Does “Let Every Man Have His Own Wife...” Teach That One Hundred Percent of Men and Women Today Have The Right To Remarry?
No.
1 Corinthians 7:1-5 states: “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
False teachers “twist the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15,16) in this passage to attempt to teach that if a person who was divorced from an unscriptural/unapproved marriage by God (Matthew 5:31,32; 19:9), he/she can simply “remarry” with God's approval because the verse supposedly serves as a “blanket statement” that supposedly teaches that everyone has a right to marry so as to not commit fornication.
In rightly dividing the word (2 Timothy 2:15), the entire teaching of the New Testament must be taken into consideration (much like “belief” in John 3:16 must be understood or “qualified” in light of “repent” in Acts 3:19; etc.). 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 must be qualified by Matthew 5:31,32; 19:9. God’s word is truth and does not contradict itself (John 17:17). Therefore, 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 does not contradict Matthew 5:31,32; 19:9, nor does it authorize the “guilty” party in a scriptural marriage to remarry. The context of 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 must be understood in light of scriptural marriages and does not authorize unscriptural marriages. The God-joined marriage bed is undefiled and is the only place where scriptural intimacy may take place with God’s approval; otherwise, such intimacy is described by God as adultery or fornication (Hebrews 13:4; Matthew 19:9).
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