Reminder: Gospel Witness and Divorce

So this was the plan they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families, designating each of the representatives by name. On December 29, the leaders sat down to investigate the matter. By March 27, the first day of the new year, they had finished dealing with all the men who had married pagan wives. These are the priests who had married pagan wives: From the family of Jeshua son of Jehozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. They vowed to divorce their wives, and they each acknowledged their guilt by offering a ram as a guilt offering.

– Ezra 10:16-19, NLT

Does divorcing an adulterous spouse destroy one’s Gospel witness?

In other words, does divorce de facto dishonor God?

These are the questions on my mind and heart today as I ponder Scripture on adultery and divorce. I wonder how much we have imported our own evangelical sub-culture’s aversion to divorce to the exclusion of God’s heart on the matter.

 

To some degree, I get the concern about divorce running rampant within the Christian community. It looks really bad when God’s people are not keeping their covenant promises.

 

Marriage is supposed to image Christ’s relationship with the Church (see Eph 5). It does not look good when Christian men and women are divorcing their spouses.

 

However, I would argue such an understanding is far too simplistic, and it reinforces a damaging, shaming environment for all divorcees regardless of the circumstances of their divorce, which is to say it is unjust and ungodly. 

 

Since God divorces over adultery (Jeremiah 3:8), then certainly we ought not to shame our brothers and sisters who divorce over similar adulterous circumstances!

 

Furthermore, the idea of covenant people being separated–i.e. divorced–from God is present in the Biblical witness as well:

We know from Scripture that many will say they follow Christ as well as many thought they were safe within the nation of Israel, yet God will turn them away on the Judgment Day because they never knew Him as evidenced by their wicked choices (e.g. Jeremiah 3:8, Mt 7:21-23, Mt. 25:31ff, Hebrews 6:4-8, I Cor. 6:9-10).

In other words, that is to say the “Great Divorce” is coming for many who are living in sin and denying God by their actions (to borrow terminology from C.S. Lewis’ book-long parable on Heaven and Hell entitled The Great Divorce).

 

Divorce is not a sin. If it was, then today’s passage from Ezra would make absolutely no sense.

 

Ezra is calling the people of God to divorce their pagan wives! I find it hard to believe God would have His priest and prophet call His people to sin.

 

Now, I am not suggesting this is a mandate for us today. Much is going on in the passage from Ezra that is not directly applicable to the garden variety, adulterous situation today. However, I am making the point that the Bible does actually command divorce in the name of being a holy people–i.e. a holy people bringing honor to God’s Name!

The Bible does actually command divorce in the name of being a holy people–i.e. a holy people bringing honor to God’s Name!

 

Such a passage or command may make little to no sense in a culture so distanced from understanding God’s holiness and desire for His people’s holiness.

 

Holiness matters to God.

 

And that is in part why divorce is on the table in the case of adultery. After all, God instructed His people to purge such evil by a death penalty to anyone daring to violate the sanctity of marriage by committing adultery (Deut. 22:22 and Lev. 20:10). God is deadly serious about stopping adultery in His people.

 

It is hard to sweep adultery under the rug when a divorce has taken place. Divorce begs the question: Why?

 

As a divorcee myself, I know this is the case especially in the evangelical Christian community. Whether it is articulated or not, people want to know why a Christian has divorced (doubly so, if you are a minister).

 

Such a situation poses a dilemma to the faithful spouse: Do I tell them the truth about my former spouse’s adultery? Or do I hide the truth in pleasant niceties because I do not think these naive Christians want to deal with the ugly truth?

 

I encourage all faithful spouses to choose to speak the ugly truth if asked.

 

You do not have to slander your spouse. Just tell those asking what behavior took place that ended the marriage.

 

For example, I am divorced because my former spouse abandoned me, chose adultery, and refused to end her affair; (I gave her the option to end her affair and work on the marriage or to continue with the divorce. She chose divorce and keeping her affair partner). Those are the actions that ended my marriage. It sounds bad because what was done was bad.

 

In the end, I think holiness and walking in the truth honors God more than living a lie and enabling sin.

 

Sometimes this might mean divorcing a spouse who refuses to repent from adultery. So, I actually see staying in a marriage still fractured by unrepentant adultery as a worse Gospel witness than divorcing an unrepentant adulterous spouse.

 

Also, in my mind, shaming a faithful spouse for divorcing an unrepentant adulterer or adulteress is far more damaging to the Gospel witness than the actual divorce. It sends a clear message to faithful spouses that God rejects them and partners with their abuser–i.e. the adulterous spouse.

 

When will the Church arise and become more concern with eternal holiness than a marital status due to expire on this temporal earth?

 

When will holiness be more important to the Gospel community than simply staying in a marriage that continues to be ravaged by adultery?

 

I hope soon.

 

Does divorcing an adulterous spouse destroy one’s Gospel witness?

 

No.

 

Rather, refusing to address the adulterous sin undermines the Gospel witness.

 

“…for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'”

– I Peter 1:16, NIV

 

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*A version of this post ran previously.