Being married is a wonderful thing if we do it God’s way. The biggest reason why marriages don’t work is they do them on their own, instead of having them with God. The Bible says in Psams 127:1, "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it." God must be the one that builds the house, or we can work and work, but it will never be right.

There are a couple of scriptures that could be misunderstood, and we will get to those verses later, but I want you to look at two very clear passages. In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well to call her husband. She told Jesus she didn’t have a husband. Look at what Jesus told her: "Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." Jesus didn’t tell her she had five or six husbands. He said "thou hast had" (past tense) five husbands, and He told her she wasn’t married now at all. That is not what most people teach.

In 1 Corinthians 7, there is a lot of teaching on marriage and divorce. Look at these verses starting with verse 27. "Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you." If someone is married (bound) to a wife, then he should not try to get a divorce (loosed). If someone is divorced (loosed), then he shouldn’t look to get remarried. If he does get remarried, then he has not sinned as long as he divorced for the Biblical reason of fornication in Matthew 5:32. If someone was divorced and remarried and there was not a Biblical reason, there is still love and forgiveness with God. (1 John 1:9)

Because there is no way I can do this topic justice in a little article, please hold all the letters and calls until the next few lessons. I will teach on this subject for the next two articles, also. God hates divorce and so do I, but God still loves people, even if they are divorced.

II. When a person fills out an application, many times there is a space for marital status. The person has to check one of three boxes. The boxes are usually labeled: married, single or divorced. The public labels a person that has been married before as "divorced." If they do remarry, some churches label them as being adulterous or having two husbands. God does not label a person that way.

In Deuteronomy 24, God does not call a person that has been married divorced. God talks about the man to whom she was married as her "former husband" or "latter husband." Then God said if the man gets married again, he would be marrying a "new wife" not a second wife. In the whole chapter, God explains marriage and divorce and tells a man that he could put away his wife for "uncleanness," which is the same thing as "fornication" in the New Testament. If a man put his wife away for fornication and God does not call him divorced, then would he be married, or single? Of course, he would be single and would be able to marry again, but only to someone that was saved. The only people for whom this was different was the priests or the Levites.

Like I said last week, I hate divorce and so does God, but we still love the people. I will teach about this again next week, but it bothers me to see *Pharisees* say that a person is on his way to hell just because a person has had a husband or wife run off and now the person remarried.

III. This will be my third and last article on divorce for now. There is so much more that can be written, and questions that can be answered, but I wanted to use this article to go a different direction. I have tried to explain that divorce and remarriage does not send a person to Hell, but I don’t want anyone to think that divorce is a light subject. God told us from the beginning that He wanted there to be one man with one woman until death parted them. God never has wanted someone to get a divorce for just any reason. God said for the reason of "fornication" (Mt. 5:32, 19:9) or "uncleanness," meaning fornication, (Deut. 24) a person could get a divorce. If a person who has been divorced could go without the physical relationship, then it would be best if he or she didn’t get married again. (1 Cor. 7:7-8) If they cannot contain, then they should get married. (1 Cor. 7:27-28) If someone got divorced for the wrong reason, forgiveness is only a prayer away.

There is way too much divorce. People get divorced today for every little thing. People are getting farther away from God and their marriages are more and more messed up. The Bible says in Psalms 127:1, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." The only way a home will work right is for us to do it God’s way. I have counseled with dozens of couples, and there is always help if they are willing to humble themselves and have a marriage that is set up by the Bible.

If you still have any questions about this, please feel free to call, come by the church, or email me.

There are times that a person may not feel love or see love, but if it was true love, then love is still there. When dirt is splattered on a window, you can’t see outside, but the outside is still there. When bad things happen in a marriage it is like dirt that has been thrown on a window. Love is still there, but you cannot see it. There needs to be apologizes, forgiveness, and acceptance to clean off the dirty window of a marriage to see the love that is still there. Love never fails.

In Deuteronomy 24, God does not call a person that has been married divorced. God talks about the man to whom she was married as her "former husband" or "latter husband." Then God said if the man gets married again, he would be marrying a "new wife" not a second wife. In the whole chapter, God explains marriage and divorce and tells a man that he could put away his wife for "uncleanness," which is the same thing as "fornication" in the New Testament. If a man put his wife away for fornication and God does not call him divorced, then would he be married, or single? Of course, he would be single and would be able to marry again, but only to someone that was saved. The only people for whom this was different was the priests or the Levites.

Like I said last week, I hate divorce and so does God, but we still love the people. I will teach about this again next week, but it bothers me to see "Pharisees" say that a person is on his way to Hell, just because they have had a husband or wife run off and now the person remarried.

There is way too much divorce. People get divorced today for every little thing. People are getting farther away from God and their marriages are more and more messed up. The Bible says in Psalms 127:1, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." The only way a home will work right is for us to do it God's way. I have counseled with dozens of couples, and there is always help if they are willing to humble themselves and have a marriage that is set up by the Bible.

If you still have any questions about this, please feel free to call or to come by the church.

God also believes that marriage is good. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:22, "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD." That did not say that shacking up or living together is good thing. In fact, God says exactly the opposite. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." It is sad to see so many more people not getting married, but just living together. I just read a statistic that said compared to ten years ago, 48% more people are living together rather than getting married. They will not be happy, and God will judge them.

If a person wants to make things right, then God will help them, and give them grace. At our church, we don't condemn people in that situation, but try to help them to make things right. My staff and I do free pre-marital counseling, and don't charge anything to perform wedding ceremonies to try to help people find the "good thing" of marriage.