Is divorce allowable from a Biblical perspective?

Ask The Pastor: How it got started
E-mail your questions
Master List of Articles
Tour Israel with us – Spring 2006!

Question: Is divorce allowable from a Biblical perspective?

ATP: It all depends on the cause.

Jesus was clear that divorcing a spouse who has committed adultery is allowable. A person is free to divorce an adulterous spouse and is free to remarry without either action being sin.

1 Corinthians 7 gives us another category of so-called "Biblical divorce". It says that if an unbeliever refuses to stay in a marriage with a believer, the believer isn’t "bound."

That is, if the believer is divorced by an unbeliever who has abandoned the marriage, the divorce is not a sin for the believer and the believer is free to remarry.

There is the possibility that 1 Corinthians 7 should also be applied to the marriage of two believers as well. It is much too complicated to take up in this brief article, but there is strong evidence that "abandonment" is the key issue in 1 Corinthians 7, not whether the marriage is between a believer and an unbeliever. If that is correct, it would suggest that the abandoned party even in a marriage between two believers, is free to remarry without it being sin.

One must be careful here about opening Pandora’s box, as people may feel free to divorce for any reason, which was exactly what Jesus spoke against, but it is not an irresponsible interpretation of the 1 Corinthians passage to suggest that abandoment is the key principle being spoken of, rather than whether the marriage is between a believer and unbeliever. The question in either case becomes, "What constitutes abandonment?"

Is it enough that a person is willing to live in the same house with another person? I don't think so, but where is the line that determines when functional abandonment as taken place? There is no easy answer to that question.

That having been said, it is more important for us to focus on building and holding together healthy marriages, than to concentrate on "escape clauses." God would prefer that all marriages work and hold together, founded on a relationship with Him.

Unfortunately as we also know, there are individuals who through their infidelity do great damage to their spouse and to their children. God allows divorce as an option for the victimized spouse in such cases.