Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Divorced

Jesus’ words in Mathew 5:31-32 have been hotly debated for centuries. “Furthermore it has been said, whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”

There three distinct ways of interpreting the exception rule in this passage. 1) The exception rule refers to a woman who has already committed adultery; therefore the husband who divorces her does not force to to commit adultery because she is already an adulterer. 2) The sentence “Whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery” makes it clear that the exception only applies to divorce and does not permit remarriage. 3) The exception rule applies to both the divorce and remarriage so that a person who is divorced because his or her spouse has been sexually unfaithful has the right to marry again.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians sheds additional light on the Mathew passage. “Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned” (1 Corinthians 7:27-28).

I believe “to be loosed from a wife” means divorced for two reasons. First he says if you are bound to a wife do not seek to be loosed. If it does not mean divorce the only other interpretation would be death. It seems clear to me that Paul would not be saying, “If you are bound to a wife don’t seek to murder her.” That would be a given. It makes more sense that he would say, “If you are bound to a wife don’t seek to divorce her.”

Secondly Paul states “if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.” Since this is a second statement (indicated by the conjunction “and”) the first must refer to someone who is not a virgin, someone who has been married previously. So when he states “but even if you do marry, you have not sinned” he is speaking to those who are divorce.

Each reader must come to his or her own conclusion based on scripture.