Let me make this clear. In some situations God not only permits divorce but requires it. In those situations, God commands someone to divorce. He does not tolerate an adulterous lifestyle. It is God’s decision for someone to divorce an unfaithful mate.
God also hates it when human beings choose divorce. He considers it treacherous. He hates it for the same reason that He hates adultery. He hates to see the gift He gave a couple treated lightly or as a burden. A man who uses divorce to replace his wife with someone more pleasing commits adultery.
Any man who divorces his wife for a reason other than adultery commits adultery when he remarries. He then remains in adultery for the rest of his life unless he repents. Ironically, unless he confesses that he sinned in divorcing his first wife, his current marriage is illegitimate. Furthermore, that man cannot love his current wife unconditionally unless he repents of what he did to his first wife. The law he measured against his first wife remains above his second wife until he repents.
Our culture of divorce frequently questions the legitimacy of difficult marriages, but Jesus questioned the legitimacy of people’s divorces. If people divorce for any reason not given in Scripture, their divorce is not legitimate. They can be divorced in the eyes of the state and of the community and even of a pastor and congregation; but in the eyes of God, the vow remains, and remarriage is adultery.
Here’s the bottom line. Gina said, “We can work things out.” William chose not to work things out, and he told her the reason for divorce. “I don’t love you anymore.”
He chose divorce in preference to reconciliation, because he did not love his wife. If he loved her, he would have accepted her. Make a note here that adultery simply provided an opportunity to divorce a wife he did not love.
I see a game among religious people for following the rules to get a divorce. It works like this. You’re not happy with your marriage, so you make yourself an unhappy, difficult person. If you wait long enough, your mate will find affection elsewhere, and then you divorce for “adultery.” That would be fine with God if He were so superficial. I do not blame such a man for causing his wife to commit adultery; she is still at fault, but I do blame him for playing this game, and this is a serious offense to God.
It seemed to me that William’s pastor used Jesus’s teachings like a lawyer. He said that because his wife committed adultery he could divorce her. He did not see the principle behind the law. He treated it like a technicality.
God prefers reconciliation. You can be a religious lawyer, or you can be a child of God. It’s your choice.
