Divorce and Remarriage

7/22/2001

Hey,

How do you guys respond to people you come in contact with who have been divorced and are now living in a second marriage? I’m not asking for you to give me a “how to,” I just want to know what you have found the Lord leading you to do in the past...

Your sis,

Certainly we are WELL aware of every Scripture in existence on the subject. Of course. Catch this though: Practically, I know of no other way of dealing with “marriage and divorce” and a thousand other such issues than to DISCERN in the midst of committed “from the least to the greatest” daily Life. Every situation is different, with its own specific issues and nuances.

In one case, we might be certain as we walked in depth for some time with a married couple (“smelling the fruit” with no preconceived notion, but watching to see what GOD was saying in the midst of it) that God is very unhappy with whatever they had done and whatever had transpired. The legal paperwork that allowed them to claim they were married (because the “state” said so) is nonsense, and they were obviously living in adultery and under God’s judgment. There would always be chaos and contradiction and an odor, as long as they perpetuate this faulty covenant, while still under another.

In another case, AS WE WALK WITH THEM, it becomes clear that whatever had happened and whatever details had marred their past, God honors their current state (marriage—a second for either of the partners), and so would we. How anyone could EVER make a series of “doctrinal” statements to “define” it all (knowing full well that there are many reasonable, sensible, and honest interpretations of different passages in 1Corinthians 7; Mat.19:9, etc.) “forever more”... well, that’s just haughty and foolish. It MUST be discerned in the midst of LIFE (which few people HAVE, so they must resort to their minds and their own private interpretations). “The LIFE becomes the Light of men.” “The CHURCH: the pillar and foundation of Truth.”

All of that to say... there isn’t a “how to” (you guessed right), and most would be VERY hard pressed to “guess” correctly even 50% of the time. Since most folks don’t LIVE as the “Bible” says to live (but rather as an individual in their hidden lives, or as a Body of Believers that lives nothing like what God has called His People to as a Church), “interpreting” nuances and complex situations will not be possible for them. They will perpetually judge an unrighteous judgment (by allowing what must not be tolerated, and forbidding what God has honored) because they are in an unBiblical environment trying to interpret the Bible. It would be like sitting all day, every day, in a Denny’s restaurant at the counter eating donuts, commenting on the deep mysteries of the universe, the global economy, brain surgery, and astrophysics. It’s just talk if you’re not in the MIDDLE of the Life that SPAWNED the Bible. THAT’S the only way to really know... “the LIFE became the Light of men.”