[Steve Myers] It's time for another opportunity to delve into 1 Corinthians. You remember last time we left off in 1 Corinthians 7. Here we find the Apostle Paul really focusing on marriage and what is appropriate within God's guidance. And so he's addressing all kinds of facets when it comes to sex, marriage, being single, what are our obligations in marriage. Here he begins to make a turn as we look at verse 10 in 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7, he had just given commands for those that are single. He said, "How great would it be if you remained single as I am? You could have focus. You could have direction. You could put your all into serving God and growing and those types of things." He also talked about the importance of being married, and he talked a little bit about the concept of sex within marriage and how that is a very good thing, kind of bringing us all the way back to Genesis 2. Now, he begins to address, I think, another question that was brought up by those in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 7:10 He says, "Now, to the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord..." But here he has a drop-the-hammer, you know, "You can't get around what I'm going to tell you because not only am I commanding you, but this is from the Lord. This is teachings straight from Jesus Christ." And what is that command? "A wife is not to depart from her husband."

What does it mean to depart from your husband? Divorce, divorce. And the opposite is true as well, right? A husband is not to depart from his wife. And so it applies to both partners. And as you see this, it's reinforcing this idea that God is supporting marriage. What does the Bible tell us? What's God's perspective on divorce? Okay, hold your place here. We could head all the way back to Malachi for a moment. You ought to look at Malachi and get to the minor prophets. He spells it out very clearly in chapter 2:16. Malachi 2:16, makes this very point and gives us God's perspective. God's perspective.

Malachi 2:16 “For the Lord God of Israel, says that He hates divorce.”

That's God's perspective. He hates divorce. Divorce is unacceptable. We could say that between converted individuals, unacceptable. No, do not depart from your mate. Don't depart from your mate. This is the rule. This is the rule. And so as we consider that. Is that always the case? Are there exceptional situations that would break up a marriage? And the answer is yes. Yes, absolutely. In fact, one of those situations is one that Christ Himself talked about. If you go to Matthew 19, let's take a look at one of the specific statements that Christ Himself made when it comes to marriage. Matthew 19, beginning in verse 6. Matthew 19:6, here we see very clearly what Christ said. First of all, He backs up what we just read in Malachi.

Matthew 19:6 He says, "What God has joined together, let not man separate." And so converted individuals who are married need to stay married. Divorce is unacceptable. But then a little while later, verse 9, He says, of course, if you've got a red-letter Bible, it's going to be in red. Christ Himself spoke this.

Matthew 19:9 He said, "I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."

So here Christ is reinforcing the fact that we stay married. But there are situations where divorce is allowed. And, of course, here it says, "Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality." Guess what word that's sexual immorality is. That's porneia once again, porneia. Now, the old King James mistranslates that word and just records fornication. Fornication which is just sex outside of marriage. You're married and you have sex with someone who's not your mate. That's fornication. But the actual word here is porneia. And that encompasses a whole wide range of sexual immorality. And so as we begin to look at this, it's interesting that there are exceptional situations where divorce is allowed. Porneia certainly being one of those. Otherwise, what are we told? You should stay together. You should stay together. What did Christ say? What did He say? "What God has joined together, let not man separate."

Interesting when you look back of the history of the Church. The Church took this particular teaching of Christ and applied that to those who were coming into the Church. Coming into the Church, if you lived all the way back in 1948, the Church's teaching on divorce and remarriage was very specific, taking a particular interpretation of this verse very literally. So the Church's perspective on divorce and remarriage was that anyone who was divorced and wanted to come into the Church could not be remarried. It could not be...or let's say you had divorced your wife before God called you into the Church and you got remarried to someone else. Back in 1948, the Church would tell you, "You have to divorce your wife that you have at the moment and either be single or reconcile with your first wife or your first mate, for what God has joined together, let not man separate." So if you got a divorce before coming into the Church, you had to split up in order to be baptized, in order to come into the Church. And that was taking that basic Scripture very literally.

