Mark 10:1 ¶ And he arose
from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of
Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught
them again. 2 And the Pharisees came to
him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
tempting him. 3 And he answered and said
unto them, What did Moses command you? 4
And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put
her away. 5 And Jesus answered
and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation
God made them male and female. 7 For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so
then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 10 And in the house his disciples asked him
again of the same matter. 11 And
he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another,
committeth adultery against her. 12 And
if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she
committeth adultery.
1 ¶ And he arose
from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of
Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught
them again.
Jesus Christ is
constantly busy. He has no time to lose and yet, He has eternity.
2 And the Pharisees
came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
tempting him.
A Pharisee is tormented
by questions about sex. A modern-day Pharisee is obsessed about how women
dress, how they behave toward their husbands, and whether or not a woman can
own a business or lead a country, and, of course, divorce. They are fanatically
obsessed with concerns about women. There must be a name for that kind of
obsession.
Here is the passage in
the Law given to Moses that they are concerned with;
Deuteronomy 24:1 ¶
When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she
find no favour in his eyes, because he hath 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. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be
another man’s wife. 3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill
of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or
if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; 4 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: and thou shalt not cause the
land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
3 And he answered
and said unto them, What did Moses command you? 4 And they said, Moses suffered
to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. 5 And Jesus answered and
said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
The Law was given for
wicked people. It was given for murderers and blasphemers among other unsavory
characters.
1 Timothy 1:9
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless
and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for
murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For
whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is
contrary to sound doctrine; 11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust.
A saved man today has
Christ’s righteousness imputed to Him if he believes, which, of course, if he
didn’t believe, he wouldn’t be a saved man. He is not under the Law. (see
Galatians 3:24 and 25 for confirmation). The Pharisees and Judaizers want to
keep putting you back under the Law so the preacher or priest can have control
over you. Christ is going to give something that completes the Law and fulfills
it and explains what it meant.
In the Sermon on the
Mount He says, if I may paraphrase, ‘the Law says this….but I say’ as He
explains the distinctions between what was meant by the Law and what the Law
literally says. As Paul says later;
2Corinthians 3:6 Who
also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but
of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Remember here that
Christ is talking to beard wearing, pork abstaining, temple going, Sabbath
observing Jews under the Law given to Moses. See Romans 7:1-4 where Paul is
talking to those who know the Law as he makes a comparison to the wife of a
dead man not being bound to him as we are dead to the Law and not bound to it.
We are married to Christ now. Some preachers’ reading comprehension is sorely
lacking.
Romans 7:1 ¶ Know ye
not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be
dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she
is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye
should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we
should bring forth fruit unto God.
6 But from the
beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain
shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What
therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Marriage is designed to
be FOR LIFE. Divorce is not part of God’s will. He allowed it because of the
hardness of a man’s heart. Don’t unite your flesh with another person of the
opposite sex unless you commit yourself that this is forever. Don’t marry someone
who thinks differently.
The Jews taught, I am
told but have not bothered to confirm, that you could kick your wife to the
curb if she didn’t cook like you wanted.
10 And in the house
his disciples asked him again of the same matter. 11 And he saith unto them,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery
against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to
another, she committeth adultery.
Here it is clear that
if you put away your wife and marry someone else you commit adultery against
her. If a woman puts away her husband and marries someone else she commits
adultery. Jesus announces in Matthew that only the spouse’s fornication is an
acceptable grounds for divorce.
Matthew 19:9 And I
say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication,
and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is
put away doth commit adultery.
Fornication runs the
gamut from adultery to incest and many places in between. When you have removed
your sexual affections from your spouse, even temporarily, and put them
someplace else you are a fornicator. You may also be an adulterer, a pedophile,
or obsessed with pornography (the Greek word translated as fornication is
porneia from which we get the word pornography) and you have broken the
marriage bond.
The Holy Spirit,
speaking through the wisdom given to Paul, shows that abandonment is another
ground that is acceptable for divorce in the context of a person who becomes a
Christian when their spouse does not.
1 Corinthians 7:10 ¶ And unto the married I command, yet not I,
but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain
unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away
his wife. 12 But to the rest speak I,
not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased
to dwell with him, let him not put her away. 13
And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to
dwell with her, let her not leave him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is
sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband:
else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. 15 But if the
unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage
in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
It can be argued, I
think, quite truthfully that the spouse who has abandoned you and joined flesh
with someone else has ended the marriage on both counts of fornication and
abandonment. You didn’t put them away falsely. They left you and committed
adultery with someone else. Case closed. You are free to marry again. Thank God
for His grace.
The Fundamentalist
Pharisee’s assertion that if divorced, for any reason no matter what, you can
never marry again is an absurdity based solely in their sick, twisted desire to
control other people; pathological authoritarians that they are.
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