ASNN

divorce and remarriage

I've been confronted with the question of the rights and wrongs of divorce, as well as those of remarrying. I'm too tired (and hopped up on codeine) to go through everything, but the majority of the argument against remarriage (as fronted by many conservative Protestant Christian denominations) derives from Matthew 5 (NIV):

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

"See?" they say. "You cannot remarry!"

Except Jesus never says that. He does not say divorce is forbidden, nor does He say that remarrying is forbidden. He says that there is sin involved, i.e., that it does not measure up to God's yardstick. But if we Christians were to take Jesus' words as literally true, as new declarations of Law, from the rest of that passage... well, we would be a SAD bunch. Observe:

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I don't see too many eyeless, handless Christians walking around. Either their right eyes are perfect or they are ignoring Jesus' clear command to gouge out their sinful eyes. Or maybe it's just that a literal reading, a reading that assumes Jesus is handing down Law, is just a poor reading?

Further and specific to remarrying, consider the one who lustfully looks at a woman:

28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

So we are all adulterers then. Now what? Well, now we repent and accept God's grace, wiping our slate clean of ALL sin. After repentance, God does not treat the adulterer any differently than He treats the one who has never committed adultery. All have equal access to God's grace, and all have their sins completely wiped away and "remembered no more".

So why should a divorced person be any different? If God hates divorce, and I get a divorce, I have done something to grieve God. But if I repent, am I a divorced man in God's eyes, unable to pursue a new covenant with a new mate? Or does God treat me as the one who has repented of adultery - as one who has never committed adultery/gotten divorced?

"Ah, but the murderer, though he might be forgiven by God, enters prison as a natural consequence of his actions." That's true, but what natural consequence of divorce forbids remarrying? There is none; the only time remarrying is forbidden to a repentant Christian is when legalism reads a command into God's Word where there is clearly none. That is a most UNnatural consequence, and one which I reject wholly.

Psalm 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD .

If God isn't going to remember the sins of my youth, why do Christians feel compelled to do so?

(Yes, that's the abbreviated version, edited to run in the time alloted.)

Posted by pcg at March 26, 2005 3:35 AM