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The only scriptural reason given by Jesus whereby an “innocent party” in a God-joined marriage can divorce and remarry is “for fornication” (Matthew 19:9; 5:32). Lust (what some call “spiritual adultery”) is not the same act as fornication (one is mental the other is physical/fleshly, 1 Corinthians 6:18; Ephesians 2:3). Compare the following verses with each other to rightly divide God’s word between literal versus figurative speech:
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The Bible teaches that physical death ends a scriptural marriage (Romans 7:1-4; 1 Corinthians 7:39; note: these passages imply that both parties remained in the scriptural marriage when one of the spouses died).
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The only “marital law” broken that authorizes the “innocent party” in a God-joined marriage to divorce is when the “guilty party” commits fornication (whether it be with same sex, opposite sex or animal, Matthew 19:9; 5:32)
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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.
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Matthew 5:31,32: “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except fornication causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”
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Immersion in the Holy Spirit is mentioned by John the Immerser, the forerunner for Jesus. What was the purpose of John's coming? Mark 1:4,5 states: "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins."
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How do we know Romans 6:3-4 and Colossians 2:11-12 refer to water baptism when there is no mention of water? There are several reasons:
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Mark 10:11,12 states: “So He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’”
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1 Timothy 3:15 states: “These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar, and ground of the truth.”
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John 20:30,31: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
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Luke 1:1-4: “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us
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1 Corinthians 7:12-15: “But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?”
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Some believe the thief died under the new covenant and not the old covenant because the thief died after Jesus died (John 19:30-33; Hebrews 9:15-17). While it is true that the thief died after Jesus died, the terms of the new covenant were not issued until Jesus taught the commission to the apostles after His resurrection (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:14-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21-23; Acts 1:1-8). Part of obeying the gospel under the new covenant is not only water baptism for the remission of sins but also believing/confessing that Jesus is the Son of God and that God raised Jesus from the dead (not that God “would” raise Jesus from the dead, but that He already raised Him from the dead, Romans 10:9-10). The thief died while the old covenant was still in effect.
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Some falsely assert “households” in Acts includes infants and the need to sprinkle them (Acts 10:2,7; 11:14; 16:15,31,34).
First, we do not know whether there were infants in those households or not.
Second, there are some prerequisites to understanding and obeying the gospel. Becoming saved by the grace of God involves hearing, believing, repenting of sins, confessing the name of Jesus Christ, and being immersed for the remission of sins (Acts 18:8; 8:37; 3:19).
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In the context of this question, the “unfaithful spouse” is referring to the Christian who is persisting in a sin habitually, that is known publicly by the members of the church, and refuses to repent of it. The Christian has received numerous opportunities to hear what the Bible teaches on that certain sin (by the eldership, the preacher, or some brethren), correction from the eldership (or the brethren), reproof from the eldership (or the brethren), the outpouring of love from the eldership (or the brethren) to repent of their sin, and the special, abiding fellowship that they have had in the past that can no longer be sustained if this Christian persists in their sin (2 Timothy 3:16,17). We are not necessarily referring to the sin of fornication or adultery in this context (Matthew 5:31,32; 19:1-12) because we understand in the nature of this case that the innocent spouse would have the Divine right to put that guilty mate away for that reason (although it would be best if the couple could work it out through repentance and a restoration of the marriage). How should a faithful Christian spouse treat an unfaithful spouse who has been withdrawn from by the congregation?
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There are many people who are teaching that the church of Christ is just another denomination that arose out of the Stone-Campbell (Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell – the “Restoration” leaders) movement that started in the early 1800s in America.
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This is a false doctrine that contains a lot of “baggage.” We must sort this question out in the proper way according to biblical authority (Colossians 3:17). The way we would reconstruct the false teacher's syllogism would look something like this:
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