News has spread about "Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything" author Tullian Tchividjian remarrying after struggling from a failed marriage. The news was confirmed in a Facebook post by his new wife Stacie Phillips-Tchividjian.
Is it really okay to remarry after a failed marriage? What does the Bible have to say about remarriage after divorce?
One thing we need to settle before we go any further is the truth that God despises the thought of divorce. Malachi 2:16 says, "For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless."
God meant for marriage to be a perfect union between man and woman. But because we are imperfect and sinful, God allows divorce under certain conditions to protect us from further harm.
In Luke 16:18, however, Jesus says, "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."
So does that mean that all remarriages after divorce are sinful and shouldn't even happen?
We can best understand God's laws by best understanding God's character. What is God like? We are told in scripture that God is a loving God who wants us to experience His best, but also a just God who desires for us to walk in His ways. Putting this view in the conversation of whether remarriage after divorce is sinful or not, here is what we can gain.
Without a shadow of a doubt, God hates when relationships are stained. Moreover, one right action never rectifies a wrong one.
However, God is a God who brings hope even to the most hopeless. If you've lost a marriage to sin and have been broken to the point of humility and repentance, God can and will lift you up and restore you, even if that means bringing you another person to marry.
Will it mean that God condoned the past failed marriage? No, but it does mean that God loves the contrite enough to bring them hope for joy here on earth as long as we return to our one true love—Christ Himself.
The more pressing question people are asking today is whether Tullian's remarriage is one condoned by God. We cannot know for sure because repentance is only truly between God and man.
But we do know for sure that there is hope in remarriage. It doesn't negate the failures of the past, but Christ always brings us hope for a better future if we humbly submit to Him.