And so, was that the proper interpretation? I mean, imagine what happened. You know, if you came into the Church in the '40s, or the '50s, or the '60s, that was the practice of the Church, that if you had gotten divorced and remarried, you had to split up in order to come to baptism, in order to be a member of the Church. And it all dealt with this issue of when is a marriage bound? When is a marriage bound together? And so the Church felt that if you got married, God bound your marriage. Is that the case? Is that the case? Part of the perspective wrapped around this idea of porneia, what is this idea of what King James says fornication? Well, we know it's not just fornication. We know it can be crazy weird fetishes and sexual deviations, homosexuality, bestiality, all these wacky things that are, you know, perversions that are out there. Yeah, all of those things would be included. And so gaining a bigger understanding of what that word was all about certainly helped to kind of frame the issue a little better. The big thing though was coming to terms with when did God bind a marriage? Did God bind every single marriage that ever was made between a man and a woman? That became part of the issue. When do you have a marriage? What constitutes a marriage? All of those things kind of came into question. So that in 1974, it was recognized that the Church was teaching incorrectly on divorce and remarriage because we had assumed something that was the wrong premise. The premise was God looked down from heaven on all of mankind and if you got married, He bound those marriages together, but what the Church came to understand, is that you're really not held accountable until you're converted, until you're converted.

So, unfortunately, in all the years before 1974, if you wanted to come into the Church and you had divorced and remarried, those marriages were split up, those families were split up. The impact on children was frankly, it was terrible. It was terrible. We misunderstood. We didn't understand. God further opened our minds to understand that very thing. And so recognizing God establishes the criteria of what a marriage is and when it's valid, and what is it that determines that? Really, it's the law. The law, God's law, is the legal authority that determines how and when a marriage is bound because what's happening? If you're in the Church, you're making a covenant. You're making a contract in a sense, not only with the person that you're marrying, but it's a contract with God as well. And so when we have a marriage ceremony, we solemnize that marriage at the time of that ceremony, and then that covenant is consummated on the wedding night, the two becoming one flesh. Yeah, that constitutes a marriage and you're legally bound by what? By God's law.

It's God's law that binds you together in this covenant, this law that you've made with each other and with God. And so what we find is there's no indication in Scripture that we recognize that, okay, something that changes that or does away with that. No, interesting what Christ said here in Matthew 19, "What God has joined together." Does God join together the wedding of two pagans? No, no. See, we had assumed that in the past. Anybody in the world that got married, God had joined them together. Well, no, that's not true. But in the Church, within the Church, when you stand before the minister and you covenant not only with each other, but what does our wedding ceremony say? You covenant with God. So you are making a covenantal agreement with your mate and with God. Has God joined that marriage together? Absolutely, no doubt about it. And it's God's law that defines that. God's law defines that.

And so God points that out. What God expresses within His law, Genesis 2:24, what we read earlier, what we talked about the other day, that God has joined them together. They leave father and mother, they're joined together because they understand God's intent, they understand God's law, and they make that commitment to each other and that covenant with God as well. And so the Church by 1974, came to recognize that fact that if you're unconverted and you had divorced and remarried, let's say 10 times, you didn't know any better. You didn't understand. You weren't under God's law. You didn't understand God's law. And that was never bound marriage. And so the impact of that then became critical.

And so then from 1974 on, the Church began to understand things much clearer when it came to the fact of when a marriage is bound. Now, the other factor then becomes this whole concept of what Christ talked about here except for sexual immorality. Is there ever a reason to divorce even in the Church? Even within the Church, even within this context. Of course, here's where Paul then begins to point out, all right, what is acceptable, what is unacceptable? Let's say you're married, you come into the Church and your mate does not. What happens then? Those are the issues that then Paul begins to deal with here as he discusses the issues in Corinth. So I'm still in Matthew 19. If you head back to 1 Corinthians 7, let's notice here what we begin to see Paul described here. As he mentions right off the bat, he recognizes the fact that God hates divorce, no doubt about that. But what happens if there's extenuating circumstances? Well, he begins to describe one of those. Notice verse 11. You know, he just got done saying, a wife shouldn't leave her husband. The same is true, man shouldn't leave his wife.

