Saturday, March 25, 2017

Musings On Marriage And Divorce

        "For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man." (Romans 7:2-3)

        People committed to matrimony are, under ordinary circumstances, united until the moment of physical death. If a spouse dies, however, then the living member is free to marry again (1 Corinthians 7:39). God absolutely despises divorce (Malachi 2:16). Therefore, it is best for arguing couples to seek reconciliation. Marriage was instituted by God and so He has authority over it. 

        The best thing to do is marry another Christian, somebody who shares a similar worldview. What a person should be looking at in a potential spouse is their overall doctrine and personality. Thus, it is better to suffer from the pains of loneliness than to make the poor decision of marrying the wrong person! Even a person who claims to be a Christian may be a bad candidate for marriage (Matthew 7:21).

         Some people may have to wait a long time before finally getting married, like Isaac who was forty before he got married (Genesis 25:20). In fact, a person does not have to get married if he or she does not want to. Even Christ spoke of the celibate (Matthew 19:11-12).

2 comments:

everybodysdaughter said...

Another wonderful article on marriage. As a Catholic I can affirm almost every point you made. I would love to see you write more on this subject.

I would like to mention one thing that we Catholics view differently. I mention it here just for discussion, not argument. It is in regards to what is called the "exception clause" of Matthew 19:9. The Greek word there is porneia, and Jesus is referring to illegality. The reason divorce is permissible in those cases is because the original marriage was an illegal or illicit one, so there was never the one flesh union. More succinctly, Jesus is saying that divorce is OK when there is not a one flesh union. That is the Catholic interpretation.

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Rome reads into the text because they want absolutely no divorce while they have divorce under a different name -- annulment. And it's a farce because people could be married for decades and suddenly get an annulment.

the Bible is plain; divorce is permitted for sexual sin, i.e. adultery. The illegality is what is happening IN the marriage, not something happening prior to. That "prior to" eisegesis is how they come up with annulment.