It was our practice during our time of
ministry to remarry those who had been divorced, and a close friend castigated
me roundly for doing so. How could I marry those who had been divorced when Malachi
2:16 makes it clear God hates it?
Christians continue to debate whether divorce
or remarriage is permissible. Some deny divorce for the believer, because God
hates divorce. Others agree that God has made allowance for divorce because of
the hardness our hearts, Matthew 19:8, but deny the possibility of remarriage.
Still others maintain that the reason for
divorce is to allow remarriage; if remarriage is forbidden, then permission for
divorce is unnecessary.
This debate stigmatizes those divorced for
legitimate reasons, and casts additional suspicion on those who remarry. We all
should be passionate about marriage and its permanence, but it is cruel to
translate that into lack of compassion for those caught in intolerable
marriages.
I could not argue with my friend that God liked
divorce, but it was clear to me that God’s provision for it was an act of grace
towards us all. Some of us will not sustain one, and none of us can make the
perfect marriage.
But God’s grace provided more than that; it
was the source of forgiveness for all
sin, and I had accepted that grace for me personally. How could I not pass the
same grace of God to those coming to me? If I was to err at all, it had to be
on the side of grace and not the law.
Adapted
for Happy Together: Daily Insight for Families from Scripture, a marriage
devotional by Ann and Bryan Norford