1 Corinthians 7:11 He says, "Even if she does depart let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife."

Oh, yeah, that fits too. Okay, well, what do you say? What are you talking about here? Well, probably the most common reason that people get divorced even in the world today, is what? Often times it's kind of undefined, "Will I get a divorce?" "We have irreconcilable differences." What is that? "Well, we can't get along. We can't figure things out. We can't work it out." Here, Paul's addressing that. You're married within the Church. Your marriage has been bound by God. You were converted individuals when you agreed and covenanted before God and with each other to be married. What happens if you get to that point? Well, he says, "All right, you can separate, you could depart. But how does God look at that? He says, "Remain unmarried or reconcile." Or you could take that a step further. Could you divorce in the Church? Sure. You can divorce if you were married within the Church. He say, "All right, you could divorce. You can't work things out. Fine, separate. But that's it. You can't get remarried. That's unacceptable. Either you come back together and reconcile or you stay apart. You stay apart. Remarriage is not an option. It's not an option." And so he emphasizes this very point. And really, what is that pointing to? I mean, we don't want to overlook the unstated here. You have marriage within the Church, husband and wife who are supposed to be converted. Irreconcilable difference shouldn't be a point. Are we going to have differences within marriage? Of course, we are. What do functioning marriages do? They work them out. You work them out and you stay together. That's the goal. That's what we should do. If you can't, what is that pointing to? A lack of a spiritual perspective. It's really pointing to spiritual immaturity. If you can't work these things out within marriage, there's a lack of spirituality. And that is part of the underlying cause that Paul is talking about here in verse 11.

Now, there's other things we'll talk about in a moment, but this is a situation where we just can't work things out. We have these differences, we have these disagreements, we have these challenges, we have these irreconcilable differences. No, we should be able to do this. We should be able to do it. There's no other options. No other option. You can separate. You can even divorce by man's laws, but you can't get remarried. You've got to come back together. You've got to work out your problems. That's the point that he makes here. So in those circumstances, that's the way it is. That's the way it is. And so the Church upholds that perspective today. Now, there's other situations that also come into play. Let's say, I'm married and I come into the Church. I have been called by God. I come into the Church, but my wife doesn't. Maybe she doesn't want anything to do with the Church. What should I do? Well, should I just throw her aside, get divorced because she's not with the program? She's not with the Church. What should I do? Well, here we have that example explained here.

1 Corinthians 7:12 He says, "To the rest, I not the Lord say, If any brother who has a wife who doesn't believe and she's willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. Let him not divorce her."

So a couple of things going on here. When we look at what Paul is getting at, first of all, he says, "I not the Lord say." What does that mean? Paul has given his own personal opinion. No, no, not doing that. He's basically just saying, "Jesus didn't address this issue. He didn't address this issue that, wow, you got one person converted and one person not. Should they divorce?" You're not going to find that in the gospels, right? You're not going to find any place where Christ Himself addresses it. So Paul is taking God's instruction on marriage and applying it in this situation that we have a believer and an unbeliever. Should you just automatically divorce? And he says, no.

This individual is an unbeliever. What's an unbeliever? You may remember us talking about this the other day. Apistos. Remember, pistos is faith. Faith, someone who is not of the faith, apistos is not one of the faith. So they are an unbeliever. They're not a believer, they're an unbeliever. They're not in the faith. So we have one in the faith, one pistos, one converted, one unconverted. And so here what we begin to see is this principle that when a believer and an unbelieving mate can work together, can be a couple, what's God's perspective? He says that as a believer, you're bound to that person. You're connected to that person. God hasn't automatically dissolved your marriage just because this individual is not a believer. Is that set in stone? Will that always be that this person will be an unbeliever? God's saying, "That's not your call. It's not for you to determine." I mean, we may have a perspective that the person is never going to respond to God. Maybe they're just angry that you're in the Church and they don't want anything to do with it. Well, do we cast them off?

He says, "No. As long as they're willing to have a marriage relationship. You work with that. You work with that." And so who knows what God may do? God could open their mind. I know individuals that are of this case, that someone comes into the Church and they have an unbelieving mate. We even used to have a term for that. Some were spiritual widows, which meant the wife is in the Church, they're married, but their husband is not in the Church, and they were spiritual widows. I know one case where a wife came into the Church and her husband was a pastor in a Protestant denomination. You think he had good feelings for the Church of God? Not at all. In fact, it almost split up their marriage. He had to eventually quit being a pastor of this Church, saying things like, "Well, if I can't even convince my own wife to join my Church, I guess I better not be a pastor." And this individual ended up quitting pastoring, went into other professions. It wasn't until 55 years later, God continued to work with this man all along, which I believe through his believing wife, and eventually was baptized into the true Church. Phenomenal.

