Is adultery really the ONLY grounds for divorce?

[NOTW_2010]

Were the dynamics of marriage & relationships different when Jesus was walking the earth? Were the problems different? Jesus seems to make it clear that adultery is the only acceptable reason for divorce, anything else is adultery... and to marry someone who divorced for reasons other than adultery is also adultery.

What about abuse? What about alcoholism, or drug use? What about abandonment?

If any of these are also acceptable, where do you draw the lines? For example, in cases of abuse, physical abuse is the most overt type of abuse people can see. But what about emotional and verbal abuse? What if counseling, marriage seminars through the church, small groups, and prayer don't seem to change it? Does one go ahead and divorce, but then never enter into another relationship again?

Or how about abandonment? Are we talking literal physical abandonment, where the spouse takes off and doesn't return? Or what about emotional abandonment, where the spouse does not communicate or show any desire to repair the relationship?

Are there grey areas, or is it all black-and-white?

 

[Redheadedstepchild]

Closing this thread for cleaning. Per the site rules:

Divorced or Separated Forum Statement of Purpose​

A forum for the support of divorced or separated Christians. This forum is only for those members who are divorced or separated. All of the site wide rules of Christian Forums apply (those rules can be found here).

 

[Angeldove97]

This thread has been cleaned up to remove any posts from members who are married or single- please remember that this forum was specifically set up for those who are divorced or separated only.

Since not all members list whether or not they are actually divorced or separated on their accounts, your post may have been removed in the clean up. If you are currently NOT married and have gone through either divorce or are separated, then please let me or another Staff member know and we'll un-delete your post.

Any future posts made in this thread by members who are either married or single- not divorced or separated- will be deleted and you will be contacted by Staff.

Thanks for your patience during this clean up!
​

 

[jpcedotal]

I am getting remarried to my children's mother this Saturday. We both have had another marriage in between the first one we had together.

Let me answer your question like this. Like all sin, if one thinks about it long enough, one can rationalize just about any reason as a good reason for divorce....Christian or not.

What happens more often than not is that the marriage gets hard and folks run instead of sticking it out...right into the arms of another.

Christian adultery is usually the result of other, deeper problems that were ignored earlier.