Please give me the biblical answer to the following situation: A man and woman get married (neither one is a Christian). It is his first marriage and her second marriage. They started dating (and having a sexual relationship) while she was still married to her first husband. They eventually married but later divorced. Is the man free to marry again since his first marriage was adulterous? (He says their divorce was due to her having an affair. She says it was due to his abuse. The divorce papers say they are incompatible.)<\/p>\n\t
The man was committing adultery with the woman because they were having sex while she was still married. Thus, her first marriage ended because of her adultery. Even though he was the willing participant in her adultery, he (and any other man) had no right to marry her. “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery<\/strong><\/em>” (Matthew 5:32). His marriage to her was a continuation of their adultery.<\/p>\n She continued to follow the same pattern and started cheating on her second husband. Thus, the marriage that should not have existed ended anyway. Regardless of the reason for the end of the second marriage, she has no right to another marriage (not that she’ll pay attention to this).<\/p>\n He has not had a valid marriage and could marry again. However, he needs to do a much better job in selecting a wife that mets the Lord’s requirements.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Please give me the biblical answer to the following situation: A man and woman get married (neither one is a Christian). It is his first marriage and her second marriage. They started dating (and having a sexual relationship) while she was still married to her first husband. They eventually married but later divorced. Is…<\/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-95286","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":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":95286,"position":0},"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":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":95286,"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":48071,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-man-marries-someone-who-lies-about-her-right-to-marry-is-he-an-adulterer-for-the-rest-of-his-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":95286,"position":2},"title":"If a man marries someone who lies about her right to marry, is he an adulterer for the rest of his life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Jeff, I would so greatly appreciate hearing from you. I have read the material on your website regarding marriage, divorce, and remarriage. But I have a special situation I feel unable to sort through regarding a very dear brother in Christ. He was deceived by his first wife.\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":29692,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-cant-my-sister-get-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":95286,"position":3},"title":"Why can’t my sister get baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In a second marriage where a non-Christian is wanting to become a Christian but was divorced for reasons other than adultery, is the sin the adultery or the remarriage?\u00a0I am asking this in the context of repenting.\u00a0Do you repent of the adultery in this second marriage or repent of\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":29499,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-just-found-out-that-my-wifes-first-marriage-was-never-dissolved-what-do-we-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":95286,"position":4},"title":"We just found out that my wife’s first marriage was never dissolved. What do we do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have just recently married a beautiful godly woman who totally fills my heart with love every day that we share together in holy matrimony.\u00a0 But recently we have found out that she is still married to another.\u00a0 Several years ago my wife was to be wed to another\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":19650,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-marry-this-woman-but-i-dont-know-if-it-is-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":95286,"position":5},"title":"I want to marry this woman, but I don’t know if it is right","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I met a beautiful amazing woman, and I want to marry her and start a family with her. She is a Christian, and we make a great team. However, there are some hesitations on my part. She had sex when she was younger to an unbeliever, but she didn't\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\/95286","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=95286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95289,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95286\/revisions\/95289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}