About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Jesus'
Teaching On Divorce
Genesis
2:24 says that a man will leave his parents and "cleave"
(KJV) or "be united" (NIV) to his wife.
The words "cleave" and "be united" are
translated from the Hebrew word "debaq" which means "to
glue." Before thinking
about divorce, we must know that God's intention from creation is for a
husband and wife to be glued to each other for life. Malachi
2:16 (NIV - © 1978) says that God hates divorce.
In context, He hates divorce because it demonstrates
unfaithfulness, something that is foreign to whom He is.
It's better not to make a vow than to make one and then break it
(Ecclesiastics 5:5). Deuteronomy
24:1 - 4 is the civil law of divorce instituted by God in the Law of
Moses. It states that if a man
is displeased with his wife because of any indecency (sexual indecency) on
her part he is permitted to divorce her after giving her a divorce
certificate. The law does not
permit a wife to divorce her husband.
First
century Jewish Culture was divided over how to interpret this law.
The theological Luke
16:18 says that anyone who divorces his wife and remarries commits
adultery, and a man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
To be hermeneutically accurate we need to know that Jesus spoke
these words directly to the Pharisees who stood before Him at that very
moment. Based on their liberal
interpretation of the divorce law I call them legalized wife swappers.
Therefore, the "anyone who divorces his wife," and,
"the man who marries a divorced woman," is in reference to the
Pharisees. Jesus was rebuking
them for divorcing their wives for the sole purpose of finding a new sex
partner; violating the very law they were twisting to fulfill their lusts.
Jesus was denouncing the cultural practice of legalized adultery.
Mark
10:1 - 12 is the account where the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was
lawful for them to divorce their wives.
Jesus referred them to Deuteronomy 24 that they were
misappropriating. Both Jesus
and the Pharisees agreed that the law permitted a man to divorce his wife,
but as Jesus pointed out, that was not God's will at creation.
Jesus then repeated what He said in Luke 16:18 by saying that if
anyone, as in, any one of you Pharisees, divorces his wife and remarries
commits adultery. Mark adds
something that Luke omits. The
wife who divorces her husband for no valid Biblical reason commits
adultery when she remarries. The
reason for this insertion is because Mark was writing to the Gentile world
where a wife was legally permitted to divorce her husband.
Matthew
19:1 - 13 is Matthew's version of
Mark 10:1 - 12, with a few additions.
The Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful for them to divorce
their wives "for any and every reason," which they were doing
based on their view of the word "displeases" in the divorce law.
Jesus reminded them of the law and then referred them back to God's
original intention at creation for a man and his wife to be glued to one
another for life. He added
that the divorce law was a concession on God's part due to man's corrupt
hearts. Jesus then said that
if anyone, or, anyone of you Pharisees, divorces his wife, except on the
ground of adultery, commits adultery when he remarries.
Jesus was speaking directly to the Pharisees and their culture of
free and easy divorce.
Matthew
5:31 and 32 is the crux of Jesus' teaching.
It reads. "Anyone
who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to
become an adulterous and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits
adultery" (NIV). Without
knowing the cultural setting and grammatical construction of this verse,
we will misunderstand what Jesus taught.
In
first century Koine Greek grammar a passive voice verb in a sentence
is when the subject of the sentence is the recipient of an action, as in,
"He was hit." The
subject "he" is the recipient of the action of being
"hit." The phrase
"causes her to become" an adulterous in Matthew 5:32 is a
passive voice verb. This means
the wife is the recipient of the unjust action of being divorced.
She is not doing the action of divorcing. This,
along with the Jewish culture that blamed the wife for the divorce,
stigmatized her as being an adulterous in her community, even if she
wasn't. The same is true with
the man who marries her, based on the passive voice verb "who marries
her." He is stigmatized
as an adulterer in the community, even if he wasn't.
Both the divorced wife and the man who subsequently marries her
have done nothing unlawful and therefore I believe are free to remarry.
The verb tense in Luke
16:18 is obscure. In Mark
10:11 it is either a middle or a passive voice verb.
Because of these uncertainties we cannot build a case based on
uncertain verb tenses. However,
the verb tense in Matthew 19:9 and 5:32 is commonly understood to be a
passive voice verb. We, thus,
can build the case that a divorced wife is a victim of an unjust divorce.
She is not a violator of the law, and is therefore free to remarry,
and, the man who marries her is free to do so without violating the law.
Adultery is the only
Biblical reason for divorce. The
Bible does not address every question we ask, like, "What if my
husband beats me up?" We
are left to our God given, Holy Spirit led, Biblically literate, common
sense to do what seems best. In
the final analysis, those who have been unjustly divorced are free to
remarry. Unless God tells you
otherwise, marriage has always been God's will.
Even if one divorces for no valid Biblical reason, genuine
repentance nullifies the offense. Remarriage
is logically permissible because there is no record of the offense.
|