If you are divorced and remarried, do you live in adultery?
The Bible Divorce and Remarry study describes the conditions under which a couple can end their marriage by divorce. The study explains what God considers a Biblical divorce. A biblical divorce has the right to remarry with God's blessing. In short, a biblical divorce is a divorce that occurs because the offending spouse has committed a sexual sin with someone other than their spouse (bestiality, homosexuality, heterosexuality, or incest) or because a non-Christian spouse has obtained a divorce. Anyone who has a biblical divorce has the right to remarry with God's blessing. Any other divorce or remarriage does not have God's blessing and is sin.
How to commit adultery
Matthew 5:32 records the first declaration on divorce and adultery that Jesus made in the gospels.
. . . but I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immodesty, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (NASB) Matthew 5:32
The easiest way to understand the meaning of this passage is to remove the key phrase “except for the reason of lack of chastity”. Here is the same verse with the sentence removed.
. . . but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife. . . makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (NASB) Matthew 5:32 edited
The Greek words for "commits adultery" and "commits adultery" come from the root words moicheuo and gameo. The first word, moicheuo, is in the passive aorist tense, which means that the divorce act has taken place and Jesus assumes that the wife remarried. As a result, the ex-wife and the man who marries her commit adultery. Further information is provided in Matthew 19: 9; Mark 10: 11-12 and Luke 16:18. In Mark 10: 11-12, Jesus uses the illustration of a wife divorcing her husband.
And I tell you: whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery. Matthew 19: 9 (NASB)
And He said to them: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery “. Mark 10: 11-12 (NASB)
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a divorced person commits adultery. Luke 16:18 (NASB)
To induce someone else to commit adultery
The second word, gameo, is also in the aorist time which means that the woman committed adultery at some point in the time she married another man. Note that any divorced spouse who remarries commits adultery and causes the new spouse to commit adultery, unless the divorce was "for the sake of shamelessness." Shamelessness is also translated as immorality or porneia.
These passages reveal that the man or woman who does not remarry is therefore not guilty of adultery. If one of the divorced spouses marries, they will be an adulterer or an adulteress according to Romans 7: 3.
Therefore, if while her husband is alive she is united with another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not adulterous although she is united with another man. Romans 7: 3 (NASB)
Why is he called an adulterer or is she called an adulteress? The answer is that they have committed the sin of adultery.
What should I do? I have committed adultery
Adultery can be forgiven, but that doesn't change the fact that it was a sin. A stigma is sometimes attributed to the terms "adultery", "adulterer" and "adulteress". But this is not biblical. God did not ask us to wallow in our sins after we confessed our sin to Him and accepted His forgiveness. Romans 3:23 reminds us that everyone has sinned.
. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. . Romans 3:23 (NASB)
All sin and many have even committed adultery! The apostle Paul harassed, mistreated, and threatened many Christians (Acts 8: 3; 9: 1, 4). In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul called himself the first (protos) of sinners. However, in Philippians 3:13 he said he ignored the past and went forward in serving Christ.
Brothers, I don't consider myself as having grabbed it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching out for what lies ahead, I push myself towards the reward goal of God's calling upward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3: 13-14 (NASB)
This means that once we confess our sins (1 John 1: 9), we are forgiven. Paul then exhorts us to forget and to go on thanking God for his forgiveness.
I have committed adultery. Should I cancel it?
Some couples who have committed adultery by marrying when they should not have done so have wondered whether they would have to divorce in order to undo the adultery. The answer is no, because that would lead to another sin. Committing another sin does not undo a previous sin. If the couple has honestly, sincerely from the bottom of their hearts confessed the sin of adultery, they have been forgiven. God has forgotten him (Psalm 103: 12; Isaiah 38:17; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:19). We must never forget that God hates divorce (Malachi 2:14).
Other couples wonder if they should divorce their current spouse and go back to their former spouse. The answer is again "no" because divorce is a sin, unless the current spouse has had sex with someone else. Furthermore, the remarriage of the former spouse is not possible due to Deuteronomy 24: 1-4.
A person confesses his sin to God when he names sin and admits that he has sinned. For more details, read the article “How Can You Forgive the Sin of Adultery? - Is sin forever? ”To understand how long adultery lasts, read:“ What is the Greek word for 'commits adultery' in Matthew 19: 9? "
Conclusion:
Divorce was not in God's original plan. God allows it only because of the hardness of our hearts (Matthew 19: 8-9). The effect of this sin is like any other sin; there are always inevitable consequences. But don't forget that God forgives this sin when it is confessed. He forgave King David who killed the husband of the woman with whom David committed adultery. There is no sin that God does not forgive, except unforgivable sin. God also does not forgive sin when our confession is not sincere and we are not truly repentant. Repentance means that we are committed to never repeating sin.