Let's suppose this man Bob asks you for advice.
Bob is 45 years old. He's been married since he was 20 and has one daughter, who is 23 years old and out of college. Bob tells you his wife, Mary, has been a reasonably good wife. She gets a little emotional and says embarrassing things in social situations sometimes, but she is a good mother. Unfortunately, Mary has gotten kind chubby and wrinkly in recent years. Bob has stayed thin, fit, and trim. Bob also finds that his sex life with Mary is boring. It's always been a bit boring. She is a willing partner, but a rather boring and unskilled one. Mary did work to help put Bob through a top-rate MBA program after he'd worked in Finance for years. After the program was finished, they went to New York, where he went to work where a firm which, last year, employed him as a hedge fund manager.
Bob is at the pinnacle of his career. It also turns out that a lot of beautiful, young women find successful men his age very attractive. Bob hasn't picked anyone out, but he knows that if he were to divorce, he would have his pick of bright, successful, exciting young women lining up to marry him.
Bob is a church-going man. He has a friend who has explained to him that it is not a sin for Bob to divorce Mary and marry a younger woman, just as long as Bob gives her a divorce certificate.
Bob has been thinking long and hard about this. His daughter is grown, so he doesn't have to worry about a step-daughter raising his daughter. He's well-off now and he doesn't mind splitting half his worldly goods and even paying some alimony to Mary. She's earned it, and he earns so much now as a hedge fund manager, he could afford that and a new family. He could also get someone fresh and exciting, someone more self-controlled and less embarrassing in social situations, and someone more exciting to him sexually if he were to remarry.
Bob has another friend who has explained to him that what he is contemplating is adultery, that if he divorced his wife, who'd been faithful to him, and remarried, that he would be committing adultery, because the original plan from the beginning was that two should be one flesh. And what God has joined together, no man should put asunder.
Bob and Mary were married in a ceremony where they agreed to take one another as husband and wife, by a preacher in a church, actually. But for some reason, they did not take vows such as 'till death do us part.'
If Bob gives Mary the proper paperwork, including a certificate of divorce, is it a sin for Bob to divorce Mary? Btw, this is hypothetical, so you won't be advising anyone in real life to divorce. What do you think?
Bob is 45 years old. He's been married since he was 20 and has one daughter, who is 23 years old and out of college. Bob tells you his wife, Mary, has been a reasonably good wife. She gets a little emotional and says embarrassing things in social situations sometimes, but she is a good mother. Unfortunately, Mary has gotten kind chubby and wrinkly in recent years. Bob has stayed thin, fit, and trim. Bob also finds that his sex life with Mary is boring. It's always been a bit boring. She is a willing partner, but a rather boring and unskilled one. Mary did work to help put Bob through a top-rate MBA program after he'd worked in Finance for years. After the program was finished, they went to New York, where he went to work where a firm which, last year, employed him as a hedge fund manager.
Bob is at the pinnacle of his career. It also turns out that a lot of beautiful, young women find successful men his age very attractive. Bob hasn't picked anyone out, but he knows that if he were to divorce, he would have his pick of bright, successful, exciting young women lining up to marry him.
Bob is a church-going man. He has a friend who has explained to him that it is not a sin for Bob to divorce Mary and marry a younger woman, just as long as Bob gives her a divorce certificate.
Bob has been thinking long and hard about this. His daughter is grown, so he doesn't have to worry about a step-daughter raising his daughter. He's well-off now and he doesn't mind splitting half his worldly goods and even paying some alimony to Mary. She's earned it, and he earns so much now as a hedge fund manager, he could afford that and a new family. He could also get someone fresh and exciting, someone more self-controlled and less embarrassing in social situations, and someone more exciting to him sexually if he were to remarry.
Bob has another friend who has explained to him that what he is contemplating is adultery, that if he divorced his wife, who'd been faithful to him, and remarried, that he would be committing adultery, because the original plan from the beginning was that two should be one flesh. And what God has joined together, no man should put asunder.
Bob and Mary were married in a ceremony where they agreed to take one another as husband and wife, by a preacher in a church, actually. But for some reason, they did not take vows such as 'till death do us part.'
If Bob gives Mary the proper paperwork, including a certificate of divorce, is it a sin for Bob to divorce Mary? Btw, this is hypothetical, so you won't be advising anyone in real life to divorce. What do you think?