What's the Bible say about marriage and divorce?

The Bible is not of one word about marriage and divorce. True, in the Old Testament, marriage allows polygamy and divorce, by the man, but in the New Testament, Jesus “updates” this and returns to what G-d really intended: marriage is permanent to death, and divorce is not acceptable. It isn’t entirely clear what the Gospels mean about the exception of “porneia:” is it an unlawful marriage, within the limits of cosanguinity? That seems most likely. A more common translation is “adultery,” which seems to deny the teaching that Jesus just made.

As for annulment, yes, lullaby148, technically it does deny there ever was a marriage. However, it does not deny the attempt, presumably in good faith, that the couple intended and tried to marry. It does not make the children illegitimate. It does not deny their relationship. It only says that, for whatever reasons (as near as we can determine), this marriage failed to have what was necessary to be a true marriage, usually because one or both partners was not free or mature enough to make a true commmitment.

“Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?””

“He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one”? So the are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let noman put asunder.””

“They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?””

“He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife except for unchastity*, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”” (Matthew 19:3-9; See also Gen 1:27; 2:24; Eph 5:31; 1 Cor 6:16)

*Other ancient authorities, after “unchastity”, read “makes her commit adultery.”

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“And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse.”

Malachi 2:13-14 (My MESSENGER) the last book of the Christian edition Old Testament

ps Did Moses make it to the promised land? What did GOD want… not men, GOD!

Polygamy… Deuteronomy 17:14-20 14”When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you (A)possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘(B)I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’

15you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one (C)from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

16”(D)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he (E)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since (F)the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’

17”(G)He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

18”Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll (H)in the presence of the Levitical priests.

19”It shall be with him and he shall read it (I)all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

20that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen (J)and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

SMITHDAWN36…I was sad to read your response. I am currently going thru a divorce. It took me several months of extreme prayer and guidance before I realized that no God does not want us to divorce. But, it takes two to make a marriage work and if you before God give it everything and the other person is not willing to change then I feel you are released. I also feel that some marriages were never meant to happen and God will usualy try to let you know ahead of time but so many of us don’t want to give up what WE think is right. I don’t feel that every marriage is necessarily brought together by God. A husband should love his wife according to Biblical def. of love. God would NEVER want you to stay in a marriage that is damaging to you. He wants you to be free and live a life of joy, and abundance, and to draw near to Him. Not condemn you to a life of insecurity. Believe me, I struggled with so many questions before finaly getting my answer and I know in my heart I have not sinned and God understands COMPLETELY!

MARIAGE IS ONCE FOR ALL IN your LIFE ON EARTH.IF you MARRIED ONLY DEATH…CAN SEPRATE you FROM your PARTNER.IT ONLY TWO THINGS IF you MARIED DONT VISIT ANY MAN OR WOMAN IN BED AGAIN.

My husband cheated on me with my best friend before we were married, she was in my wedding, I did not find out about this til after we were married. I have been married to him for 9 years and have had no love for him since I found out three months after I married him. I am here cause I think God tells me to. By the way he is very emotional abusive EXAMPLE in front of two male niebors he called me a cu*t. The abuse is daily.

“And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse.”

Malachi 2:13-14 (My MESSENGER) the last book of the Christian edition Old Testament

*Matthew 5:31-32 states the following: “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whosoever divorces his bride, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”

The rabbis had taken liberty with what the Scriptures actually said in order to regulate the paperwork when one sought divorce. Thus, they had wrongly concluded that men could divorce their wives for anything that displeased them, as long as they gave “a certificate of divorce.” But Moses provided this as a concession to protect the woman who was divorced NOT to justify or legalize divorce under all circumstances. Divorce was allowed in cases of adultery because the assumption is that divorced people will remarry. If the divorce was NOT for sexual immorality, any remarriage is adultery, because God does not acknowledge the divorce.

Avim

The Old Testament says that (1) Marriage is to between one man and one woman. (2) If a man and woman are divorced and marry again, it is the same as commiting adultery, for both of them. The only time divorce is not a sin is when the man cheated on the wife; then divorce may be filed without any accusations against the woman. I don’t know off the top of my head what it says about the man, so you’d better look it up. Try Genesis and Exodus.

Gods perfect will for us, is one mate for life… he did make provisions.. for divorce, but, he stated that he hated.. putting away.. which is divorce… he does not want to see us in pain, nor our children neglected.. and our marriage is a meant to show how he loves and holds onto and cares for his body.. it is his will for us to become one.. in marriage.. to our spouse and to him…

Love and forgiveness are always preferable to divorce… and much more empathis needs to be put on marriage to begin with.. it is taken far to lightly… it is a very important committment… and should be for life…

Ah but what is “marriage” according to the Bible? In the OT, polygamy was the norm for the day and God didn’t fuss one bit. Actually, OT men could get rid of their wives because women were really nothing much more than property and children even more so. I wouldn’t look to the Bible for any moral guidance there.

The NT gives us only three ways we can not be bound by marriage, one is death, two is adultry, and the third is when a “unbelieving” spouse wants to leave. The allunment thing of the catholic church is not biblical, and thus it is the tradition of men nothing more, but what else is new when it comes to the RCC and it’s false doctrines and dogmas.

ok I go to a Christian school and we learned about when its right to get a divorce. if the 2 spouces get married and neither are a believer and then one turns to God and the nonbelieving spouce asks for a ddivorce it can be done without sinning. another time is when one commits adultery.

and when you get a divorce for neither of these reasons is it considered sin because then you are most likely going to get married again and once you do that is considered adultery, if the ex is not dead.

and dont kill the ex

well, I’ve been going to church since I was a child and that topic is a big deal in our church. We believe that in the word of God (the bible) God Himself says that man shouldn’t be alone (Genesis 2:18) and later in that chapter it says that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife so they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2: 24) Now, my church believes that God hates divorce and divorce is a sin. In Malachi 2:16 says, “ ‘I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Isreal, ‘and I hate a mans covering himself with vilence as well as with his garment,’ says the Lord almighty. so guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break your faith.’ This is what I believe the bible says about marriage and divorce.

The Bible does say that a man may divorce his wife for adultery but not the other way around. It says nothing about abuse (severe or not) being a reason for divorce. Women and children had few rights according to the Bible since they were really little more than property.

what if you cheated before you got saved,but not after? My ex husband says we comitted adultry,but I stayed faithful to him after we got saved.Now he is with a new woman,because he left me months ago and wants to be with her.

Marriage is Sacred, Divorce is a sin.

I believe that marriage was meant for life because God never inted for divorce to exist. But the only biblical grounds for divorce that i can think of are adultry and severe abuse

I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where divorice is considered sin. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke against divorce but the Sermon on the Mount sets impossibly high standards in several areas. I view this sermon as something that Christians should strive for but short of being perfect are unlikely to reach.