“Marriage Without Meaning”

Friday, August 21, 2015

Is it biblical to make someone live as a hostage of conditional love? Would God make someone live alone when He Himself went through great lengths to have a relationship with man, even to the point that He wanted to drown all of humanity and start all over? I ask such questions due to the fact that there are certain religious sects that will not allow certain saints to find love after God has put asunder an abominable relationship. Here is a real situation: two dysfunctional kids, the boy just turned eighteen and the girl thirteen, and they were told they had to go into Mexico and not return without a marriage certificate. The girl grew up and realized she did not approve of the choices made for her and wanted an annulment. She was denied. This lady then went on to have multiple lovers throughout the twenty-two years of this terrible union. She eventually asked for a divorce, relinquished her parental rights, moved in with the man she was seeing, and then married him. Unfortunately, the man she was married to is not being allowed to find true love due to the fact that his spiritual peers say he cannot marry again because the woman is still his wife. Can this man have love?

Sincerely, Tragic Tale Bearer

Dear Tragic Tale Bearer,

The man is not married any longer. Yes, he has a right to remarry. Yes, this is a horrible story that punctuates why God hates divorce (Mal 2:16). So much goes wrong when people, for whatever reasons, enter into marriages hastily. Marriage is intended as a life-long agreement (1 Cor 7:39), and when it ends before “death do us part”, there is always sin involved. And wherever sin is, there is pain and suffering… even for christians (Heb 12:5-6). There is more than enough blame to grow around in situations of divorce, but ultimately we are left with the same reality – she committed adultery, and then they got a divorce. So what now?

The only reason that God permits christians to get divorced for is fornication (Matt 19:19). As you stated, that is what happened here. The man and woman are no longer married, and he has a right to find a new wife if he so chooses. Hopefully, if he ever does get married again, it will have a happier ending.

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