A question on divorce and remarriage
Does Matthew 19:9 mean a man or woman in the Christian era may divorce and remarry if the divorce is due to fornication?
~Earl from Tyler, TX
Earl, I appreciate your question, here is the answer:
The wording in Matthew 19:9 and in Matthew 5:32 is pretty straightforward.
Matthew 19:9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
Matthew 5:32 “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”
These references are from the NKJV and uses the term “sexual immorality” instead of “fornication.” The original word in the greek simply means “any illicit sexual intercourse” With “illicit” meaning mutual. (i.e. if someone is forced into committing such an action, this would not be viewed as “fornication”)
Jesus says that the case of “fornication” is an exception. The rule is that you should not divorce for any reason… the exception is the reason of fornication as defined above.
So, yes, I do believe that as a Christian, you may ONLY divorce your spouse for the reason of fornication. The innocent party would then be free to remarry if they so choose. Of course I would also point out that even in the case of fornication, divorce is NOT commanded, it is simply an option, but reconciliation, if possible, would always be a preferred solution.Some will say that there is a contradiction here between Matthew and the other inspired writers… for instance, In Mark 10:11-12, We have this:
11 So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 “And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Luke 16:18 sounds remarkably similar… so is this a contradiction?
No, it is not. Mark and Luke record ‘the rule’ just as Matthew does… the rule is “NO DIVORCE” Matthew simply records the exception to this rule as well. Why did the others not record the exception? Why did they need to? Matthew supplies us with this ‘exception’ to the divorce rule and one instance of it in the inspired text should be enough for us.
I hope this answer helped. If not, or if you need me to clarify something I said, please let me know!Again, thank you for submitting your question to thegospelfortoday.com,
Justin Murdock, on behalf of the Garrett’s Creek Church of Christ.
