This is part 7 of our dealing with series.
Many divorces happen because of an unequal alliance. A joining of two, separately dividing, different people. Many times its a matter of rich and poor, Immaturity, educated and uneducated, Christian and non-Christian.
But most of the time, its a joining of two different people, out of the will of God. Marriages made by lust, convenience, and popularity. In most of the instances I’ve seen and councled, its a matter of, abuse and adultery, and or, childish lust that gives way to an act that is not justified.
The joining of two different people, is what God warns of being unequally yoked together. There is no reason nor cause for abuse in any form, mental or physical, for this is a violation of the Laws of God and man. This is a violation of the Gospel, and will be dealt with by God.
Eph 5:28-29; So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
The sins of Adultery.
Pro 5:18-20; Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished(delighted to ecstasy.) with a strange woman,(A woman, not your wife.) and embrace the bosom of a stranger? These sins of man are equal to the same sins created by the woman, having a relationship with a man, not her husband.
JFB. States of this; unequally yoked “yoked with one alien in spirit.” The image is from the symbolical precept of the law (Lev_19:19), “Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind”; or the precept (Deu_22:10), “Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together.” Compare Deu_7:3, forbidding marriages with the heathen; also 1Co_7:39. The believer and unbeliever are utterly heterogeneous. Too close intercourse with unbelievers in other relations also is included (2Co_6:16; 1Co_8:10; 1Co_10:14).
A marriage of people that haven’t grown up and still think as a child. Many times its the parents that cause a division between the wife and husband and often it’s just childishness that is the cause.
1Co 7:15 –
if … depart that is, wishes for separation. Translate, “separateth himself”: offended with her Christianity, and refusing to live with her unless she renounce it.
brother or a sister is not under bondage is not bound to renounce the faith for the sake of retaining her unbelieving husband [Hammond]. Deu_13:6; Mat_10:35-37; Luk_14:26. The believer does not lie under the same obligation in the case of a union with an unbeliever, as in the case of one with a believer. In the former case he is not bound not to separate, if the unbeliever separate or “depart,” in the latter nothing but “fornication” justifies separation [Photius in Aecumenius].
but God hath called us to peace Our Christian calling is one that tends to “peace” (Rom_12:18), not quarreling; therefore the believer should not ordinarily depart from the unbelieving consort (1Co_7:12-14), on the one hand; and on the other, in the exceptional case of the unbeliever desiring to depart, the believer is not bound to force the other party to stay in a state of continual discord (Mat_5:32). Better still it would be not to enter into such unequal alliances at all (1Co_7:40; 2Co_6:14).(Clark.)
bill of divorce literally, “a writing of cuttings off.” The plural implies the completeness of the severance. The use of this metaphor here, as in the former discourse (Jer_3:1), implies a close connection between the discourses. The epithets are characteristic; Israel “apostate” (as the Hebrew for “backsliding” is better rendered); Judah, not as yet utterly apostate, but treacherous or faithless. jfb
Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 1Co 7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.
1Co 7:28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
The sins of some churches.
1Ti 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
1Co 7:15 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
1Co 7:15 –
But if the unbelieving depart – If they choose to leave you.
Let him depart – You cannot prevent it, and you are to submit to it patiently, and bear it as a Christian. brns.
Divorce does not mean the end of ones ability to love or remarry, if they chose to do so.
We cannot condemn the divorce for abiding to the word of God and Jesus, concerning divorce. If the circumstances arise, then we must not condemn ourselves, for if the individual does all to reconcile to the other and is refused, then the person is not bound any more but has retain peace between them and God. In these cases, do not try to bear the burden of blame or fault with yourself, this is self condemnation.
Those that are not saved, the laws of God are not in force with them, for the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. Proof? Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Jfb. In such a state of mind there neither is nor can be the least subjection to the law of God. The reason here is explained, that, a person, an unbeliever is not, or will not, be bound to the laws of God and will do as he or she desires to do.
There by, being not subject to the Laws of God.
This is where many say that a person being married in or as sinners, after divorce, cannot remarry. This is untrue, for being out in sin, and then being saved, God no longer remembers the sins of their past. In so that a person can remarry and still be in the will of God, without a judgment being leveled against that person. This is not to say that they are not bound by the plan of salvation, for all will give an answer for their actions.
Fornication;
1. The incontinence or lewdness of unmarried persons, male or female; also, the criminal conversation of a married man with an unmarried woman.
2. Adultery. Mat 5.
3. Incest. 1 Cor 5.
4. Idolatry; a forsaking of the true God, and worshipping of idols.
5.conjugal infidelity.
2 Chr 21. Rev 19. ars.
Gen_2:23, Gen_2:24, Gen_24:67; Pro_5:18, Pro_5:19; Ecc_9:9; Mal_2:14-16; Luk_14:26; Eph_5:25, Eph_5:28, Eph_5:29, Eph_5:33; 1Pe_3:7
Temple of Spirit & Truth Ministries
A.R.Smith Ministries
http://www.ourchurch.com/member/a/arsmithsermons/