Proposition: In the
New Testament, the apostle Paul teaches that all competent adults, including
the divorced, may marry.
Brother Waters has spent a great deal of time trying to prove that Paul, in I Corinthians 7, is telling the divorced people that they can remarry without sin. In fact, as his proposition states, “all competent adults, including the divorced, may marry.” Yet he has failed to produce one single case in I Corinthians 7 (or any other of Paul’s writings) that mentioned one who is divorced. If you ask him to prove that a person is divorced, he says “they are unmarried – thus divorced.”
Unmarried
Just who are those who Paul refers to as unmarried? There are three categories given in I Corinthians 7 of people whom Paul says are unmarried.
1. I Corinthians 7:34 “There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” Here Paul speaks of the virgin as unmarried. However, she has never been bound by God in marriage. Therefore it could not be said of her that she has been loosed.
2. I Corinthians 7:10-11 :And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.” Robert’s position on this unmarried one is that she is NOT divorced even though the text says she is unmarried. He then uses several commentators (and takes up a lot of space) trying to prove that she is still bound to her husband though she is said to be unmarried. So for Robert’s proposition to be true, it is absolutely necessary these men are correct in their exegesis of these passages. Of course if they are not correct and she is absolutely, sho nough, uh huh, yes mam divorced, then he would have Paul condemning himself in I Timothy 4:4.
Let’s carry this one step further. Even though Paul told her not to marry but to return to her husband, if she decided to spurn Paul’s warning and get a divorce (if she is not already divorced) repent of the sin of disobeying Paul’s warning and marry someone else she would be alright in God’s sight according to Robert’s position. Deny it Robert! And if she decided to do that every six months for the rest of her life, she would still be right in the sight of God.
3. I Corinthians 7:39 “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” This would include the widow of I Corinthians 7:8-9. In this chapter, the widow is the only one that is loosed and free to remarry.
This is the reason I have been trying to get Robert to give us proof that Paul is speaking of anyone in this chapter who is divorced. The only persons in this chapter that you can prove are the unmarried who have a right to marry is the virgin and the woman whose husband has died.
Robert says we must use Deuteronomy 24:1-4 in order to have a definition for divorce. He asked the question, Where do we find the definition of divorce if we disregard this text? The same place you got the definition of unmarried on page one of your last affirmative, American Heritage Dictionary.
Robert says he is cocked and primed and ready to discredit my argument on Romans 7:2-4 when I get in the affirmative. Well, until then, let’s just stay in I Corinthians 7.
In I Corinthians 7:39 we read “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.”
This is the same argument Paul makes in Romans 7:2-3. Paul says that the wife is “bound by the law as long as her husband lives.” This law goes back beyond the Law of Moses. It goes back to the beginning of time. “Matthew 19:4-5 “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” Therefore according to God’s law of marriage, a man and a woman who are married are bound to each other as long as they both shall live. If either one dies, then the other is free to marry.
Now in the teaching of I Corinthians 7:27-28 “Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. 28But 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.” Paul’s teaching, according to the instructions given in this chapter, if a person is married (bound by the law) seek not to be loosed by divorce. As we will see in my first affirmative (which will be next) we will discuss the subject of bound and loosed in detail.