Voddie Baucham gave a great sermon on the The Permanence Of Marriage. He does not believe the Bible gives any biblical reason to initiate a divorce. For those of you who have divorced and remarried, instead of trying to justifying past actions, he encourages you to be broken over your past sin, repent, and decide to be a vow keeper from this day forward. If you try and justify your past divorce, you are telling the spouse you have now that there may be cause for a divorce from them also if they commit some sin. Tell your current spouse you will never break your vow to them, "I meant what I said when I said, 'Until death do us part.'"
In Matthew 19, the Pharisees come to Jesus and ask him if there is any lawful cause to put away one's wife? Jesus responds, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let no man put asunder."
They then remind Jesus that Moses commanded the men to give a writing of divorcement and put their wives away. {Which is untrue. Moses never commanded such a thing but since there was so much divorce going around, he told them that by divorcing their wives, they were causing their wives to commit adultery when they remarry. If the wife had already committed adultery, she made herself an adulterer.}
Jesus' responded, "Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so."
Then in I Corinthians 7:15 where Paul writes, "But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases..." This verse still doesn't allow divorce. The believer whose spouse leaves still should stay faithful to his/her wedding vow until death do they part.
The only time the Bible states that someone can remarry is if their spouse dies. {Romans 7:2,3} Therefore, I will never encourage anyone to ever divorce their spouse. I will always encourage you to keep your vows for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for rich or for poor.
Voddie ended his sermon by saying that he tells his wife, "If you leave me, I'm going with you!" Let us be covenant keepers and always encourage others to do the same. We will show love, grace, and forgiveness to those who have divorced and remarried, but we will always teach the importance and high value God puts on marriage until death do us part, since it is an illustration of Christ and His church.
