It is good to sense the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace. The Spirit also takes from what is Christ's, and gives it to us, and Christ had much to say about divorce. If we are walking in the Spirit, we will love God's word.
Even as believers with the Spirit, we should remember 'beware, let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.' We also have to continually put to death the lusts of the flesh. If there is something wrong with our thinking, it can lead to sin. As believers, we should not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This isn't a once and for all thing we have to do, it is an ongoing thing.
If we have some wrong idea in our heart, some stronghold that we allow to be there, it can cause us trouble later on.
This is what I am addressing when it comes to divorce. If I love my wife, I commit to her. When I took her, I took her 'till death do us part' not 'until I feel like I need a divorce.' If I had it in my mind that we were together as long as we both felt like it, my commitment to her would probably much more shallow.
How deep was Jesus' commitment? It took Him from the garden all the way through until "It is finished." He could have quit at any time. Doesn't that show His love? Could we have known how great His love was if His commitment did not go so far as His laying down His life for us?
And how do our hearts change? The Bible says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." Jesus taught that he that hears these sayings of His is does not do them is like the man who builds His house upon the sand. But the one who hears and does them is like the man that builds his house upon the rock. The rains and wind knock down the house built on the sand, but the house built on the rock remains.
I suppose you could accuse me of being a Pharisee, of holding to 'rules' for believing that we need to know God's word and examine our lives in light of it. When I read the Bible, I don't see walking by the Spirit as a matter of simply going by the feelings inside without holding to the word. The man who wrote scripture did not see it that way. Of course, he was a self-admitted Pharisee even after his conversion, but one saved by grace and one Christ Himself chose to reveal mysteries to and to preach to the nations.
The 'following all the rules' line were your words, not mine. I do appreciate two people wanting to be together. But having this thought in your mind that we are only going to stay together as long as we both want to is a pretty flimsy foundation for a marriage. The marriage might survive if both people want to be together, but that's not the type of commitment that Christ wants us to have. It needs to be much deeper than that. Christ's love is much deeper than that. Christ Himself struggled with His own wants and desires in the garden, but He submitted Himself to His Father's will.
"As long as we both think it is a good idea" might work for a marriage that doesn't face much trouble as far as not getting a divorce is concerned. But will it really hold up to some of the rocky experiences a lot of couples face? What would happen if your partner fell into some kind of addiction? Or what if your partner gets Alzheimers or some other illness and you have to change their diapers? The type of love needed has to have a strong aspect of commitment to it.
Which type of marriage would you rather have, anyway? Would you rather be with a partner who wants to be with you as long as it is good for him, or he's committed to loving you until one of you die, no matter what?
Again 'due to the rules' is your terminology. We should love deeply from our hearts. But what happens when it occurs to you that you did something unloving? What do you do? If you have the word of God, you can read it and examine your life in light of it. And through it, the Spirit of God may illuminate areas in your life where you need to repent and change. If you just go by your internal feelings, will that happen? God can correct people without a Bible in their hands, but if He gives us something like that, doesn't He expect us to be faithful to use it and apply it?
James says that he that hears and does the word shall be blessed in his deed. He doesn't condemn those who hear and do. He doesn't warn them that they will turn into unspiritual Pharisees.
Honestly, can you really say that every moment of married life is pleasant? Overall, if I look back at my marriage so far, it's a good thing, a joyous thing, and a blessing. Not everyone can say that. But I can say there have been some unpleasant moments, stressful moments, even distressing moments. I suspect a lot of people in those moments might think about divorce. I can't recall ever considering it myself, and that's probably because Jesus' and the apostles' teachings on divorce were so engrained in my mind from memorizing Matthew and I Corinthians as a teenager and having to study it over and over again to do so, and the convictions about it I developed during that time. But if I didn't think that way, if I had a stronghold in my mind that told me divorce was okay if we weren't getting along, I might consider divorce during a difficult time. A couple that allows for divorce if they aren't getting may just get one if they go through a rough patch for a few months. If divorce is not an option, you have to work it out.
If someone is gritting their teeth trying to do what is right in their own strength, isn't that a better position to be in to ask God for help and to let Him intervene by His grace than the position of opposing God's word and going in their own direction?
Upvote
0
