A holy response

from Flying Free

Divorce is never a sin in and of itself. It's simply a response or acknowledgment of a relational sin. The sin that precipitates the divorce is abandonment, adultery or abuse.

One spouse could choose to do the abandoning, abusing or affair and seek a divorce. But still, the divorce isn't the sin, it's the acts of abandonment, abuse or adultery.

One spouse could be abandoned, abused or cheated on and seek a divorce. Again, the divorce isn't the sin, it's the acts of abandonment, abuse and adultery.

It is holy to walk away from intentional, unrepentant sin or to let the other person choosing sin to walk away. "Hate what is evil, cling to what is good." (Romans 12:12)

Abandonment, adultery and abuse is the evil, not the divorce.

Safety, freedom, humility, kindness and love is the good, not the marriage.

Support the person who is "hating what is evil and clinging to what is good."

Divorce is always grievous because it means the relationship has ended without restoration and peace. But it is also holy because it means a toxic relationship has ended.

Some things are just grievous and holy at the same time. If God could handle that tension (Isaiah 50:1, Jeremiah 3:8) so can we.

Verses:
Isaiah 50:1
The Servant, Israel's Hope
Thus says the Lord:
"Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce,
Whom I have put away?
Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
For your iniquities you have sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

Jeremiah 3:8
Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.