The Role of Danger in Divorce

“Concerning the answer for the Divorce question:  Danger isn’t in the Scriptures that were used to answer the question.  Therefore why it is being implied?  Please cite a specific verse.”

The first thing that we need to emphasize is that God highly esteems marriage and even though He permits divorce and remarriage under certain circumstances His word carefully guards against any frivolous reason for ending a marriage, including ending a marriage with the possibility of remarriage.

This is why, in Matthew 19:3 the Pharisees came to Jesus with a hidden agenda and asked Him “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

This question can be traced back to Deuteronomy 24:1.  In Jesus’ day the readers were interpreting this “uncleanness” (Heb. ervah-sexual shame) as anything from their wives raising their voices to burning dinner.  So Jesus was quick and clear with His response.  He said in Matt.19:9 “And I say to you, whosoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality”.  That was Jesus’ commentary on ‘ervah’ back in Deut.21.

So it is clear that DISLOYALTY is a biblically recognized reason for divorce and remarriage.  (According to Matt. 19;9 a person would not be committing adultery if they remarried. Mark 10 also talks about this including the woman’s perspective.)

Romans 7 and 1Corinthians 7 both talk about DEATH as a situation that ends the “bond” of marriage (“released from the law of her husband”) from God’s perspective (1Cor 7:39).

1 Corinthians 7:15 says “But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart, a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases.”  So that answers the question of DESERTION.

Now how about DANGER?  Would God comment at all about the marriage status of a woman who was being beaten everyday by her husband?  Would he care about the knocked out teeth, scull fractures, acid burns, slashed faces, children in the home placed in peril because of this husbands “friends” who may be abusing them on routine bases?  This is the reality for some women in America and certainly globally, where often laws protecting woman are much less vague or strictly enforced.

So where would God talk about that?  Is there a chapter, a verse?  Ever notice how Paul in 1 Cor 7 while talking about marriage repeatedly says, “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord.” Or, “But to the rest I, not the Lord, say”.  Or “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord.”  The reason why Paul says this is because marriage is such a complicated issue.  It is really impossible to list all of the individual and specific scenarios and problems.  That is the purpose of 1 Corinthians 7:10-11.  It is obviously a more general instruction, and might be considered something like a “protection of woman clause”.  And its requirements are tough.

Verse 10 “A wife is not to depart from her husband.”  Verse 11 “But even if she does depart.”  Now the next thing you would expect to read would be something like. “but even if she does depart, she has done wrong!”  But it doesn’t say that, the passage says, “But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried.”  So for whatever reason this “departing” represents, while the built in consequences are tough (remain unmarried), there is no condemnation for this action by the woman.  The only other thing that Paul says is, “or be reconciled to her husband”.  This is the protection clause for any woman in a marriage relationship.  If there is a situation that is serious and legitimate where she determines that she must “depart” (like the DANGEROUS situations I mentioned above) she can end the marriage, but she cannot just find someone else.  There is provision built in for some hope for the relationship (some reconciliation), if conditions improve, at lease as long as the man remains alive.

This entry was posted on November 17, 2011 at November 17, 2011 and is filed under Christian Living, The Bible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.