CAN A CHRISTIAN MARRY, DIVORCE AND REMARRY?

RDKirk said:

If one of them becomes a believer, that marriage becomes holy for the believer retroactively (1 Corinthians 7).

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com7fy8 said:

But if a marriage is in Jesus, between two believers, it is holy because the believers, children of God, are holy. Even if only one spouse is a believer, the children are holy, our Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:14 > this says the unsaved spouse is "sanctified" by the saved spouse. And "sanctified" means made holy, I understand.

So, what I understand is that if a holy person married to an unbeliever can make children holy, then surely a pair of Christians have a holy marriage.

If it were not holy, then what are you saying a Christian marriage is if it is unholy???? sinful? I do know there are people who have guilt and even feel critical against the intimate activities of marriage, and so they can consider their sharing to be unholy. But if their stuff is of lust, this does not represent how the Holy Spirit is able to have two Christians sharing. Plus, the intimate activities are not all there is to Christian marriage. Marriage is all the time, and it in Jesus is holy, even though at times couples can sin and fail and be imperfect in different things they do.

It is not one or the other. But both Christian marriage and Christian celibacy are holy. And, by the way, your logic here is not stated in the Bible! So, you have not given scripture for what you have said here.

But our Apostle Paul says

"For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that." (1 Corinthians 7:7)

To me, this means that celibacy in Jesus is a gift and marriage in Christ also is a gift, and "from God". And James clearly says,

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." (James 1:17)

So, if the marriage is in the Holy Spirit, a gift of the Holy Spirit's love . . . marriage in God's love is holy because of being in God's love which is holy.

But this does not mean that every thing a couple does is holy. For example, arguing is against God's love > Philippians 2:13-16. But even though a Christian couple might argue and complain, this does not mean they do not have the gift of marriage in the Holy Spirit.

So, if you believe marriage is not holy, whose marriage are you speaking for? Possibly, there are people who are doing their marital things in lust, and lust indeed is not holy. But as we grow in Jesus we do more and more in God's love so then we can even feel our marriage and intimate sharing is holy.

Our Apostle Paul says we need to relate "not in passion of lust," in 1 Thessalonians 4:5. And he also says,

"Let all that you do be done with love." (1 Corinthians 16:14)

God's love is holy; so what we do in God's love is holy. And our Apostle Peter says how we need to live in "holy conduct and godliness", in 2 Peter 3:11.

So, I would say that various scriptures support that marriage in Jesus is holy, plus marital sharing being done in God's holy love is holy. But even if a couple is not perfect in this, by simply being in Christ their marriage is holy

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bcbsr said:

Divorce does not nullify a marriage

Mark 10:11,12 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

Notice that if divorce itself nullified the marriage, then if "single" or "unmarried" status was obtained through divorce, it certainly would not have been adultery for such people to then go on to marry someone else. But Jesus teaches otherwise. Since remarriage after divorce is adulterous, therefore divorce does not nullify a marriage.

Marriage lasts a lifetime

Rom 7:2-3 "For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man."

(Under the Mosaic Law, there was no provision for a wife to divorce her husband. Husbands were allowed to divorce their wives under the Mosaic Law, but Jesus revealed that such was not God's absolute standard. But such was tolerated at the time because of the hardness of their hearts. Essentially Jesus revealed that statements like Rom 7:2-3 above really apply to husbands as well as wives)

1Cor 7:39 A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives.

Remarriage after divorce not allowed, except for reconciliation

1Cor 7:10-11To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

This also implies that the husband should also remain unmarried to allow for reconciliation.

Luke 16:18b The man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

This speaks of a woman who did not take the active part in divorcing her husband, but rather was the one divorced by her husband.

Jer 3:8 "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries" ... "Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband." Jer 3:14

Sexual Lust is adultery

Matt 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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Dave-W said:

Not at all. You are trying to use a Christianized meaning to an ancient word. That does not work.

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RDKirk said:

The unbeliever is not reconciled to God. The unbeliever does not have the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever is still dead in his sins. The unbeliever is still a slave to sin. The unbeliever is not a new creation in Christ.

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