Page 11 - The Standard Volume 4

cannot change it because we have a unique situation. The only marriage God allows to be dissolved or unrecognized is when a young girl is forced to be married without her parent's consent or, she was forced into slavery. Any attempts to get God to change His mind about the Scriptures to accommodate our own desires is a form of tempting Him. God’s law does not change, even if the hearts of men and women do.
UNSAVED SPOUSES
1 Corinthians 7:10-11 (NASB1995)
“10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife is not to leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband is not to divorce his wife.”
“The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” We can clearly see from these passages that when the marriage covenant is dissolved at death, only then is one free to marry again, God-willing.
Whether your marriage ended due to spousal abuse, abandonment, or adultery, if the offender decides to leave, let them go. You hold to the covenant as an offering of faithfulness unto God and let Him handle the right and wrong of the offender. You have been released biblically from the toil and bondage of the marriage so you can move on with your life in God!
If you have been divorced, by no means should your life be one of misery or loneliness! To think your life is ruined because a covenant with a human being didn't work out should not be an excuse to stop following God! Consider parents whose child died, should they no longer serve God? What about married people who cannot conceive? Should they quit serving the Lord? Should the poor say to God that because they are not rich in material things and free of need that there’s no reason to serve the Lord? The focus of marriage is Christ, not sex nor intimacy. The focus of living as a Christian is oneness with God in His image.
A divorced man or woman needs to be wise enough to understand that God knew the marriage would end before it started. Should you allow your life to be defined by marital status alone? Be wise and take the opportunity to live consecrated unto the Lord as the Scriptures say and dedicate your soul to giving oneself wholeheartedly to the work of the Kingdom. It is in this that the Just Judge will deal with the past and give you a future that’s not always looking back at what was lost.
Matthew 11:28-30
“28 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
REMARRIED
Perhaps you were divorced but have since remarried to someone other than your former spouse. What should you do? Repent. But, what does repentance look like? Let’s use a syllogism to express this point: To repent means to confess and turn away from sin unto God; adultery is sin; therefore to repent of the sin of marrying a divorced person means turning away from that marriage.
Whether you weren’t born again of the Holy Spirit prior to this sin, or if you were born again and remarried with a living spouse, the first covenant still remains until death. If we don’t have to quit the adulterating marriage to show repentance, then we should follow that same principle with everything we have to repent of. Since we must turn from all sin, and adultery is sin, we must also turn from EVERYTHING which dishonors God’s Word. S
For God’s people, marriage is under the direct or supreme law of God. There’s no command which the Apostles gave that is in direct or indirect contradiction to what the law of Moses or Christ’s teaching on marriage and divorce clearly teaches. When Paul said in verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 7, “I give you instructions,” he was showing them how the Word is to be obeyed within the context of their modern day life without disturbing the Scripture's supreme law. In this instance, Paul was instructing newly saved wives to not leave their husbands as they would not be unclean because an unbelieving spouse does not pollute their sanctified body nor their children. Paul said in so many words, “Don’t leave them but if you do, remain unmarried; or seek reconciliation because you are bound to your spouse until death.”
DIVORCE
Many Christians have experienced painful, costly, as well as emotionally and mentally draining divorces. They have no desire to reconcile and their spouse may have even gotten remarried to someone else. For some, they may have felt as if they married the devil himself and are thankful to be released from the marriage. Yet others were confronted by the consequences of their spouse’s infidelity who then divorced them. Should they have to suffer the sins of someone else for the rest of their life by not being allowed to remarry?
Beloved, this may not be a popular response but it is not the heart nor the Word of God for anyone to desire marriage after divorce while the spouse is yet alive. Luke 16:18 says, “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.” 1 Corinthians 7:39 says,
June 2022 | THE STANDARD 11