God's Laws Concerning Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage
WE COME now to the laws of God regulating the divine institution of marriage, as well as
those relating -- or purporting to relate -- to divorce and remarriage.
Again it is emphasized that we must accept this question of marriage according to God's
laws, not man's desires and reasonings. We must view it as GOD looks at it, not as man
might wish to have it.
For 6,000 years MAN has been attempting to treat the effect, ignoring the cause. He
forgets that everything is a matter of chaos and effect. For every evil there has had to
be a chaos. If we are to enjoy the BLESSINGS of peace, happiness, joy, abundance,
something will have to CAUSE it.
The first humans, Adam and Eve, rejected the teaching and laws of God which were set in
motion and revealed to them as the chaos of every GOOD -- every desired blessing. They
took to themselves the determination of the knowledge of what is GOOD and what is evil.
And their descendants after them have been choosing the WAY that has caused every evil.
Man looks at the evil -- which is the result of a wrong cause and tries to deal with the
elect, without changing the cause. In other words man wants to break GOD'S LAWS, and when
the penalty appears, he deals with the penalty -- the effect -- trying to prevent God's
laws from exacting their penalty.
Man's View VS. God's
How does man, then, usually view this matter of marriage, divorce and remarriage? If --
whether through ignorance of God's laws, or neglect or other cause, his marriage did not
work out, and he finds himself in a state of having gone through the wringer of divorce,
his whole thought is how to remedy his present unhappy situation. His whole concern is
self-concern for his present suffering. Even others, sympathetic with him, view the
situation entirely from the standpoint of dealing with the effect -- trying to remedy that
-- trying to eliminate the suffering when that suffering has resulted from BROKEN LAW!
People do not want to suffer, but would prefer to break God's laws further, to prevent
present suffering. They do not often consider what God inspired the Apostle Paul to write:
"For I reckon that the SUFFERINGS of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the GLORY which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).
In the matter of divorce and remarriage, they usually place the blame on the other mate,
and seek a way to interpret the Scripture to justify removing the penalty being SUFFERED
by "the INJURED PARTY."
But we simply CAN'T always relieve the "injured party" from the effect being
suffered, even though CAUSED by another! A man may have lost an arm because of the
carelessness of another automobile driver, or because another deliberately attacked.
Sometimes even the victim of accident or design must suffer a penalty he did not himself
cause. Undoubtedly, in the above-quoted scripture, Paul was referring to sufferings
uncaused by the sufferer.
But sometimes the dedicated Christian, heir of GLORY, spiritually betrothed to the
marriage to Christ, must even suffer WRONG and seeming injustice for the Kingdom of God's
sake. "Be ye also patient: ... for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James
5:8).
God's CHURCH must view this subject as GOD looks at it, not as injured man looks at it.
God placed mankind on earth for a PURPOSE. The marriage institution is included in that
GREAT PURPOSE. God had a REASON for His law regarding the sanctity and PERMANENCY of
marriage. And that REASON leading to permanent eternal GLORY is far more important IN
GOD'S eyes than temporarily relieving immediate sufferings by breaking His LAW. God's
Church cannot condone what God forbids!
God's Laws Protect the HOME
WHY did God establish the marriage institution? Remember, that although it is a physical
union, it is a DIVINE institution, ordained by God at the time of the creation of MAN. God
created man for the PURPOSE of developing righteous spiritual character and being born
into the Kingdom of God, which is the divine FAMILY.
Man was made to ultimately enter that FAMILY -- to enjoy FAMILY life for all eternity.
Therefore God willed that man ONLY, of all the creatures of His creation, should enjoy
FAMILY life in his present physical, mortal state. Family life demands the MARRIAGE
institution, a type of the marriage of the Church to Christ.
Therefore it is natural that God's laws -- even the basic spiritual Law of the Ten
Commandments, are designed to do two things:
1) to keep people in a close relationship to God and right relationship with human
neighbor, and
2) to protect the MARRIAGE and FAMILY relationship.
God made the husband the head of the wife, and the parents head over their children. The
fifth Commandment protects this relationship: "Honor thy father and thy mother."
But of course a rebellious humanity does not like to obey this command. Breaking this
command is a major contributing factor in breaking up family life today.
Protecting the MARRIAGE relationship are the seventh and tenth Commandments: "Thou
shalt not commit adultery;" and "Thou shalt not covet ... thy neighbor's wife
..." The seventh Commandment protects the marriage against unfaithfulness, which,
once started, could lead to a broken marriage and a broken family. Of course this
Commandment includes fornication prior to marriage, and all the other sex abuses and
perversions, either before or after marriage. Any sexual intercourse or other illicit sex
act prior to marriage mars the happiness of a marriage that follows. For the GOOD and
happiness of the marriage state, God forbids all such violations of chastity.
The tenth Commandment, besides protecting one's neighbor, and expressing the general and
all-inclusive principle of LOVE to neighbor -- which means outgoing concern for neighbor's
welfare equal to concern for one's own -- also is given to safeguard against remarriage --
coveting any other woman than one's wife. Of course this applies equally to a woman
coveting any man other than her husband.
