Even a faithful spouse “choosing” to divorce their cheater is really not the choice.
They had chosen to be married for life to a person who left all others. However, that person decided to change things. They chose adultery. That just left bad options for the faithful spouse.
The faithful spouse choosing divorce is a person who is choosing the mercy to end the abuse as adultery is abuse.
Divorce was not sought out. It became a necessary like a surgery to amputate an gangrene limb.
You could tell a patient who chose amputation in this situation that they CHOSE it afterwards, and that would be technically correct. Yet they really were choosing life over death from a disease. That’s the real choice. Context matters.
No one–unless something was wrong–would just seek out amputation. The same is true about divorce.
Christians need to understand this. All divorce is not the same. Adultery is the gangrene that calls for “amputation.” This sort of divorce is a mercy and gift from God to preserve the life of the faithful spouse, I am convinced (e.g. Mt 19:9).
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*A version of this post ran previously.
