Question

My boyfriend and I currently lie together and have a 1 year old son. The problem is he is divorced and i read in your topics on marriage that the only way Jesus allows divorce is adultery. His first wife commited adultry on him and left the marriage for another man and asked my boyfriend to leave the home so she could be with the other man. My boyfriend wants to marry me but is concerned that he does not have the right to remarry because him and i had sexual relations before his divorce was finalized in court. The marrige covenant was already broken and bith him and his exwife agreed the marriage was over. The only thing lacking was the signitures on the paperwork. Since then we have asked for forgiveness and I have become a member of the church of Christand been baptized. I want to be holy and beautiful in the sight of god and have a home for my son.

Answer

I am very happy you want your life to be right with the Lord. You have a precious little child with a spirit in the image of God, as is your spirit (Genesis 1:27; John 4:24; Hebrews 12:9). I too hope you can be "holy and beautiful in the sight of God and have a home for" your son. Only one passage in the New Testament gives anyone the right to divorce and to remarry - Matthew 19:9. The Lord stated, "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." If your boyfriend divorced his wife for sexual immorality, and if you have the right to marry, then the two of you have the right to marry and should do so rather than simply living together. "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4). Under no other conditions than those stated in Matthew 19:9 does he have the right to remarry. His soul, your soul, and the soul of your son are far too precious to risk for a few years of happiness on this earth (Matthew 16:26-27).