Author: Joe
Last saved by: PJD
Company: GDC

99-09-23.JSH-201 / 

© 1999  Joe Griffin

Review (48): It’s a Wonderful Life: Divorce Gimmicks, Adultery, & Desertion; Motivations for Separation; 1 Cor 7:15
1 Corinthians 7:15 -	But if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the Christian husband or wife is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in the sphere of tranquility.
	(57)	Remember that there is a difference between legal separation and divorce.  There are three circumstances under which the Bible grants permission to obtain a divorce but quite a few where permission is implied by silence to separate.
	(58)	Divorce grants both the right to separate and the right to remarry to the innocent party in three categories:
1.	Divorce Gimmicks: A distortion of the Mosaic Law introduces the principle of the divorce gimmick in Deuteronomy 24:1-4.  Men were accusing their wives of “uncleanness [KJV]” or “indecencies [NASV]” and using this to file for divorce.  Such charges were frivolous and ill defined.  In an attempt to clarify the meaning of this nebulous term, the Rabbinical School of Hillel developed a list of reasons why a husband might consider his wife to be “unclean” and thus “out of favor.”  For example, burning his food, wearing her hair down in public, or being a noisy woman were offences that would allow him to file for a divorce.
In this case the wife is considered to be the innocent party and is given the right to remarry because of the husband’s misapplication of the Law.  She was not guilty of adultery and therefore the divorce was not biblically approved.  The husband is guilty of this miscarriage of justice.  It is the woman who is innocent and may remarry and the husband who is guilty and may not.
There are divorce gimmicks that are used today to unbiblically dissolve marriages and when they are the innocent party has the right to remarry.
2.	Adultery: Our Lord qualified the Deuteronomy 24 passage when questioned by the Pharisees on the subject of divorce in Matthew 19.  We need to take a look at that passage. 
Matthew 19:3 -	Some Pharisees came to the Lord, testing Him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all?”
v 4 -	And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them [ Adam & Ishah ] made them male and female,
v 5 -	and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife [ corporate marriage ] and the two shall become one flesh.’
v 6 -	“Consequently they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore, what God has joined together [ suzeÚgnumi /suzeugnumi / ], let no man tear apart [ cwr…zw /chorizo / ].”
The Lord takes the theologians back to familiar ground, the Garden of Eden.  This is where the corporate institution of marriage was ordained.  It was designed for one man and one woman and it was consummated by the sexual act.  This created both a spiritual and physical union that was so sacred to God that He no longer looked on the husband and wife as two but as one flesh.  
If any human decision results in that union being dissolved than it results in the equivalence of “torn flesh.”
Matthew 19:7 -	The Pharisee said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
v 8 -	He told them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives [ by means of divorce gimmicks ]; but from the beginning [ Adam & Ishah ] it has not been that way.

v 9 -	“I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality [ porne…a / porneia /: fornication or adultery ], and marries another woman commits adultery.”
If the woman commits adultery there is torn flesh.  The husband may file for divorce.  He is the innocent party and may remarry while she is the guilty party and may not.  The reverse is true if the husband commits adultery.
In context, if a husband divorces his wife for any reason other than adultery then he has resorted to a divorce gimmick and he becomes the guilty party while the wife becomes the innocent party.  She may remarry and he may not.  The reverse is true if the wife uses a divorce gimmick.
But both are “torn flesh,” therefore even in the case of the innocent party, a great deal of time is needed for soul healing and spiritual growth before entering into another marriage.
1 Corinthians 7:8 -	I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them to remain even as I [ unmarried ].
		3.	Desertion: This is different from a divorce gimmick.  In desertion the spouse who abandons the other does not seek divorce or separation but simply checks up short.  He or she just leaves.  In this case the innocent party may seek the divorce and has the right to remarry.  This is documented in the verse we are now analyzing, 1 Corinthians 7:15. 
	(59)	There are a number of reasons a spouse would be motivated to seek a separation.  These are problems prosecuted by the laws of divine establishment under human jurisprudence but which are not mentioned in Scripture as reasons for divorce.  They include brutality, drunkenness, drug addiction, incest, use of pornography, voyeurism, compulsive gambling, sexual molestation of children, violence, criminality, homicidal tendencies, suicidal tendencies, life-threatening circumstances, bodily injury, or clinical mental conditions.  Since the Bible remains silent on such matters it means that management of them is left to the free will of the innocent victims involved.  Separation is an option but remarriage is not.  The innocent spouse must remain unmarried until the guilty spouse either remarries or dies at which point the innocent spouse would be free to remarry.  The innocent party should use the time in the interim to grow in grace and allow doctrine to heal the soul’s wounds caused by the former mate.
	(60)	Why is there no right to remarry under such circumstances?  Because they are too easily converted into divorce gimmicks.  If proper biblical analysis had been utilized prior to marriage such tendencies as these would have been revealed by means of discernment. 
(61)	The attraction stage of romance is based almost entirely on emotion often complicated by lust.  Unfortunately this stage is where marriage too frequently occurs.  Care must be taken to discern the trends of the one you are dating to determine if there is soul compatibility or not.