1 Corinthians 7:1-11

Sermon Transcript

It’s eleven verses, but I want to read them all and then go back and go through and unpack them section by section. There are three main sections in this text, and beginning in verse 1, Paul says, “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me,”—I’m going to come back to that point. This is a new section of the book of Corinthians whereby Paul is going to be answering questions that they asked him. He’s answering specific questions that they asked him, and he’s dealing with the subject of marriage. “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication”—which is the Greek word porneía, which means sexual immorality—“let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 4 The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. 5 Defraud”—or rob—“ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency”—my King James Bible has, but it’s for your lack of self control.

Verse 6, “But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. 7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. 8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. 9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. 10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.”

It’s sad to say that the words of Paul the apostle as recorded in this chapter have been the basis for a lot of misinterpretation and misunderstanding. There are those that feel like Paul is anti-women, anti-marriage, that he was a single man that didn’t like women and didn’t like marriage. To quote one critic of Paul, he said, “He’s a narrow, ascetic warped and twisted man who hated women and despised marriage,” end quote. Nothing could be further from the truth. In Ephesians 5 he says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Paul believed actually that the marriage relationship was a picture of Christ and His Church.

We’re going to learn a lot about marriage even though technically Paul isn’t teaching about marriage in a general, broad sense, he’s answering specific questions that they asked him about. I want to remind you of these two important things that we need to keep in mind as we study this text. Paul is not dealing with the subject of marriage in a general way but answering specific questions that the Corinthians had asked him.

Up to this point in the book, Paul was writing about the division. Now he’s writing about the questions that they asked him. I don’t know if you’d be able to get them all quickly, but the first was about marriage problems, 1 Corinthians 7:1-24; the second was about virgins or the unmarried women, verse 25; the third was about food offered to idols, 1 Corinthians 8:1; and then they were asking about the responsibility of women within the church, 1 Corinthians 11:2; then there were questions about the Communion service or the Lord’s supper. We’re going to get some real good insight as Paul describes what’s that about, 1 Corinthians 11:17. They asked him about spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians 12:1, and we’re going to look at that over several weeks. They asked about the doctrine of the physical resurrection from the dead, one of the great chapters in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 15, and I can’t wait to get there. It’s an awesome chapter. They also asked about a special relief collection, an offering that they were gathering, and they wanted instruction about how to deal with those issues.

The second thing we need to keep in mind is we need to remember that the instructions Paul gives in this chapter were in light of special conditions existing at that time and that place in Corinth. Let me repeat that. There were certain special circumstances that were there in Corinth that led Paul to say certain things about singleness and marriage, and we need to keep that in mind. Let me show you a quick peak at verse 26, I’ll show you what I’m talking about. He said, “I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress,”—he’s talking about the benefit of being single and not married—“ . . . is good for the present distress”—underline that little phrase “present distress.” They were going through a time of great difficulty and perhaps persecution, so Paul was leaning toward encouraging them that singleness was a blessing at that time because of the persecution. He said, “I say, that it is good for a man so to be.”

He’s not going to command anyone to be single. He’s not going to command anyone to be married. It’s all optional. You may be married; you may be single. It’s about God’s gifting and calling on your life. So, in answering the questions, Paul addressed his counsel. Here’s the seven issues that we have in 1 Corinthians 7. First, those who are married are addressed, verses 1-7, we get it tonight. Secondly, there’s the unmarried and widows, verses 8-9, this is all 1 Corinthians 7. Thirdly, which we’ll again cover tonight, Christian couples—a Christian husband married to a Christian wife—verses 10-11. Fourthly, we have mixed couples, meaning a Christian married to a non-Christian. What do you do when you have a heathen husband or a heathen wife? Is it okay to divorce them and find yourself a good Christian spouse? What do you do in that situation? That’s verses 12-24. Fifthly, singles are addressed in verses 25-35, so there’s something for everyone. Sixthly, we find the parents of singles, those who have daughters who are unwed as to whether you should give them in marriage, verses 36-38. Seventhly, we’ll be addressing widows, verses 39-40. I just wanted to give kind of a quick survey. I know I’m just rattling these off, but they appear there on the screen.

