sharonr
Member
Cow fam said:I have a scenario on this vein and wondered if my thought makes sense when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:
10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband
11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
12 But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.
13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away.
14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.
15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.
16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
I have a rather sensitive real life example to share. I grew up in Baptist churches, where my mother and father took us to church every time the doors were open. At 11 years of age, I caught my mother with the preacher (my daddy is not the preacher) and Dad forgave her and stayed married. There were at least 5 other affairs on her part, all with married men while she was still married, that I know about firsthand. When I was 18, my parents divorced and he remarried. I see that on his part he can have more than one wife, and also was not guilty of anything, so I see no issue there.
My issue is that my mother, now in a sexual relationship with an unsaved man again, says she is free to marry again whomever she wishes. How is this a picture of Christ and the church? How could such a marriage be honoring to God, as my father is still alive and maybe even willing to marry her if she would stop the fooling around? If the picture of marriage is of Christ and the church, then how could reconciliation ever occur if she marries another man? Is this not what Jesus spoke about when He said whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery and makes her an adulteress(redundant on this case)?
I am all for helping single moms, and that is what we plan to do when given opportunity, but I do not see how I could marry a divorced woman as long as her husband lives. I see that the picture of marriage as a type of Christ and the church would fall apart if there were no penalty for abandoning the husband. With divorce, would not the best scenario be to remarry the woman and reconcile her to her rightful husband?
Sorry for getting so wound up here, this topic hits home pretty hard. I would love for my mother to remarry but can't see how it is Biblically justifiable. What pattern would this create if logically followed? A woman marries a man, commits adultery when she gets sick of him, gets divorced and then finds another man to marry. This just doesn't seem to fit my understanding of the covenant principle of marriage. Are there any Biblical stories reflecting this type of arrangement that work out?
Thanks for listening to me spout. I was married at 19, divorced at 21, married another woman at 25 and am happily married to her after coming to Christ about that same time as our marriage. We are considering another wife, and would reconcile with my drug addict, disease ridden ex wife if there were a chance to make it work, as we believe this would be a picture of Christ reconciling not only the lovely woman but also the dead-in-sin adulteress for the purpose of reconciliation.
I totally feel that, you are right abouut the biblical view of marriage.