Bible teachings about divorce are different from world’s. Christians, we should always stand with what God says, what God teaches, not what the world says.
What is divorce?
Divorce is dissolution of marriage.
What the Bible teaches about divorce
God hates divorce and divorce is a sin.
Mal 2:16 I hate divorce, says the LORD God of Israel (NIV)
When two people are married, when two become one flesh, the marriage becomes the perfect heavenly marriage. See when you marry the wrong person. Thus God’s continuous creation plan of you and me goes according to His plan.
Divorcing is altering God’s continues creation plan of us thus going against God.
When God created Adam, He knew that a time will come when Adam will feel lonely in the Garden of Eden thus create Adam a helper. This is the God’s continues creation plan of us.
Even after your birth, God is not through with creating you. He will create, mold you and I like clay, He is the potter, until the final day He delivers us from our earthly bodies.
God gave us freedom to choose. Some choices we make like divorce are against Him.
Realize that when the woman was brought to Adam and the two became one flesh, Adam did not divorce her for the rest of his life. This is how God instituted marriage to be; No divorce.
This is also seen when the second Adam, the man from heaven (Jesus Christ) marries His bride (the church) in the marriage ceremony of the Lamb. After Jesus (the bridegroom) is joined with the church (the bride) they stay together forever.
The law about divorce
The law was written because of people hardness of hearts. It is a precept, a shadow of Grace; Jesus Christ. See the purpose of the law.
Mk 10:4-5: And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept
The law permitted divorce under a bill of divorcement (certificate of divorce).
When a man found uncleanness in his wife, he was to give her a bill or certificate of divorce and send her out.
Deut 24:1: When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
The divorced wife could be married by another man. When this other man divorces her or dies the husband who married her first and gave her a bill of divorce was not ever supposed to take her back because it is sin.
Deut 24:2-4: And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and gives it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD
The law permitted divorce with a certificate or bill of divorce. The law was written because of people hardness of hearts and divorcing was not allowed from the beginning as I revealed with Adam and Eve.
Mt 19:7-8: They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away. He said unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Since the law permitted divorce and that was not so from the beginning, are we to divorce? No.
Grace was before the law. The law came 430 years after grace and this law was made obsolete on the cross and grace birthed by Jesus Christ.
Gal 3:17: And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
No Grounds of divorce
There are no grounds of divorce in the Bible.
Many people rush to use Jesus words without understanding.
Jesus said,
Mt 5:32: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.
The word Jesus used is ‘fornication’ not adultery as used in some Bible versions.
Biblical usage of the word fornication means sexual immorality. Sexual immorality covers all illicit or unlawful sex including adultery, homosexuality, beastiality etc. See what the Bible teaches about fornication.
Before you run to divorce your partner claiming fornication, ask yourself if you are clean from this sin? Have you ever lusted after a person of the opposite sex? Have you watched pornography? Have you ever lusted at an image/picture of a person of opposite sex? etc.
The above are some ways of how we commit adultery which is a form of fornication. See what the Bible teaches about adultery.
You are not as clean as you think you are. God’s standards are not human’s standards.
You have committed adultery many times in the eyes of God but you cannot forgive your partner yet God has forgiven you so many times. You think you’re clean than your partner yet you are not.
Jesus tells us to forgive, seventy times seven (Mt 18:22); until we have no count, the same times God forgives you.
Prophet Hosea had a harlot as his wife. His harlotry wife committed fornication to a point of giving Hosea children from other men but Hosea clicked to her and never divorced her.
This is what God wants us to do. From Hosea marriage to his harlotry wife, Hosea prophesied. As I said in when you marry the wrong person, by clicking and living with your partner no matter how hurting and imperfect s/he is, Jesus Christ is revealed to the world from that marriage.
Since just by looking at a person of opposite sex and lusting at her/him is committing fornication and thus you’re supposed to divorce your partner, how many marriages can be standing today? How many divorcees could we be having? Who has never lusted at another person? Who has never committed fornication?
In the eyes of God, you are not as clean as you think you are thus do not divorce your partner. If God has forgiven you why not forgive.
See the parable of the master and servant who could not forgive (Mt 18:22-35).
Two people became one flesh when the Body, soul and spirit unify. See how two become one flesh.
A person is either connecting her/his spirit to God’s spirit (Holy Spirit) or to Satan’s spirit (the evil spirit). There is no human spirit living in a void and there is nothing like being Luke-warm; neither in God’s camp nor Satan camp. You are either in one of the two.
If one person is connecting her/his spirit with the Holy Spirit and the other person is connecting her/his spirit to the Holy Spirit, the two spirits will unify.
If one person is connecting her/his spirit to the evil spirit and the other person too, the spirits will unify so easily forming one spirit.
But when a person connecting her/his spirit with the Holy Spirit and the other person’s spirit to the evil spirit, the two spirits repel each other and they never unify.
A born-again and unborn-again person cannot be one flesh because the evil spirit never unifies with the Holy Spirit. This is why Christians must always marry fellow Christians.
If you are born-again and your partner is not and you are willing to live with him/her, do not divorce but live with one another.
1 Cor 7:12-13: If any brother has a wife that believes not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman who has a husband that believes not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.
If the unbeliever partner wants to depart, let him/her go. You have not sinned.
1 Cor 7:15: But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God has called us to peace.
God does not permit divorce
God does not permit or allow divorce.
1 Cor 7:27: Are you bound unto a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
Divorce is sin
You are bond to your husband or wife as long as you both live. Thus as long as your husband or wife is alive, s/he is still your husband or wife.
1 Cor 7:39: The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
Thus nothing can break a marriage except death.
Mt 19:6: Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
Not even a certificate of divorce can dissolute a marriage but only God through death of one partner.
Once your husband dies, you are free to marry and vise-versa.
If you divorce, you are not to be married or marry again. If you have sexual intercourse (become one flesh) with another person while you are divorced and your divorced partner is still alive, you commit adultery.
Mk 10:11-12: And he said unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, commits adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she commits adultery.
As long as your husband or wife lives, you cannot be married or marry again and if you do, you commit adultery.
Nothing can break a marriage except death of one partner.
If you divorce, you are not to marry another person. Either live single or reconcile with your husband/wife.
1 Cor 7:10-11: And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband. But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
Gospel of the cross
If right now you are divorcing and there is a way you can avert that divorce and click to each other and live together no matter how hurting s/he is, do it now. Divorce is a sin.
If you have separated with your spouse, go back and live together.
For those who have already divorced, you have sinned. Stop seeking for justification of your sins, explaining to people your spouse failures, do not try to cover your failures, admit you have sinned to God.
See how to repent.
The blood of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross is sufficient to clean all your sins. God will redeem you from your sins and mistakes and cover them.
If you have divorced, you are not supposed to marry or be married to another person as long as your divorced husband/wife is alive. Either stay single or reconcile.
But if you cannot exercise self-control and because of sexual immorality it is good to marry or be married (have your own husband or wife). For it is better than to burn with passion.
1 Cor 7:1-2: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
1Cor 7:9: But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
The blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross is sufficient to set you free from a marriage and be able to marry or be married again.
You need to repent and at last you will tell people, touch my wounds, I sinned, I went against God but He has resurrected me again.
But it is better if you reconcile with your husband or wife and click together no matter the difficulties and from that marriage, Jesus Christ will be revealed to the world and like Jacob you will say, ‘bury me next to Leah’. See when you marry the wrong person.
Divorce is a sin.
God bless
