Hebrews 13:4 - Divorce and remarriage

• Definition of terms:
  • Married – relationship between man and woman
  • Bound – relationship between man, woman, and God
  • Divorce – See Matthew 5:31. Divorce is when the marriage is severed.
  • Loosed – When one is freed from a marriage. One may be either loosed by God’s law or civil government or both.
• Galatians 5:22
• Marrying someone who is bound to another is adultery.
• Three things that prevent divorce:
  • Love and respect for God’s law
  • Love and care for the wellbeing of your spouse
  • Doing your part in the marriage – don’t ask if you are being treated right.
• I Corinthians 7:15 – Some argue that a person is left unbound and can remarry in this case, but that’s not what this verse is saying. It’s referring to spousal duties. If the other spouse leaves, those duties cannot be performed.
• Some teach that the alien sinner is not amenable to God’s marriage law. WE don’t see such a distinction anywhere in the Bible. God’s marriage law is for all mankind.
• Some teach that because all sins are forgiven at baptism, one can stay in an adulterous relationship after he is baptized. This is false. We cannot continue in sin just because we are baptized!
• Some teach that if one spouse is loosed, the other is also. This is not what the scripture teaches.
• Matthew 19:9 – Divorce for the cause of adultery is the only way marriage is allowed. Some teach that adultery after the divorce allows the other spouse to remarry, but this does not match what we see in the scriptures.

Hebrews 13:5-6

• Hebrews 13:5-6 – See Colossians 5:6. Let us live without covetousness. Putting anything ahead of God is equivalent to adultery with God.