Beloved, as it pertains to the subject of divorce, I'm beginning to think that we as believers have completely dropped the ball with this one. Either we've completely misunderstood, or rebelled against what Jesus taught on this matter.
- But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. (Matthew 5:32) -
- And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. (Matthew 19:9) -
These are the Scriptures the I've heard the majority of Christians use to justify the divorce of a spouse. However, I'm no longer convinced that Jesus was teaching about divorce, as it is currently practiced and condoned by the evangelical church.
In these two verses, the Greek word "porneia" is interpreted as fornication or sexual immorality. Fornication by definition, is consensual sexual intercourse between two persons not married to each other. This is different than the sin of adultery, which is being addressed as an end result of divorce. Adultery is defined as the sexual unfaithfulness of a married person.
So with this in mind, I think it becomes quite clear that a married person cannot commit fornication. If a spouse has an affair with someone, the Lord specifically classifies this as the sin of adultery. If the person on the other end of the affair is not married , it is classified as fornication. Most Christian I've encountered consider adultery and fornication to be pretty much the same thing... and even use the words as though they were interchangeable depending on the situation. However, I would submit that while these two sins do indeed fall into the category of sexual sin, the Lord clearly distinguishes between the two.
Personally, when speaking of the above Scriptures, I would consider the phrase "sexual immorality" a better interpretation of the word "porneia" than the word "fornication." The reason being that this choice of phrase points to a path of understanding closer to the heart of what Jesus taught, when He made an exception to married couples staying together. We must also take into consideration who Jesus was speaking to as well as the culture of the Jewish people.
First lets examine the phrase "sexual immorality."
The word "sexual" means relating to, or involving sex or the sexes. While "immorality" is defined as wickedness, especially "unchastity."
Well, to be chaste is to innocent of unlawful sexual intercourse, virtuous, pure, "celibate"... Celibacy is the state of being is the state of being unmarried, abstention by vow from marriage, and abstention from sexual intercourse. Another word for unchastity, (and probably a bit more familiar to the King James version readers) is "lasciviousness." This is the polar opposite of being chaste.
Now try to keep all of that in mind through this really, really brief look at the ancient Jewish marriage.
For starters, the ancient Jewish marriage was a covenant contract agreement between the bride and groom. Once they entered into covenant they were considered legally married. There was a price paid to the brides family to compensate them, as well as gifts for the bride. But before the marriage could be consummated, there was a period of betrothal. The groom would return to his father's house to build an extension. This is where a newly wed couple would normally start their lives together... and it was not the groom who would decide when the extension was ready, but it was the father. During this phase, the bride was to prepare herself for the groom's return. She didn't know when his return would be, so she had to maintain a continual state of readiness. His return would be a surprise, as well as being accompanied by an entourage. He would then take her in to what we would call the wedding proper, and there would be a seven day wedding feast/celebration. Now when the marriage was finally consummated, blood would be shed upon the bed coverings if the bride was a chaste virgin. These would be presented as tokens of her faithfulness and chastity. If she had been presented as a chaste virgin, and no blood was shed upon the coverings of the marriage bed during consummation of the marriage... it meant unchastity or "sexual immorality" on the bride's part. Under the Law, not only did this give the groom a legal right to divorce his bride, but this breech of contract was punishable by death.
- If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) -
People of God, this is what Jesus was meant when He said, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for sexual immorality..." and the Jewish people with whom He spoke knew exactly what He was talking about. You see, Jesus never said adultery was an exception, or a legitimate reason to end a marriage by divorce. It was "sexual immorality" during the betrothal phase of the marriage covenant under the Law. And I'm convinced that the reason Jesus never said that adultery was an exception to staying married to your husband or wife is because, as impossible as it may seem for most of us... beloved, adultery is to be forgiven.
As the Lord has loved us, forgiven us, (and continues to love and forgive us...) so should we be willing to seek Him that we may love and forgive others... especially those whom we have entered into marriage covenant with.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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