Variably from the various scriptures studied, it is very evident that there is a direct link between sexual immorality and marriage. Strangely, the immorality depicted in the Corinthian church was of high degree “a kind that does not occur even among the pagans; A man has his father’s wife and is proud of it!” (1cor 5:1). The recommendation that Paul gives is the expulsion of search an individual. The expulsion remedy was supposed to act as a stop-gap measure against the spread of the vice to the rest of the church, symbolically depicted as yeast would spread through the whole dough.
However as compared to Corinthians chapter 7, Paul thinks that marriage is most likely a panacea to the prevalent sexual immorality. It is therefore quite likely that immorality was a daily occurrence because the Christians, in this case, we’re unable to control themselves in any way. Paul could control himself thus did not see the need to marry.
Paul at the same time is quick to advise the married couples; that they should not deprive each other of the pleasures of sex otherwise they would resort to immorality as depicted in chapter 5. He adds another dimension in the institution of marriage that dissuades anyone from seeking a divorce. A woman should not marry again but should remain unmarried unless she gets reconciled to her husband (I Corinthians 7: 10). The question that arises from this recommendation is whether this applies to the husband as well. The other aspect that Paul fronts are that the “woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives” (1 Corinthians 7:39). She can only remarry if he dies; why is Paul silent on the husband? Is he also bound to this directive as well? No one knows.
Divorce: Genesis 1-3; Deut 24:1-4 Matt 5:31, 32:19:3-12: Mark 10:2-12.
“For this reason, a man will leave his mother and father and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). With this scripture, the institution of marriage was born and was initiated by Adam and Eve who became the first husband and wife. However, this is contrasted in Deut 24: 1-4 where we see that the man (husband) is given the authority to divorce his wife if the woman becomes displeasing to him. This seems to be the same stand that is taken by Paul in regards to the position of the man and the woman in the marriage, where the man seems to be the sole determinant of the marriage and its survival. It seems like the woman did not have any say at all.
All these changes when Jesus comes into the scene in Matt 5:31, where he dismisses divorce altogether and states grounds for it. From his perspective divorce can only take place for “marital unfaithfulness”. At the same time according to Matt 19:3-12, we see the reason why divorce was permitted in the Old Testament “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard” (Matt 19:8) this was not the way it was supposed to be initially. According to Jesus therefore the institution of marriage was straight from God and any deviation from it would be considered as adultery especially if the man went ahead and married another woman.
This fact is reinforced in Mark 10: 2-10 where Jesus again repeats what he had stated earlier on that “anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her”. Jesus is gender-sensitive where he also states that such would also happen to the woman if she divorces her husband and marries another man. Thus it is quite sufficient to say that divorce is not permitted unless in situations of marital unfaithfulness. The main reason for such a stand is a result of how God wanted it to be all along when God made “male and female” Gen 1:27.
Works Cited
The Holy Bible: International Revised English Version.