There are some who claim that Paul adds desertion by an unbelieving partner to the teaching of Jesus as a valid ground for the "innocent" Christian partner to remarry.

In actual fact, to understand Paul this way nullifies the teaching of Jesus. After all, it could always be said that the "guilty" party was obviously an unbeliever! This would effectively reinstate all the grounds for divorce which Jesus so carefully excluded.

Dare we suggest that those who read Paul to contradict Jesus, or to find a loophole, are in fact guilty of the same hardness of heart which Jesus attributed to the Pharisees?

For Jesus there is no respect of persons. Both the "guilty" and the "innocent" parties incur the charge of adultery if they remarry.

The truth is that what Paul wrote is completely in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. (How could it be otherwise?)

ABOUT WOMEN, Paul says :-
(a) A wife must not separate from her husband. (1 Cor. 7:10)
(b) She is bound to him for life. (1 Cor. 7:39, Rom. 7:2)
(c) If she lives with another man while her first husband is alive, she is an adulteress. (Rom. 7:3)
(d) Only her husband's death sets her free to remarry.(1 Cor. 7:39, Rom. 7:3)
(e) If her unbelieving husband wishes to separate she is not under bondage to live with him. She may accept his decision to separate. (1 Cor. 7:15)

BUT

(f) If she does separate she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. (1 Cor. 7:11)

For Jesus said
- if she marries another she commits adultery (Mark 10:12)
and the man who marries her commits adultery. (Matt. 5:32)

ABOUT MEN, Paul says :-
(a) A husband must not divorce his wife. (1 Cor. 7:11)
(b) If his unbelieving wife wishes to separate he is not under bondage to
live with her. He may permit her to go. (1 Cor. 7:15)

BUT

He must not divorce her (v. 11). This leaves the door open for reconciliation (v. 1-12) and agrees with the teaching of Jesus.

For Jesus said

- If he does divorce her and marry another he commits adultery (Luke 16,:18)
and if she remarries after he divorces her, he is responsible for her adultery (Matt. 5:52).

Thus it is clear that Paul is not adding to what Jesus said, but reinforcing it.
"What God has joined together, let not man put asunder."

THE SOURCE OF THE MISUNDERSTANDING
In 1 Cor. 7:25-28, Paul speaks to the unmarried, including those who have been loosed from a marriage, saying that it would not be a sin for them to marry.

Because the Greek word translated "loosed" could sometimes be applied to divorce, it is claimed that Paul is giving blanket approval for the divorced to remarry!

However, this would make Paul contradict not only Jesus, but himself also!

It cannot be true that Paul is giving permission for remarriage in the very same chapter which forbids it.

Nor can it be true that Paul condones what Jesus calls adulterous.

To be consistent with the teaching of the remainder of the chapter, and with what Jesus says, the permission given here for marriage or remarriage can only apply to :-
(a) a single person never previously married.
(b) one whose partner is dead.
(c) one divorced for the cause of fornication.

Marriage in any other situation, where one or both partners has a former marriage partner still living, is adultery.

PAUL'S INFLUENCE IN LUKE'S GOSPEL Matthew's gospel is the only one to record the exception which allows "fornication" as a cause of divorce. Neither Mark nor Luke mention it at all.

Luke's omission is especially significant in understanding the teaching of Paul, for Luke records the Gospel as he must have heard Paul preach it many times.

According to Luke, both men and women who divorce and remarry are committing the sin of adultery. There are no exceptions, no innocent parties. A valid marriage simply may not be undone.

As we shall see in chapter 8, the exception included in Matthew's Gospel involves an abnormal situation which could render a marriage invalid. Apparently neither Luke nor Paul saw any need to include this exception since it did not change, in any way, the basic message that Jesus did not countenance the separation of a marriage which was joined by God.

Matthew's reason for including the exception is discussed in chapter 11.