I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries.
-Jeremiah 3:8a, NIV
“Taking Adultery Seriously!”
This is the tagline for this blog. I have found in my experience as well as countless others I have encountered through this blog that Christians struggle less in condemning divorce than adultery.
It is so backwards.
However, I am not completely surprised. A divorce is a matter of public record. Adultery can be hidden for years if not decades including from one’s spouse–as some here can testify.
I am of the mind to treat divorce like a medically necessary amputation. No one sets out to loose a limb. However, it is better to loose the diseased limb than one’s life.
The “disease” of adultery is killing families and marriages. However, too many Christians are focused on the so-called evils of “amputation” when their energies would be better utilized fighting this lecherous “disease” called adultery.
I agree that not everyone SHOULD get a divorce just as I agree not everyone SHOULD have a limb amputated. However, I want to make clear that those who underwent this necessary sort of soul surgery may not consider divorce evil.
We are grateful that God gave us a way out of that dangerous place with our cheater.
I know I am.
Divorce is not the evil bogeyman in my story. Adultery is. And I assure you if you talk to even a few divorced Christians, you will find my story is not all that unique in that aspect.
Well said! All we hear is the mantra about “divorce” being the scourge on society and in the church. Divorce is a legal *remedy*, it is not the disease itself. Divorce is only “bad” in the sense that it represents the presence of relationship-destroying sin. Sins like adultery, domestic abuse & violence, pedophilia, pornography, substance abuse, criminal behavior, etc.
I didn’t find out about the adultery until I met my new wife. I had to go up to the ex’s house to work on my daughter’s car, and I brought the now-wife with me, figuring the two would have to meet sooner or later if she and I were going to be a thing.
The ex spilled her guts to my girlfriend, confessing to things she’d denied to me! Go figure.