The three divisions for tonight are verses 1-7. Let’s look first of all at the married individual. We want to talk to those who are married. Go back with me to verse 1. He says, “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” Stop right there. The questions that were asked that Paul’s answering, we do not have. It’s kind of like Jeopardy!. I’m not a Jeopardy! guy, but whenever I watch Jeopardy!, just little tidbits here, I can’t believe how smart those people are and that they can give the questions to the answers. It took me years to figure out what’s going on here—they put the answers and you have to ask the questions—but you don’t know what the question is, like, “I don’t know.” So, we do not know for sure what the questions were, we can only take the answers and try to figure out what the question was.

Let me give you some general thoughts about what the question was. It seems to be, and in context at the end of chapter 6, Paul had been talking about your body is not for sexual immorality. We haven’t been in this study of Corinthians in three weeks, but if you back up into the sixth chapter, he was talking about your body is for the Lord, it’s not for sexual immorality. It seems as though, and in the wicked culture of Corinth—they had the Temple of Aphrodite with a thousand sacred prostitutes, and that was part of their worship of Aphrodite—these Christians were saying that, “It’s a good idea to stay celibate; it’s a good idea to stay single. It’s a good idea not to get married. It’s a good idea to avoid sexual contact of any kind,” so that’s possibly what they were thinking and saying and doing. Also, as you study this chapter, it’s very possible that many of them were abandoning their wives, abandoning their husbands, in order to “be devoted to God,” or “live a deeply spiritual life,” and Paul is writing to instruct them that that’s not what they should do as married individuals.

Let me give you some straight out points for each verse as we go through this, and the subpoints will appear on the screen. The first is that singleness is good. Singleness is good, singleness is okay, and it’s acceptable. When he says, “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman,” what he’s talking about is actually, “touch” is a euphemism for having sexual connection or intercourse with a woman. He’s actually saying it’s okay. If God’s leading you to be celibate, God’s leading you to be single, that’s fine. But he’s also saying that you should not be involved, chapter 6 leading into chapter 7, in sexual immorality, which is actually sex outside of marriage. If you’re not in a covenant relationship of marriage—one man, one woman, a monogamous relationship—then you have no right as a Christian or you’re sinning against God and the other person, if you’re getting involved sexually with that individual, so he says basically, “It is good for a man not to”—be sexually involved with a woman. This actually involves premarital sexual relationships that are forbidden for those who are not married.

Sex is not sinful. It’s not evil of itself. It’s made for the covenant relationship of marriage. Outside of the covenant relationship of marriage, it is out of God’s will. It is damaging and detrimental. I liken it unto a garden outside in your yard where you have beautiful soil. Those of you that grow lots of flowers, those of you that grow vegetables, you know that soil can actually be a beautiful thing - right? - beautiful, nice soil, and you’ve got the flowers growing. But if you took a handful of that dirt or soil, which is beautiful in the garden, and threw it on the floor in your living room or in the kitchen, it’s no longer beautiful anymore. It’s out of place. That’s what he’s basically saying that you shouldn’t be using this gift of God out of God’s will or God’s design in the covenant relationship of marriage.

Paul did not say that singleness is better or necessary, only that it is good and that it is acceptable. There’s the other side of the coin, too, and it can even happen today where people actually emphasize marriage to the point where they insist that everyone be married. The Bible commands no one to be married. There’s no command to be married, but it says that it’s good to be single, it’s good to be married. They’re both gifts of God, we’re going to see, so he’s basically trying to get them focused on God’s order and God’s gift. He didn’t say it’s better, but he said it’s good or acceptable.

