Matthew 5:32 Commentary and Bible Study

The assumption made in the verse is that if she is divorced, she will remarry, and so Christ expresses it by saying that in putting her away, her first husband causes her to remarry. Based on Moses law, the Pharisees had created a new moral principle. They had taken God’s concession to the hardness of the human heart, and turned it into an approved law. The allowance was that you may divorce your wife on the grounds of ‘uncleanness’, and she may marry another, but the second marriage is not a wholesome, proper marriage, and, Christ teaches, actually involves her in adultery. But the Rabbis had got hold of this and said it was legitimate. They twisted it, until it contradicted the seventh commandment. They played games with God’s law. By contrast, says the Lord, my people will be serious with the law, not explain it away. How do you know a true Christian? He has deep concern to obey God’s word, does not explain things away to let him off the hook.The only exception which Christ allows is where the wife has already committed fornication, even before the divorce. Why is this a valid exception, and why does this absolve the first husband from guilt? Because the entire guilt lies on the wife. She has by this sin broken the marriage, because adultery, or as it is called here, using the most general term, fornication, has already destroyed the marriage bond. The husband is no longer required to remain with her by the law of God. He may choose to try to rebuild the marriage if he wants, but he is not under obligation to do so. But if there has been no adultery, then he shares the blame for her remarriage, and indeed he may take the majority of the blame. Did he divorce her merely because he could not make the marriage work and found her hard to live with? Had he allowed his love for her to grow cold and was now looking elsewhere? Did he make some other weak excuse for divorcing her? Then he too shares the blame for the adultery that follows inevitably when she remarries. Why is this second marriage to be viewed as adultery? Because in the eyes of God she is still married to her first husband. It follows therefore that the second husband is also involved in adultery, for he is marrying a woman who is already married to another. What was meant by uncleanness in Deuteronomy 24:1?Are there other grounds for divorce that the NT gives?When are people to be viewed as married? How should the church regard common law marriage?When are people simply living together and not married?