Terry wrote:
David, I don't understand what you are trying to say. To me, Matthew 5:32
requires no interpretation. What's to interpret?
:-) Well then, how about if I just give you an alternative consideration.
Ok?
Terry wrote:
The fact is clear. Remarriage after a divorce for any reason other than
adultery is sin.
Here is another consideration for you.
Matthew 5:32
(32) 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.
Let's break down these statements into two:
1) Whoever divorces his wife, except for the cause of fornication, is
causing her to commit adultery. [Interpretation / Commentary: The husband
does not cause her to commit adultery by the divorce if she has already
fallen into fornication. Therefore, he has some justification for divorcing
her in this case... BUT... he might want to reconsider even that because the
one who ends up marrying her after he divorces her would be committing
adultery!]
2) Whoever marries a divorced woman is committing adultery [Interpretation:
whether or not she was divorced because of adultery. This reading is one
whereby the clause "except for fornication" applies only to the first
consideration of the problem of divorce causing the wife to commit adultery
through remarriage.].
The hardness of our hearts makes hearing this second statement hard to hear,
but it is a possible way to interpret what Jesus is saying here. Notice how
in Mat. 19, the disciples recognize that the man should not marry, and Jesus
then teaches on being a eunuch.
Terry wrote:
God does not see the second marriage as a marriage. He sees one who is
bound to another living in continual sin with someone besides his/her
spouse.
This is your interpretation. Look at the text and consider another
interpretation. Consider that perhaps God does not see continual sin, but
that the adultery is a one time act that violated the covenant. He calls
that violation adultery. Trying to argue for continual adultery is kind of
like saying that after a murderer has killed someone, he commits murder
again if he shoots the body again. It all depends upon how one looks upon
the marriage covenant and what causes the marriage covenant to be violated.
Is the marriage covenant being violated again and again and again or was it
violated at that first sin?
I put this forward primarily to try and help you see how you project
interpretation into the text. The really important point here is to
understand the end of the conversation that Jesus has in this passage. What
Jesus is trying to communicate (IMO) is that divorce itself causes adultery,
by the one who divorces the wife who has been found unclean according to
Torah and therefore might rightfully divorce her according to Torah, and
also by the one who ends up marrying the woman rightly put away. The thrust
of what Jesus is after is stopping the divorce in the first place. He is
encouraging purity in marriage, and forgiveness for adultery in marriage,
even though the Torah might supposedly give you a right to divorce her. His
point is kind of like, "yeah, Torah allows you to divorce the adulterous
wife, but what God has joined together, let no man put asunder... therefore,
let's live by a higher standard of Torah, which was simply accommodating
your hard heartedness when it gave you the right to divorce for the cause of
adultery."
Terry wrote:
Being born again does not change that. Being born again makes you want to
do right. It does not make doing wrong right. You cannot have one who is
still bound to another.
You are viewing the continued relationship as divorce, but this is based
upon a particular interpretation you have of the text, which is based upon
assumptions you make from your particular culture and biases. Look at it
from this point of view. If adultery has happened, and this was followed
with divorce, then the parties are no longer bound to each other. The
marriage covenant has been canceled. Torah allowed for this.
Please consider carefully why Torah did not allow going back to the first
spouse after the divorce. If we only considered your perspective here of
Mat. 5:32, which is based upon the idea that the divorced woman is still
bound by marriage to the first husband despite the divorce, then the woman
should be allowed to go back to her husband. However, she is not allowed to
do that. This is because Torah recognizes that her marriage covenant has
been violated. She no longer has any rights to her first husband and he no
longer has any rights to her, BECAUSE... THEY ARE NO LONGER BOUND TO EACH
OTHER.
So how do we understand Jesus's teaching? He was speaking to those men
whose wives were found in adultery and were considering their right under
Torah to divorce them. He is encouraging them not to divorce them, because
the one who would marry them would be committing adultery. And... if he
divorces her when she is innocent of adultery, he would be causing her to
commit adultery as she turned to another man for the very things that she
should be receiving from him in her marriage covenant with him.
Terry wrote:
The only valid reason for divorce and remarriage is adultery.
According to Torah, this is true, but the New Covenant has higher standards.
Terry wrote:
That is not to say that there is no valid reason to flee from an abusive
spouse, but remarriage is not an option in those cases.
Is there any room for grace in your theology of marriage covenants? What
other unforgiveable sins are there besides making a mistake in choosing a
spouse? According to your perspective, is the person who engaged in an act
of sexual intercourse before marriage barred from ever marrying anyone if
that person then went and married someone else? How does grace and
forgiveness find expression in your theology of marriage?
Peace be with you.
David Miller.
----------
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you
ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL
PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to
join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.