In Matthew 19:6 Jesus clearly taught that marriage is to be forever.  In ver. 9 of the same chapter, Jesus shows how seriously marriage is to be taken when He said, “…Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”  When two people are married, there is only one reason why that marriage can lawfully end in divorce.  That reason is when one puts away his or her spouse for fornication.  In that case, the one who does the putting away has the right to remarry, while the put away spouse must remain unmarried.

The only other circumstance that would allow a person who has been divorced to remarry would be the death of her husband or his wife (Romans 7:2-3).  Even in a society like ours, where people refuse to take marriage seriously, this strict law concerning God’s will on marriage, divorce, and remarriage still applies.

Some teach that there is another exception found in 1 Corinthians 7:15. There Paul said, “But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart.  A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases:  but God hath called us to peace.”   Some conclude, based on Paul’s statement here, that if a Christian is married to a non-Christian and the non-Christian divorces the Christian, the Christian is no longer bound and can therefore remarry.

Does this passage give the believer under these circumstances the right to remarry?  The answer is no!  Such a conclusion would be in contradiction to the general rule concerning marriage that Jesus gave in Matthew 19:9.

What, then, does “not under bondage” mean?  The Greek word for bondage is DOULOO.  This word is never used about the marriage bond unless it is done so in this passage under consideration.  However, the context of 1 Corinthians doesn’t support such a conclusion.  Concerning the marriage bond, Paul used the word DEO in 1 Corinthians 7 (vers. 27, 39).  Why did Paul not use the word that he usually did to refer to the marriage bond in ver. 15? The reason is because that is not what he was referring to at all.

The word douloo means, “to make a slave of” or “to be under bondage or held by constraint of law or necessity.”  In 1 Corinthians 7:15, this word is in the perfect passive indicative tense.  That means that the bondage under consideration would be something that started sometime in the past and continued to exist.  What Paul is saying, then, is that in such cases the brother or sister has never been in bondage and is not now in bondage.

This is an important consideration regarding this bondage.  Paul is not simply saying that the believer who has been deserted is not under bondage.  He is saying that the believer is not now, and has never been, under the bondage that he refers to.

What kind of bondage would the believer not be under in such a case?  It refers to the Christian’s right not to give up Christ just to get the unbeliever to stay or come back.  That is the bondage that the deserted party is not under.  Does that mean he or she can now turn around and remarry?  No, for that person has not put away his or her spouse for fornication.  The text of Matthew 19:9 still stands!

The world’s view on marriage is sad.  Many do not know God’s will concerning marriage, and those who do know it do not care about it very much.  Marriage today is approached very lightly and carelessly, especially in this country.  It used to be that most people in society felt that marriage was forever.  Now, divorce comes frequently and many times without remorse.

Divorce is now commonly viewed as a good alternative to working things out. So, we have more divorced people in the world than ever before.  We must teach our young people how important and permanent marriage is, and we must always teach the truth about this vital issue.