Again, I want to point out that sexual relationships with your husband, with your wife, are blessed of God. In Hebrews 13, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

Here’s the second point, verse 2, marriage is commended. It is commended. It’s not commanded, it’s commended. Notice verse 2, “Nevertheless, to avoid”—sexual immorality. Now, verse 1, it’s great to be single. It’s great to not touch a woman, “Nevertheless, to avoid”—and here’s the word, verse 2, in my King James Bible—“fornication”—it’s the Greek word porneía, where we get our word ‘pornographic’ from. It’s talking about as a general term for sexual immorality. We live in a culture today that has taken down all the borders, all the lines are crossed. There’s no such thing as sexual immorality. Two consenting adults can do anything they want anytime, but God says, “No.” This is not His will. So, to avoid sexual immorality, “ . . . let every man have his own wife.”

I want you to circle some words, if you feel led or have the liberty or put them in your notes, “man” and “wife,” and then “own.” Notice, “ . . . and let every woman have her own husband.” Paul’s not teaching about marriage, but he puts his stamp of God’s order and divine design on it in this verse. Marriage is a man and a woman. There is no such thing as a marriage apart from that—a heterosexual man and woman. The wife is the “woman,” the husband is the “man.”

I want you to write down Genesis 2:18-25. That’s a foundational chapter where it talks about the first marriage. By the way, a little plug for my book on marriage. I have a book on marriage called, Marriage and the Bible, and I have a whole chapter based on this text of Scripture. But in Genesis it said that God made man in His image and in likeness, and He looked at man and said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” Someone said, “God made Adam and then looked at Adam and said, ‘I can do better than that,’ and then made the woman.” Someone said, “God made Adam, and He knew that Adam would be too proud to ask for directions when he got lost, so He made the woman.” I don’t know about that. That was pre-GPS.

But God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him,”—a helper suitable for him. So, He caused this deep sleep to fall upon Adam. Then, the Bible says He took from his rib and made the woman, and He brought the woman to the man. Adam woke up from a nap and found out he was married. It blew his mind. But when he saw Eve, he was absolutely excited. He was absolutely thrilled. He said, “Wow, man!” so it became “woman.” “ . . . bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman . . . .”

Now, Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, gave us commentary on that narrative and gives us the foundation for God’s design of marriage, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave”—be glued together—“unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Jesus, in Matthew 19, said, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” That became the foundation for marriage. Marriage is God’s idea. Marriage is God’s design—man, wife; man and woman; husband and wife. We have it there in verse 2.

In verse 2 we see that marriage is commended. Why? Because of the sinfulness of the city to avoid sexual immorality. You think that we are bombarded with sexual images in our culture today? We are, and that day was really bad as well, so God gave us marriage to protect us.

Now, marriage is also, as I said, between a man and a woman. That is God’s design, and this verse, verse 2, shows us that the fulfillment of sexual needs within the marriage relationship is right and fidelity to that relationship is enjoined upon each partner. Notice again, verse 2, “ . . . let every man have his own wife”—underline the word ‘own’—“and let every woman have her own husband,”—the importance of being committed to your spouse. Notice, thirdly, in verse 3, married people should meet the sexual needs of each other in the covenant relationship of marriage. Verse 3, “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence”—this is the conjugal rights of your spouse—“and likewise also the wife unto the husband.” If you’re not willing to do that, you shouldn’t get married.

If you came to me for counseling before you were going to get married, I would read these verses to you, I would explain them, and make you understand that you’re going to have a duty, a responsibility, to meet the sexual need of your spouse—your husband or your wife. We’re going to see your body is not your own, it belongs to your husband, it belongs to your wife. That’s what the verse is actually teaching. If you’re not willing to do that, then you shouldn’t get married.

If you’re single, it’s good “ . . . not to touch a woman,” but on the other side of that, if you’re married, it is good to touch your wife, to touch your husband. Sexual intimacy is for marriage and to be a part of a healthy marriage relationship, and we’re going to see you should not “defraud,” when we get to verse 5, one another. That phrase, verse 3, “due benevolence” is talking about your conjugal rights in a relationship of marriage as God has designed it—“due benevolence.” It’s so very important.

