"Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from [her] husband committeth adultery." (Luke 16:18, AKJV)
Comments:
Notice that one cannot free oneself from an unhappy marriage by driving one's spouse to leave. That strategy both causes the leaving spouse to commit adultery by leaving and makes re-marriage an act of adultery for the new spouse (and logically for the remarrying spouse too).
Both spouses have tremendous reason to make their marriage work. If you don't make your marriage work, your spouse might give up: by that action, your spouse commits adultery (a carnal work that leads to Hell), and you cannot remarry at all without committing adultery, even if your spouse has committed fornication.
The precise words of Christ as recorded in Greek are important also because of the terms used:
1. "Untie" (apolúo), not "divorce", is the key term that describes the abandonment of a marriage. Consider that for much of history, spouses could not hope for a legal document in their country, that would legally end their marriage. So what the abandoning spouse has in mind is abandoning, untying, leaving permanently.
2. The word "divorce" describes the legal document: apostásion.
3. Christ's words and terms direct our focus away from pieces of paper from a court, to look at the reality as Almighty God decides: only death and fornication (a carnal work that leads to Hell) can actually end a marriage, though Paul rather inexplicably adds his own rule that if an unbelieving spouse asks a Christ-believing spouse for divorce, the Christ-believing spouse is then "free", implying potentially free to remarry.
The precise words of Christ as recorded in Greek are important also because of the terms used:
1. "Untie" (apolúo), not "divorce", is the key term that describes the abandonment of a marriage. Consider that for much of history, spouses could not hope for a legal document in their country, that would legally end their marriage. So what the abandoning spouse has in mind is abandoning, untying, leaving permanently.
2. The word "divorce" describes the legal document: apostásion.
3. Christ's words and terms direct our focus away from pieces of paper from a court, to look at the reality as Almighty God decides: only death and fornication (a carnal work that leads to Hell) can actually end a marriage, though Paul rather inexplicably adds his own rule that if an unbelieving spouse asks a Christ-believing spouse for divorce, the Christ-believing spouse is then "free", implying potentially free to remarry.
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