected from her in my heart. I'm beginning to think that I too should have sex with someone, so we can be equal. This thought is\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\/44592","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=44592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}