Dear Brother Jeff.<\/p>\n
Good day and God bless.<\/p>\n
Brother Jeff, you answered me concerning a brother who divorced his wife, without what Matthew 19:9 taught us. This Sunday our brethren replied regarding the divorced couple. They reckon the sister in the picture divorced her first and second husbands because they were unbelievers (I Corinthians7:12-16), so she had the scriptural right to divorce both of them.<\/p>\n
Brother, can you please shed light for me on this reply from the congregation?<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
“But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:12-16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Paul’s command is not being followed. He states that a Christian married to an unbeliever must not<\/strong> divorce his or her spouse. Your brethren reversed Paul’s statement to say that Christians can divorce their unbelieving spouses.<\/p>\n
Now, if the unbeliever decides to leave the marriage, then that is his or her decision. The Christian is under no obligation to hold the marriage together. However, nowhere in this passage does Paul give the divorced spouse permission to marry again. What he said just before was that a divorced Christian is not to marry again. “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:10-11).<\/p>\n
Christ gives\u00a0one<\/strong> exception to this general rule: if a spouse is involved in fornication, then the spouse not involved in sin could choose to divorce his spouse, and he would be allowed to marry again. However, the guilty spouse would not be allowed to marry again while his original spouse remains alive (Matthew 19:9).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Dear Brother Jeff. Good day and God bless. Brother Jeff, you answered me concerning a brother who divorced his wife, without what Matthew 19:9 taught us. This Sunday our brethren replied regarding the divorced couple. They reckon the sister in the picture divorced her first and second husbands because they were unbelievers (I Corinthians7:12-16),…<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-97824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5441,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-deal-with-a-husband-who-wants-a-divorce-just-to-be-alone\/","url_meta":{"origin":97824,"position":0},"title":"How do I deal with a husband who wants a divorce just to be alone?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question. I have been with my husband for many years. We both believe in God, but he has not been wanting to pray with me lately. He also has been speaking about divorce. I don't want one. I asked him why does he want a divorce\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":54614,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-my-friend-leave-her-husband-so-she-can-worship-the-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":97824,"position":1},"title":"Should my friend leave her husband so she can worship the Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. This question is regarding my colleague. She was born in a Hindu family but accepted Jesus in her youth. Her parents did not allow her to marry a Christian, so she married a Hindu, concealing the fact that she was\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":26729,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-wife-doesnt-want-to-study-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":97824,"position":2},"title":"My wife doesn’t want to study the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother. I have a question that I would like to ask and I hope you are able to respond if you have a spare moment. I foolishly married a woman who \"believes in God\" and attending Sunday morning worship but that's about it. She doesn't think that she\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":49490,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-marriage-performed-by-a-witch-doctor-legitimate\/","url_meta":{"origin":97824,"position":3},"title":"Is a marriage performed by a witch doctor legitimate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here in Africa people go to witch doctors in order to get married, which is a sin. Now can you please tell me if people, who are married by a witch doctor, are allowed to have sex with each other because that for me is a sin? Marriage 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":[]},{"id":68180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-honor-all-marriages\/","url_meta":{"origin":97824,"position":4},"title":"Does God honor all marriages?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, I would like to know if God honors all marriages. I was recently in a study and they brought up Hebrews 13:4. I was told this verse God applies to Christians who are in the church. God does not honor marriages outside of Christ. For example, if\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":62467,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-my-husband-becomes-a-non-believer\/","url_meta":{"origin":97824,"position":5},"title":"What if my husband becomes a non-believer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Brother Jeffrey, I hope all has been well.\u00a0The situation I face now is this: My husband and I are currently separated for several reasons (him mostly not wanting the marriage at the time). My husband was a baptized Christian in the church when we married. He was raised\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97824","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=97824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97827,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97824\/revisions\/97827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}