Bible Study of Divorce and Adultery

This is a follow-up post from a post "Divorce and Deceit".

When my best friend from high school was separated from her husband and contemplating divorce, as one who stood as a witness to her marriage covenant vow, I was motivated to seek what the Bible really says about divorce (as opposed to what we our itching ears have become accustomed to hearing these days – 2 Timothy 4:3).  This is the study that unfolded.  I am aware that it flies in the face of what most Christians I've heard of support, so it may rub you the wrong way.   I'm not looking to be confrontational; I'm looking at what is actually said in the Bible, the immediate context in which it is said, and the broader context of Scripture as Jesus' platform on which He would speak on divorce.  I'd be honored if you considered the exegesis without dismissing it because it's not "common teaching."

For the Glory of CHRIST and HIS CHURCH!!!

Matthew 5:27-32   ²⁷ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.  ³¹ "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'  ³² But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

q  Man divorces wife, makes her commit adultery

q  Man marries a divorced woman, he commits adultery.

Ø     Why does he make her commit adultery?  He leaves her alone (in that culture a woman being  alone leaves her pretty useless,) so it is almost necessary for  her to remarry, but if she does, she commits adultery because she is still joined to her husband in God’s eyes.  That is why the husband would make her/ cause her to commit adultery.

Ø     Why does a man commit adultery if he marries a divorced woman?  Because God still considers her married to her first husband.

Ø     Why does a man not make her commit adultery on the grounds of sexual immorality?  Because when she was sexual immoral, she committed adultery on her own, he did not make her.

  I don’t think this is a justification for divorce, but a clarification of the adultery labeling.

 Matthew 19:3-12   ³ And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?"  ⁴ He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,  ⁵ and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'?  ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."  ⁷ They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?"  ⁸ He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.  ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." 

q  Man divorces wife, marries another, commits adultery.

Ø     Clarification: “marries another” – that second union is what causes adultery to be committed against the first spouse.

Ø     Could it be that he does not commit adultery by divorcing his wife and marrying another because he has already committed adultery through his sexual immorality?

This verse is different than Matt. 5 because it refers to him committing  adultery instead of making her. OR does he not commit adultery against her because she has already committed adultery against him with her sexual immorality?  Who’s sexual immorality is highlighted here?

Luke 16:18   ¹⁸ "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

q     Man divorces wife, marries another, commits adultery.

q     Man marries a divorced woman, he commits adultery.

Mark 10:2-12   ² And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"  ³ He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"  ⁴ They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away."  ⁵ And Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.  ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'  ⁷ 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,  ⁸ and they shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.  ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."  ¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.  ¹¹ And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,  ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

q     Man divorces wife, marries another, commits adultery.

q     Wife divorces her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.

Ø     All bases covered: Man divorcing wife, wife divorcing man, and man marrying divorced wife = adultery because Jesus reminds us in these passages of God’s original intent for marriage that has been distorted through hardness of heart.  God joins two together in marriage to become one and does not separate that union except through death. (Rom. 7)

Ø     No “except for sexual immorality” in Mark or Luke, must not be the key message of those verses.  If the clause for divorce justification was the intent for those verses, you would think it would be present in each of them, since there would be no other Biblical support for it.  The Matthew verses stand alone for the supposed “justification of divorce on the grounds of adultery,” thus maybe that is not their intended message.