Now, it’s talking about the word “render” is a command in the Greek, and it’s in the present tense. This is actually an imperative. Husbands and wives, married people, this is a command. Some of the guys tonight are going, “Praise the Lord! Preach it, brother. Preach it, brother,” and maybe some of the wives are as well. That’s wonderful. But it is a gift in the marriage relationship that is to be enjoyed, bring pleasure, and also produce children as God has designed, “Be fruitful, and multiply . . . .” Sexual intimacy should be a constant part of the marital union and relationship.

In the New Living Translation, Proverbs 5:15-19, let me just read it to you, “Drink water from your own well—share your love only with your wife. 16 Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone? 17 You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers. 18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. 19 She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.” That’s the New Living Translation, but that’s the Bible. I was reading the Bible. Some people think that Christians are against sex. No, it’s God’s idea. God created it. God designed it to be enjoyed in the covenant relationship of marriage.

We move fourthly to verse 4, marital partners belong to each other. Look at verse 4, “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.” That doesn’t mean that you can order the spouse around or command them to do certain things, we’re going to see it’s going to need to be a mutual commitment, but you are one—your body belongs to your wife, your wife’s body belongs to you; and the husband is to love his wife as his own body it says in Ephesians, “For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” That word “nourish” and “cherish” means to warm with body heat. It means to show affection, so you have to show affection in your words and in your actions toward your spouse, meeting their emotional needs. Marital partners belong to each other.

I thought years ago when I was teaching this, and I’ve taught this passage in marriage retreats many times, it struck me that if you’re married, there’s only one person that can meet your sexual need, and that’s your husband or wife. You never go outside of that, not pornography or adultery or sensuality and other ways. It always has to be found in the covenant relationship of marriage.

Fifthly, married persons should not rob or defraud each other. Verse 5, “Defraud ye not one the other,”—which means to rob your spouse. Don’t defraud them. Notice there is an exception in verse 5, “ . . . except it be with consent for a time,”—a designated period of time—“that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your”—lack of self-control. This is so practical and important in a marriage relationship. We see here that married persons should not rob or defraud each other. The phrase “defraud” could be also translated cheat or rob them.

I want to make some points. Sexual abstinence in marriage must be of mutual consent where the husband and wife both agree that they’re going to abstain. It’s a mutual agreement. Secondly, it must be for the purpose of fasting and praying. That’s the specific exception given in verse 5. We see, thirdly, that intimacy should be resumed, in order that Satan should not tempt you to fulfill your desires outside the marriage relationship. Notice it says, “ . . . with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you”—for your lack of self control.

Notice in these Scriptures about marriage and these Scriptures about sexual intimacy in marriage the devil is mentioned. Do you know that Satan hates marriage? He hates a godly marriage? He will do everything he can to drive a wedge between a husband and a wife. If you’re a Christian married couple, Satan hates your marriage, and he wants to get a foothold in that relationship. He wants to divide you and separate you. Don’t let the devil get a foothold in your marriage, and you do that by obeying this passage that Paul has laid out here in the Scripture. Don’t let Satan have a foothold.

I love what Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, said; which, by the way, he was a Catholic monk who became a born-again, regenerated individual and left the Catholic church and married a wife. Martin Luther had a wife and had children. He said, “Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” Isn’t that great? Too many times guys after work go to the Fuzzy Frog and get all liquored up to go home, ”I got to go drink before I talk to my wife.” There is no such thing as a “Fuzzy Frog,” I just made that up. And, too many times the wife wants him to leave, “Don’t you have something to do? Why are you just staring at me? Why don’t you go mow the lawn or climb a tree somewhere or do something?” I love that statement, “Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” I love to be with men who love their wives, and they love to go home to their wives, and they love to be with their wives, instead of the opposite of trying to get away from their wives.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher from England, said, “If the home was ruled according to God’s Word, angels could be invited to dwell with us and they wouldn’t feel out of their element.” As we gather here on Wednesday night and Sundays, angels are here listening to us worship. But did you know that when you leave they jump in your car and go home with you? Then, when you start arguing at home they say, “Okay! We’re outta here!” and they split. They don’t feel at home any longer, so we want a home and a marriage where angels can feel at home with us. Amen? So, don’t defraud one another. Never, ever use sexual intimacy as a weapon against your spouse. You do that, you’re inviting the devil to come into your home, into your marriage. You’re driving a wedge between you and your spouse, so you need to be careful and guard against that. It’s very, very, very dangerous.

