When Either Marriage Partner Fails To “Function” In The Marriage, Is It No Longer A Marriage, And Therefore Can One of Them Have The Right To Divorce and Remarry?
No.
God has given responsibilities and obligations to be carried out by husbands and wives (see Ephesians 5:22-33). Although a husband may stop “loving” his wife or a wife may stop “submitting to” her husband, this does not mean that the marriage is no longer a marriage. For example, consult Titus 2:3-5where the older women are to be teachers of the younger women and admonish them to love their husbands and children. If you cease your function, you must repent and assume your God-given function; otherwise, you will lose your soul (1 Timothy 2:11-15; 1 Peter 3:1-7). In the Old Testament, God was “married” to Israel; but there were times when Israel was not “functioning” properly as God’s spiritual “wife” (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 31:32). In fact, the reason God “divorced” Israel was because she kept involving herself in idolatry (that is, spiritual “adultery”). God kept “functioning” in that marriage and kept remaining faithful to His marital covenant even though Israel was, at times, unfaithful. Even more so (with the exception of fornication, Matthew 19:9), the husband and wife of a God-joined marriage must assume their roles in order to be pleasing to God and must not separate what God has joined together based on whether or not one or both parties are not fully fulfilling their roles/functions/duties in the marriage (Matthew 19:6).
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