Law Office of John S. Weaver

            Although the world may view a marital breakup as “just another divorce,” Christians must seek to protect and preserve the sanctity, unity, and purity of the marriage covenant as originally intended by God, and to understand rightly any biblical justification for divorce (and remarriage) and the justness of a divorce. The biblical and ancient cultural background to the New Testament teaching of Jesus and Paul on divorce and remarriage are examined, as well as the writings of the early church, the Roman Catholic sacramental view of marriage, and a Protestant Reformation view represented by John Calvin and Calvin’s Geneva. There are valid biblical grounds for divorce and also for remarriage, but divorce may not always be just even though permissible. By analogy to generally understood principles of “just war,” i.e. just cause, just intention, last resort, formal declaration, limited objectives, proportionate means, and noncombatant immunity, the church is challenged to use wisdom in applying these considerations to determine not only whether a divorce may be biblically permissible, but also to assure that any divorce is not only justifiable, but also a just divorce in its inception, prosecution, and result. Because divorce is not purely a spiritual matter but is, as Calvin wrote, “mixed up with civil law,” a just divorce involves a concerted and cooperative effort by both the church and civil government. Christians must “develop a balanced, biblical attitude toward divorce – on the one hand, hating all those things that God hates about divorce, while recognizing that in this sinful world there are those situations in which (as God Himself demonstrated) it may be necessary to obtain a divorce.” [1] The church is called to compassion and love toward families that are struggling with applying biblical principles to a ruptured marriage and the consequences of divorce.