Biblical perspectives on remarriage and divorce

¶ … New Testament teaches that a man and a woman who marry each other enter into a lifetime commitment and covenant, in which God binds them and holds them accountable to maintain the covenant.

It does not allow divorce for any cause, reason or ground other than fornication, which violates God's will for the union. If either partner remarries, the second marriage constitutes adultery, because both partners are bound to the first marriage. But if one partner in the first marriage commits fornication, the other partner may choose to obtain a divorce and then remarry. Fornication is engaging in a sexual relation with someone other than the spouse. The partner who commits fornication violates the covenant so that God grants that partner the right or option to divorce and to remarry without sin

As the Bible teaches, God allows the dissolution of marriage for only three reasons, namely, the death of one of the partners, adultery or immorality, and when an unbelieving partner leaves the believer partner. Romans passage 7:2 states the first reason. Jesus states the ground of fornication in Matthew 5:31 and 32 and 19:9. And Paul provides the third reason in 1 Corinthians 7:12-16. He clarifies that in a marriage where the unbeliever leaves the believing partner, the believing or Christian partner is no longer bound to the marriage and can opt to remarry. It can be gleaned from the three reasons or grounds that God protects the innocent spouse who is left to continue with his or her life after the marriage ends. Paul, however, clearly does not provide a conclusive statement on divorce and remarriage but only treats marriage in a general way to fulfill the Law. Jesus emphasizes in Matthew 19:8 that it is only because the hardness of men's hearts that God allows divorce. In general, God disapproves of divorce and is not soft about it.

Two Corinthians 5:17 focus on conditions of a failure in marriage but the erring partner or spouse later repents and gets right with God. Things clear up without the couple obtaining a divorce. The erring partner is reinstated like the prodigal son. If this does not happen, the innocent spouse has the option to divorce the erring spouse and remarry. In summary, both partners can obtain a divorce and remarry under any one of the three conditions or reasons stated. Death clearly dissolves the marriage contract and allows the surviving spouse to remarry. Sexual immorality or fornication allows the innocent partner a legal option or right, but not an obligation, to obtain a divorce and to remarry. According to Paul, if a Christian spouse is abandoned by an unbelieving spouse who refuses to be reconciled, the Christian partner is free to divorce. Both of them become free to remarry. Furthermore, all Christians who have been properly divorced according to one of the reasons or conditions, are free to remarry but are free to remarry only Christians, according to 1 Cor. 7:39 and 2 Cor. 6:14.

The teaching of Jesus on divorce and remarriage applies not only to those with a covenant relationship with Him as their Savior but also to all others who are outside the Church. Jesus is Lord over all men, not just the Head of the Church and King of His Kingdom. He possesses authority over all the people on earth, the Creator of all things and Ruler of all. Men will be judged according to His teachings, even those who reject Him. The Law of God is the Law of Jesus, who teaches it as revealed to Him by the Father. His specific teaching on divorce and remarriage is addressed to all the people of this world, not only His disciples. He spoke to the great multitudes about it in Matthew 19:3-9. When the Pharisees tested Him on the issue of divorce, Jesus' answer was and is addressed to them and to all, not just a few followers. Jesus emphasized to them and still emphasizes now that a man should leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and the emphasis is universal. He stressed and still stresses that anyone, not only a Christian, who puts away his wife and marries another, commits adultery. It is not limited to covenant people but covers every human being. Jesus explicitly says that God is opposed to divorce by Christians and non-Christians alike. It also shows in Matthew 19:4-8 that this is God's original law on marriage, which applies to all human beings, by saying that, "in the beginning, God made a man and a woman. It must furthermore not be mistaken as a mere Church law or ordinance but the original law handed down 4000 years before the Church was founded. It was the law given to the first man and woman from whom all the peoples of the world descended. It thus applies to all men who descended from Adam and Eve, not just to Christians who are covenanted with God in Jesus.