Divorce and Remarriage

In his final chapter Jones continues with the theme of marriage and discusses divorce and remarriage. Here Jones again brings the ideas of covenant into play while discussing the issue. It becomes apparent based on the Mosaic teaching, Jesus’ teaching and the Apostle Paul’s teachings on divorce and remarriage that there is general agreement but not absolute agreement between the three. This is how covenant helps to show the reasons for seeming differences, regardless of how small, between Moses, Jesus and Paul.

Ultimately, all three of the rules regarding remarriage and divorce have a singularly common and root issue. The rejection of the covenant of marriage. In Jesus’ teachings a man and woman can only divorce on grounds of adultery, but to Paul, a believing spouse may remarry after being left by an unbeliever. Jones asks the brilliant and helpful question here, “Why?” In the teaching of Jesus, divorce is allowed when adultery takes place, but what is adultery? Jones explains it as a willful and radical violation of the marriage covenant.  Then he moves on to the issue of abandonment of a believing spouse by a non-believer and concludes that this reason is also permitable because abandonment is a willful and radical violation of the marriage covenant. This was very helpful because, as Jones modeled throughout the book, the main goal of ethics is to determine the intention behind a command (i.e. the root issue at stake) and then form Biblically shaped positions based on that reasoning.

In all I really enjoyed Jones’ book, it was certainly much more of a book about forming Biblical ethics rather than using biblical ethics to resolve ethical problems. Jones spent almost no time on the issues of homosexuality, abortion, the environment or the evils of capitalism. But what he did do was argue for, explain, defend and teach a method which allows one to form biblical views on said positions and for that I am grateful. I would much rather be shown and taught a way to understanding rather than simply given a list of things that I should approve or disapprove of. So in that respect, Jones’ book was both highly practical, pastoral and helpful. It was a pleasure to read and interact with. I recommend it highly.