divorce & remarriage

I think we all realise it's a tricky subject, biblically-speaking (& otherwise, too). Dick France has, imo, given a great summary of the subject in his little commentary on Mark in the People's Bible Commentary series (it qualifies as being termed 'little' when you compare it to his huge tome in the NIGTC series).


Commenting on Mark 10:10-12, he says:

"Mark therefore offers us an unqualified and total rejection of divorce by Jesus. Marriage is 'till death us do part.' But divorces do in fact happen, and Moses had already provided legislation to deal with what follows from a divorce. Are we then to say that Moses was wrong even to countenance the possibility? According to Jesus he provided for divorce 'because of your hardness of heart' - and human hearts are still hard, and marriages do break down. Should those who follow Jesus simply close their eyes to this reality? Or should they sadly accept that Jesus' ideal teaching, wonderful as it is, simply does not fit the way things are?


There is a way between these two extremes, but it is a difficult one to define and to practise without inconsistency. It is to insist both that God's standard is absolute and that divorce can never be good, and also that in a world which is characterized by human weakness and failure it must be possible to find ways of coping with a broken marriage (as Moses found that he had to). In that case divorce and remarriage, while it can never be good, may be the least bad of the options available. It may thus be the right thing to do in the circumstances, but can never cease to be a cause for regret and sorrow that God's standard for marriage has been violated."

(page 133)