Serious question: what if the wife divorced him? I don't see that addressed because it probably couldn't legally happen at that time. But it presents a dilemma for a guy who wants to know if he can marry again if he didn't initiate the divorce.

So I guess you believe in continual sin? If you murder a guy how many times can you kill him? He is still dead every day, is he not? So are you killing him every day continually?

Oh, by the way I'm married to the only woman I've ever known for 42 years. Just so you know I'm interested in the truth, and not looking for a way out for a situation I might be in.

What you are trying to say is you can't marry again because you would be married to two women and in your way of thinking that would be adultery. The adultery is committed the first time you looked at the other woman. Yes when you divorce and remarry that first glance was adultery. When you divorce you are breaking your vow. If you break a glass how many more times can you break it? A church such as you speak is a continual ship wreck that breaks faith and good conscience of any passing by.

Alexander the copper smith and Hymenaeus were a couple of characters Paul had to deal with. Hymenaeus means the "god of marriage". When we put other gods ahead of God he tends to be jealous. Rich men have rich idols and poor men have poor idols, whether they are gold or wood its still just an idol !

God said all marriages are honorable. Sometimes we have preconceived ideas, but does God have to take the back seat, no way Hosea !

If a woman in a dire situation could not remarry it could be a death penalty for her. God Hates putting away.

In your own words I probably just made a BUNCH of folks mad, lol.

Unfortunately I think leftlane dabbles in all three

… keep him in your prayers

I wonder if a woman divorced her husband because he was abusing the kids and remarried another while he was still living, would she be considered an adulterous for doing so? If she stays married to him should she tie a millstone around her neck and cast herself into the sea for allowing the abuse to continue? How about a nonbeliever divorcing and marrying another but afterwards becomes a believer in Christ, should she divorce her present husband so as to not commit adulatory?
Now it's way above my pay scale but I figure the Good Lord would consider the reason, not just cheating as mentioned in the text, for the divorce.

J, there are scriptures' that cover this and are interpreted vastly, not sure why. They cover things like adultery, abandonment and so on.

Serious attempt at an answer: I can see several ways to interpret your question.

If you're asking: are the rules sexist (different rules for men vs women), as I see it, gender is irrelevant. For readability its helpful to use terms like husband & wife, but I believe flipping who's on what side of it is equally valid.

Or if you're asking "what if an innocent person's spouse divorces them, what does this mean for the innocent party"
Jesus addressed that:


Jesus is referring to in the Old Testament times Jews had started ignoring God's teaching on divorce and were allowing divorce for any reason. The high level point of Jesus's comment is to say that is not ok.
I would equate "unchastity" with the "adultery" term used elsewhere, consistent with the idea that God accepts divorcing an unfaithful spouse, and the innocent party is free to remarry.

As for the rest of what's in those verses, I think the underlying assumption is that (at that time) women had limited options for supporting themselves, so a womam must remarry to avoid starving. So if a man divorces his wife for (insert random reason here), she has to marry again to avoid starving. But after an unscriptural divoce, even the innocent party is not authorized to remarry. God will not recognize their new marriage as valid, so by remarrying they are living in adultery.

If someone sees another way to read that I'd be interested in hearing it. But that is what I believe Jesus is saying.

Jesus was pretty hard lined in that divorce was only allowed when fornication occurs. That's why I said it was above my pay scale when I referred to "other reasons for divorce".

I'm not sure why the whole divorce and remarriage thing is so hard. Jesus spoke directly about it, he didn't beat around the bush. Remarriage for reason other than fornication is adultery.

Now, that being said......what does repentance for what Jesus calls an adulterous relationship look like? Does Jesus want a remarried couple to stay together in what He calls an adulterous relationship, because breaking up the relationship would be extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable?

1 Corinthians 7;15 Matthew 5;32 and 19;9 come to mind, maybe they'll help!

Acts 26:10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.


Does this verse lean your thinking that maybe Paul belonged to the Sanhedrin ?

Jesus was also hard lined on a lot of things. Including on the consequences of not following what He said.

He sometimes used a style of teaching where He says something pretty generically, easy to misunderstand. Then restates it from a different perspective. Then restates it again. Keeps hitting the same point and by the end its very hard to misunderstand. If you catch the pattern and consider in total, its very hard to misunderstand.

For example, take Matthew 7:13-29.



ok, so lots of people are going to (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman). But that's just murders, rapists, people who hate God, right? Raise your hand if you love Jesus, we're all going to Heavan, right?



wait, so its people who look one way, but are not really what they portray? not sure who we're talking about now...



WOW!!! the lots of people going to (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) in verses 13 and 14 call Jesus Lord and think they're serving him!
They lived their life thinking they were serving Jesus, but they ignored what he had told them to, so Jesus is rejecting them.



I thought this was just a little nursry rhyme for the kids to sing a song about? In the context it looks like its reiterating how seriously we need to take Bible teaching because the casual "Christians" are in trouble



Yeah, no kidding. A lot of churches avoid or ignore what the Bible teaches today. But I guess he covered that back in verse 22.

a bit chilling, isn't it?

Thanks 22. I wonder if two unbelievers marrying is considered a marriage in God's eyes? What if they become believers?

In Ezra, there's an example of marriages God did not condone, and how they were commanded to resolve it.

Since we're speaking of churches, I wonder how Matthew 18:21-35 would fit into this discussion of sin?

If someone repents, even of terrible and extensive sin, we are to forgive them, as Jesus also does.
That is different from excusing and ignoring ongoing sin and pretending its ok.

J, I believe yes, God does acknowledge a marriage between two non believers although I can't quote any scripture to back that up. It does speak of one being a believer and the other not, unequally yoked. But God used so many nonbelievers or heatherns to do his work, like Saul was transformed into Paul, that says to me God recognizes the marriage and of course Jesus loves all and I'm sure they'd be tickled to death if both became believers.

Its definitely seemed to have got more complicated today. In the days of old a man could get around the two marriage thing by simple having his first wife stoned or burned and that left him free to marry again.

But then there was where Judah got out smarted by Tamar when he tried to have her burned. So happens that relationship resulted in twins of which one was Perez and was in the lineage of Jesus.

Of course a church shouldn't ignore/excuse sin or pretend it's okay. Just as it's not okay for a church to become so "black and white" that they believe they walk on water. Plenty of those too.
My idea church would be a church that took headline news and broke it down into a biblical context. Much as the churches of the Revolutionary period in the U.S. Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson nipped that in the bud with his amendment back in the 50's.

Chiff notes please…….
TLTR…..

Yep.....just follow the 10 commandments......easy peasy