Verses 6 and 7, Paul says, “But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.” We need to understand what Paul means here. What he means is that he is speaking this, he’s not out of his own mind or head, but there’s not a specific detailed command that God gave or Jesus gave him, didn’t give him the specifics, but later on in the chapter, at the end of the chapter, he’s saying, “I have the Spirit of God.” Paul is actually saying here, “This is my commentary. This is my ideas. This is my teaching, but there’s not a specific commandment from the Lord.

He says, verse 7, “For I would that all men were even as I myself.” Paul, evidently, was not married. I say “evidently,” because we can’t be sure. It would be clear at this point that he was not married. We don’t know if he was married, and now he’s not married. Maybe his wife died, we don’t know. Paul is basically saying, “You know, there’s no command here. The Lord didn’t speak about this,” but again, he’s speaking with the Spirit of God. “For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift”—notice that, ‘gift’—“of God, one after this manner, and another after that.”

Write down Matthew 19:10-12 where Jesus actually talks about those that are gifted by God to be single and celibate, that it’s a gift from God to be single and celibate. Paul’s going to build on that, so in verse 7, he says, “For I would that all men were even as I myself,”—that they were single, and again, that’s in light of the “present distress” and the need to get the gospel out. “But every man hath his proper gift of God,”—so it is a gift from God. You have a gift to get married; you have a gift to be single—“one after this manner, and another after that.”

The second main section in this chapter, in this section, is verses 8-9, we move to unmarried and widows. We’re going to come back to widows toward the end of the chapter as well, but unmarried and widows. So, singles, whether or not you’ve just never got married or maybe you’ve been widowed, verse 8, “I say therefore to the unmarried and widows,”—so, if you’re thinking, How do you know it’s to unmarried and widows? That’s what is says, “ . . . to the unmarried and widows.” It’s probably to the unmarried or talking about men who don’t marry, given that gift, and the widows obviously would be a woman who was married, husband died or something happened, and he says, “It is good for them if they abide even as I.” He’s saying it’s not bad, it’s not wrong, it’s not sinful, it’s good. He didn’t say it’s better. It’s a matter of whether again it’s that “gift,” verse 7, that God has given you. It’s a gift from God. But if you want to stay single, that’s commendable. That’s good. That’s fine. Go for it.

Verse 9, “But if they cannot contain,”—he’s talking about sexual desires. If you can’t contain yourself—“let them”—the unmarried male or the widows, if they can’t contain—“marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.” That “burn” by the way there, is burn with an uncontrollable lust. If God has gifted you to be single, He’ll give you that ability. But if He hasn’t, if you don’t have the gift of singleness, then you should get married rather than to burn with uncontrollable lust.

You talk about misinterpreting Scripture, years ago I was talking to a fellow that told me, “Pastor, did you know that if you’re not married, you’re going to hell?” I said, “What?” He said, “Yeah, it’s in the Bible. If you’re not married, you’re going to hell.” I said, “Where in the Bible is that?” And he actually gave me this verse, “ . . . it is better to marry than to burn.” I thought, Are you crazy? You talk about twisting Scripture and taking it out of context. It’s talking about an uncontrollable lust, you’re burning with lust, then you certainly should go ahead and get married, that’s why every husband should have his own wife, and every wife should have her own husband, and that you should commit yourself to meeting the other person’s need. You shouldn’t be focused on your need but the need of your spouse, and you don’t want Satan then to tempt them, and you don’t want to drive them into the arms of another person by not meeting their needs. So, the widows and the unmarried, “It is good for them . . . But if they cannot contain, let them marry,” verses 8-9.

