Can you help me with a question about repentence and divorce?

Question

If repentence for homosexuality involves giving up one's homosexual practices...

... doesn't it follow that repentence for divorce means giving up the divorce and returning to your marriage and your spouse?

If you fail to do either, is your repentence considered "real?"

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

From Matthew, Chapter 5:
"31"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' 32But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery."

Answer 1

Bingo.

I guess only Catholics are consistent.

Answer 2

Well it depends. If you are divorced because of adultery in your relationship (not by you, by the way), then you are OK if you divorce and remarry. However, if you divorce for any other reason, then subsequently you essentially cannot have sexual relations with someone else or else it will be considered adultery.
If you do, then it really isn't a "real" repentance if you continue sinning. If you divorce, I don't think you have to go back to your spouse to repent, it just means you cannot marry or have sex with anyone else.

Answer 3

Wow, I was thinking the same thing, but thought that perhaps divorce is considered an act, rather than a state, and just repenting the act makes it all go away. I think that's cheating, though. Once divorced, always divorced.

Though, being an atheist, I see nothing wrong with divorce, except the inconsistency with which it and other sins are treated in the Christian church. And of course you should always look before you leap.

Answer 4

Certainly, I can tell you about divorce ... but the bottom fundamental problem with both of these is that they are against God's Plan. Simply, God wants better for both the divorce' & homosexual. God so loved the world that Marriage was his first Covanant. Companionship & Creation --- Fundamental's of the Church from the begging to end (alpha to omega)

Here is what is taught on Divorce:
----------------------
2384 Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:

If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself.

2385 Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.

2386 It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage.
--------------
Certainly, there is much more to share, but I hope this will help you come closer to finding a way out of hate and defiance, and find ways to live in harmony with God.

Answer 5

Repentence is between you and God. Divorce in Biblical times was a bit different than it is today. Still, God wishes for us to keep our committments, but we all know there are marriages that clearly were not blessed by God. The God I know wouldn't want you to stay in an abusive, dishonest, or destructive marriage (however you might interpret that). Remember there is no sin that keeps you from salvation.

Answer 6

You would be correct for homosexual relationships, because staying in that lifestyle would make you continue to sin. However if you divorce, it would not be required for you to go back, because you are not in the act of sinning. The catch is that you cannot do what you did over again.

Answer 7

This is where grace comes in.....
The apostle Paul said if you're married....then stay married. God would never want someone to return to an awful situation. Especially if the divorce happened before the person got saved.

Answer 8

In response to a prior poster, while divorce is not a sin, adultery/fornication is.

You can get a divorce, you should just abstain from sex for the rest of your life.

Deal with it.

Answer 9

Would you return to a marriage that was abusive and your husband had sex with a 13 year old girl and you had children? I don't think so

God Bless You

Answer 10

Divorce, while not desirable, is not a sin, therefore no repentence is required....hence the basis of your question is flawed.