Marriage by God's Authority Only
Now notice the first, original, fundamental, basic rule of all in the husband-wife and
family relationship.
When God first created man upon the earth He ordained the marriage union. The marriage and
family institution is BASIC in God's PURPOSE for man. MAN, and MARRIAGE, were thus created
together!
Marriage was not instituted by man. Nor by authority of a man-made legislative body. Nor
by laws promulgated by a human-constituted legislative or law-making body.
Notice: "And the Eternal God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
will make an help meet for him .... Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:18, 24). GOD
(Heb. "Elohim") is a FAMILY OF PERSONS. God is reproducing Himself. Faithfulness
to marriage and family relationship is the REASON for MAN!
And Jesus said: "... from the beginning of the creation God made them male and
female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
and they twain shall be one flesh .... What therefore God hath joined together, let not
man put asunder .... And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry
another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and
be married to another, she committeth adultery" (Mark 10:69, 11-12).
There is the FOUNDATION of the marriage union!
There is the BASIS of family life!
There is what man was created for!
There is the DIVINE LAW upon which the stability or the fate -- of a nation rests!
Do you realize what that basis is?
Why Humans Put on Earth
Almighty GOD, not a human legislative body, created the human race -- made us male and
female -- for a PURPOSE! That PURPOSE is that we might, ultimately, enter God's Kingdom.
That Kingdom IS God -- Hebrew, Elohim -- one GOD, composed of more than one Person. The
Hebrew Elohim is a uniplural name, like "family," "church," or
"group." And it is the DIVINE FAMILY. We were created for FAMILY relationship,
and for MARRIAGE relationship. This mortal flesh-and-blood-state of marriage requires both
male and female. So God created us male and female, and "for this cause" (Matt.
19:5) -- because God made them male and female (Matt. 19:4) God ordained the marriage
union.
Understand it! The Creator, at the creation of man, created man male and female, for the
cause of marriage -- for the PURPOSE of preparing for the divine, spiritual marriage to
Christ in GOD's KINGDOM!
When this is understood, and straightened in your mind, the whole question of marriage
becomes clear. Divorce and remarriage becomes unthinkable. It simply doesn't make sense!
It is GOD, not man, who JOINS husband and wife together! Therefore only GOD can unjoin
what He has joined and no scripture provides for that.
We call marriage "HOLY matrimony" or "HOLY wedlock." But why? What
makes it holy? Only the fact that GOD ordained it -- the fact that it is a DIVINE
institution -- the fact that it is the human TYPE, preparing us for the HOLY spiritual
anti-type of the marriage to Christ in the Kingdom! And the fact that it is BOUND by the
HOLY GOD!
Yet, in spite of all this, would some seek to relieve the "injured" and
"suffering" one by human reasoning to justify making the entire PURPOSE and
MEANING of God of no effect?
Ordained At Man's Creation
It is GOD who joins and BINDS husband and wife as ONE FLESH. The minister, the Justice of
the Peace, the Judge, the ship captain, merely conducts a ceremony. But it is ALMIGHTY GOD
who ties the knot -- who BINDS them FOR LIFE! God commands man to cleave to his wife --
not to leave her and cleave to another.
This was ordained at man's CREATION. It applies to ALL MANKIND. It applies to
"converted and "unconverted" alike. It applies to all races, creeds, and
regardless of religion. It is not merely an ordinance of "the Church." The
marriage institution started at man's CREATION, long before there was a church.
And God's law regarding the marriage institution says one thing and one only can break
that marriage bond -- DEATH!
God's LAW regarding marriage is stated again in Romans: "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? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as
he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 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" (Rom. 7:1-3).
This same law of God is repeated in I Corinthians 7:39.
The Way God Looks At It
That law PROVIDES FOR NO DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE!
That law is GOD'S LAW. In the same context it is called holy, just and good (v. 12) and
spiritual (v. 14).
To put a meaning or interpretation into some other passage of Scripture that interprets it
to allow for divorce and remarriage, is to collide head-on with this plain, clear, and
undisputable statement of GOD'S LAW. It would represent God as contradicting Himself!
Those passages supposed to nullify this statement of God's law, or make exception to it,
will be clearly examined and the misinterpretation made clear!
This statement of God's law in Romans 7 is simple, plain, and explicit. It states it THE
WAY GOD LOOKS AT IT, though not the way man, at least in some instances, would like to
look at it. This statement of God's law is CONSISTENT with God's PURPOSE -- with the
MEANING of the marriage institution! Any exception violates and destroys that PURPOSE and
meaning!
Understand this basic LAW, and God's PURPOSE, and the MEANING of marriage, and everything
is CLEAR -- and any contrary conclusion is a flagrant contradiction to this LAW of God,
and to God's PURPOSE and MEANING!
Any man-made laws contrary to this plain, straight and clear LAW OF GOD have NO AUTHORITY
in GOD's SIGHT.