Verses 10-11, and we’ll wrap this up, “And unto the married I command,”—Christian couples, and there’ll be a lot more throughout this chapter for Christian couples—“yet not I, but the Lord,”—earlier, verse 6, there was no direct command from the Lord, now there is a direct command from the Lord. He says, “ . . . yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband.” That “depart” there means to leave him. It means, most likely, to divorce him. Some of the believers in Corinth, thinking that marriage was a bad thing and sex in marriage was a bad thing, were divorcing their spouses, so Paul says, “Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.” I’m going to have a lot more to say about the doctrine of divorce as taught in the Bible next week or the week after, but I want to touch on it here. This “depart” would be like a divorce—you’re abandoning your spouse, you’re departing from them. Then, in verse 11, it’s talking about the husband putting her away. Again, this would be divorcing her.

It’s interesting. That word “put away” in verse 11 is the same word used for the remission of sins or the carrying away of sins. So, don’t throw your spouse away. Don’t divorce them, get rid of them. He’s speaking here to Christian couples.

The background for this, the Lord is commanding, is Matthew 19, one of my favorite sections of Scripture dealing with the subject of marriage. The Jewish authorities came to Jesus, and they were trying to trap Him by getting Him to commit to a certain school of interpretation pertaining to the law of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy concerning divorce, “When a man hath taken a wife . . . hath found some uncleanness in her; then let him write her a bill of divorcement . . . and send her out of his house.” They wanted to know what Jesus thought about divorce, “What do You think about divorce?” They said Moses commanded, he didn’t command it. He allowed them to divorce their wife, he didn’t command them.

So, they came to Jesus and asked Him the questions. This is how Jesus responded. You can look it up, we won’t turn there, but Jesus said, “Have ye not read,”—the Scriptures. I love it that Jesus chided these Jewish authorities, “The problem is you don’t know the Bible.” Here’s one of the problems that we have about marriage is that we don’t know what the Bible teaches. You need to know what the Bible teaches about marriage. He says, “Haven’t you read your Bible?” Then, Jesus quoted Genesis 2, “ . . . that he which made them . . . made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? . . . What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

When they heard Jesus say that they thought, We’ve got Him! They said, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” First, it wasn’t a commandment, it was a divine concession to human sin. Jesus said these words. He said, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts”—allowed—“you to put away your wives”—but I’m going to tell you something, Jesus said,—“ . . . except it be”—here’s what’s called the exception clause in the Bible, and I’m going to teach more on this perhaps next week. I’m not sure if we’ll get that far, but He said—“ . . . except it be for”—sexual immorality, if a man divorces his wife for any other exception, sexual immorality, that he is not to divorce his wife—“and shall marry another, committeth adultery . . . .”

The exception clause is if you’re married and your spouse commits adultery, or we call it an affair or unfaithful, commits sexual immorality, you have a scriptural basis for divorce; and wherever divorce is allowed, I believe, remarriage is allowed for the innocent party. Another exception in this chapter is going to be abandonment—you’re abandoned by your spouse, they’ve actually abandoned you, they put you away—then you’re free to get remarried in that situation, and we’ll talk about that when we get there. You need to look at Matthew 19. The wife or husband are not to depart. Divorce is not God’s plan. Jesus said, “Moses allowed you to divorce your spouses, but from the beginning it wasn’t God’s plan or purpose.” Divorce was not God’s purpose, design, or plan.

I love what John R. Stott says. He says, “Divorce here is a divine concession to human sin, and it’s based on the hardness of our hearts.” I don’t believe there’s any reason why a Christian couple should ever get a divorce unless one or both harden their hearts against God. If your heart is soft, if your heart is repentant, if you’re willing to turn in repentance to God, God can restore, God can heal a marriage. If you’re, Ephesians 5:18, walking in the Spirit, you’ll not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You need the Holy Spirit to have holy matrimony in your marriage. Amen?

But here he says it’s not good, you shouldn’t depart from your husband, you should not have the husband departing from his wife. Don’t put her away. I love the fact that Jesus goes all the way back to the book of Genesis and said that it is not God’s will for you to get a divorce. Let’s pray.