Working Through Divorce, Part 4: Understanding Different Views

View 2: Divorce Only in Case of Breaking the Betrothal, Incest, Etc.

John Piper is a well-known proponent of this view. Here is a helpful document by Piper presenting 11 points and detailed justification for why the Bible only allows for divorce in case of breaking a betrothal. I would encourage you to work through it; it is very thought-provoking, especially point 11.

1.) Luke 16:18 calls all remarriage after divorce adultery.

2.) Mark 10:11-12 call all remarriage after divorce adultery whether it is the woman or the man who divorces.

3.) Mark 10:2-9 and Matthew 19:3-8 teaches that Jesus rejected the Pharisees’ interpretation of divorce from Deuteronomy 24:1 and reasserted God’s original plan in creation that no human being separate what God has joined together.

4.) Matthew 5:32 does not teach that remarriage is lawful in some cases. Rather it reaffirms that marriage after divorce is adultery, even for those who have been divorced innocently, and that a man who divorces his wife is guilty of the adultery of her second marriage unless she had already become an adulteress before the divorce.

5.) 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 teaches that divorce is wrong but that if it is inevitable the person who divorces should not remarry.

6.) 1 Corinthians 7:39 and Romans 7:1-3 teach that remarriage is legitimate only after the death of a spouse.

7.) Matthew 19:10-12 teaches that special Christian grace is given by God to Christ's disciples to sustain them in singleness when they renounce remarriage according to the law of Christ.

8.) Deuteronomy 24:1-4 does not legislate grounds for divorce but teaches that the "one-flesh" relationship established by marriage is not obliterated by divorce or even by remarriage.

9.) 1 Corinthians 7:15 does not mean that when a Christian is deserted by an unbelieving spouse he or she is free to remarry. It means that the Christian is not bound to fight in order to preserve togetherness. Separation is permissible if the unbelieving partner insists on it.

10.) 1 Corinthians 7:27-28 does not teach the right of divorced persons to remarry. It teaches that betrothed virgins should seriously consider the life of singleness, but do not sin if they marry.

11.) The exception clause of Matthew 19:9 need not imply that divorce on account of adultery frees a person to be remarried. All the weight of the New Testament evidence given in the preceding ten points is against this view, and there are several ways to make good sense out of this verse so that it does not conflict with the broad teaching of the New Testament that remarriage after divorce is prohibited.