The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

What is the Bible’s standard of divorce? 

Answer

You know, there’s a tape on that that covers it in great length and if you really want to know it in detail, you need to get the tape.  But let me draw your attention quickly… 

Deuteronomy 24 is the first passage that deals with this issue.  In Deuteronomy 24:1, “When a man taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he’s found some uncleanness in her, that he write her a bill of divorcement, given in her hand, and send her out of his house.”  Now, here the Bible provided for divorce.  This is the first indication of divorce.  From the beginning, God didn’t want it that way.  From the beginning, it was not so.  But, in the beginning, God designed that a man and a woman should leave their parents, cleave to one another, and they two should become one flesh, and that’s the way it ought to be for good.

But because of the hardness of hearts, according to what Jesus said, God had permitted a bill of divorcement and under certain circumstances this could happen.  In Isaiah 50:1, God recognized a bill of divorcement.  In Jeremiah 3:1, God refers to this passage in Deuteronomy, again indicating that He had permitted it and He had allowed it. 

So, it was a bona fide act of God and it was done because of the hardness of hearts.  God did not want to force people to have to maintain a shameful relationship.  He is merciful and He desired to release the innocent one from a bond of a shameful union. 

Now, there were some cases where absolutely no divorce was permitted.  You’ll find those in chapter 22:13-19.  So, God was very explicit.  But the very fact that there were cases in which divorce is stated to be not permitted indicates there would be other cases where it would be permitted. 

Now you see here this statement “a bill of divorcement” in verse 1.  It was mandatory in the case of dismissal and had several purposes.  One, it was a testimonial to the innocence of the one who was released.  Two, it gave evidence of legal freedom to remarry.  Three, it protected the woman’s reputation.  It was a certificate of innocence.  The right to freedom then (because of innocence), the right to remarry, and the protection of a reputation were at stake.

Now, some say, “What is uncleanness?” because that’s the first grounds for divorce.  Is it sexual adultery?  Not really in this text.  The reason I say that is because when somebody committed adultery in the Old Testament, what was the judgment?  Stoning.  So, divorce wasn’t the response to adultery; stoning was.  Uncleanness then would be shameful and—notice this, this is important: those people knew that if they committed adultery, they would pay with their life.  So you know what the temptation was to do then?  Everything short of that.  See?  Everything just up to that point.  And so the temptation would be to just go almost that far.  Well, in a shameful union, God wanted to permit a release for an innocent party in the case where the partner was doing that continuously and always stopping short lest he lose his life or she lose her life, but still shaming and shaming and shaming.  Do you see?

But Jesus took that thing and qualified it even further in Matthew, chapter 5, and He removed the uncleanness and brought it to this…  In Matthew 5:31: “It hath been said , ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement,’ but I say to you”—and here Jesus really supersedes the Old Testament—“anybody that puts away his wife except for the cause of fornication,” that is, sexual involvement, “causes her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.”

There’s only then one ground for divorce, according to Jesus.  That is adultery.  That’s all.

Now, in I Corinthians 7:10-11, you have the further word on divorce.  It says there: “Unto the married, I command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband.”  God doesn’t want people separating.  “But if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband.”  And again you see God says, “If they’re apart, let them be rejoined.”   

But, verse 15: “If the unbelieving depart, let him depart; a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God hath called us to peace.”  The only other case Paul allowing here for divorce is where you have the case of an unbeliever who leaves.  He departs, let him depart; a believer is not “in bondage.”  He is not in bondage.  And so this seems to indicate a freedom from that union.

So we find then that the only legitimate causes for divorce in Scripture would be adultery or an unbeliever who departs…  And probably the implication is departing because they cannot tolerate Christian faith.  The Lord doesn’t want a Christian to have to endure constant punishment, year after year, for his faith in Him.

All right now, as I say, that’s covered in further detail in the tape. 

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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