Now, if they would have split up all those years ago, if the wife of the said, "Well, my husband's a pastor in this pagan Church, I'm dumping him because he's an unbeliever." No, they could work together. They actually had a good marriage other than that factor. And I think because of the influence of the wife, God continued to work with the family through the wife. And eventually, God called that man. What an example. If she would have dumped him years ago, would that have ever happened? Probably not. So whose call was that? It wasn't the wife's call, that was God's call. Put in God's hands. Now, there's other situations that can come up with believers and unbelievers, and Paul's going to talk about that in a moment. But here he shows that, you know, if you can have a marriage, stay together, stay together. Which also speaks to the fact that can you have a decent marriage with someone that's not in the Church. Yeah, but you don't want to seek that out. God's instruction says, "You marry in the Church." That's the instruction. If you come into the Church married and your mate doesn't become a part of the Church, that's a whole other scenario. So we don't want to confuse those. Marriage within the Church, the best thing, no doubt. That's the biblical instruction. That's where God says you need to marriage within the faith. Now, at the same time, you don't want to get the idea, "I can marry anybody in the Church and everything will be great. If I could just marry someone that's baptized, I'll have a great marriage." Now, that's not the case either. That is not just because you marry someone in the Church. It doesn't mean it's going to solve all marriage problems. You're still going to have to work at it. You're still going to have to deal with the situations and the difficulties that life brings. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And so don't approach things from that perspective. Now, if you're still there in 1 Corinthians 7, notice what he says next. He kind of reverses the situation.

1 Corinthians 7:13 He says, "A woman who has a husband who doesn't believe, if he's willing to live with her, let her not divorce him."

And so interesting that either way, stay together, stay together. And we'll define this willing to live in just a minute or so. What does that mean? Does that mean a husband could be abusive to a wife and they don't want to leave, and so that a wife should put up with that? Because it says, "They're willing to live, don't divorce." No. No, there's more to the story of what that means, willing to live. So maybe put that on the shelf for a moment, and we'll come back to that. Come back to that in just a second. But instead what Paul does, is he shows God's thinking when it comes to a believer and an unbeliever staying together, staying together in that sense. So what does he say?

1 Corinthians 7:14 He says, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife." Interesting. And it says, opposite is true. "The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy."

What's that reminding us of? Well, if one person in the family has God's Spirit the others in that immediate family, they're set apart by God. They're sanctified. We've talked about that word, they're set apart. God looks at them in a different light than the rest of the world out there that have no connection with the truth. And so here he points this out, that God has put them in a special category. He's sanctified them. And in fact, this word for sanctified here. Hagiazo is the word, sanctified. Hagiazo, this husband is hagiazoed by the wife and the reverse is true if he's converted and she's not. Now, that's not talking about moral purity or anything in that regard. It's emphasizing the fact that in a sense, God's put a claim on that family. With one converted mate, this family is special to God. They're in a special category. If you think of sanctified in that regard, they're in a special category. They're different than all of those that have nothing to do with God's Church. They're different than those in the world. They're sanctified. They're set apart. They're in a special category.

And so God looks at that unbelieving mate in a special category. And who else is included in that? The rest of the family. The rest of the family, he says, "Your children, your children." What about the children? The children are hagi. The children are, in my New King James translation, the children are holy, holy. Not that they're perfect behaved children. It's not talking about that. It connects with this hagiazo, that they are set apart by God. They're in a special category. They're not unclean. Of course, think of that in terms of the Old Covenant, clean and unclean. Yeah, okay, they're not outside the camp being unclean. No, God sees them as a part of the family. God has put them into a special category. They are holy. In other words, they have a connection to God. They're not cut off from God. And so we recognize very clearly then children of someone who is converted are in a special category by God. God is working with them, in other words. God's working with that unconverted mate as well. They're in a special category. They're sanctified. And so who knows if they won't respond to God and at some point become converted. And I think that reminds us of our children then. Are our children being called by God? Way back in the day, you go back decades and decades ago, the Church would say, "Well, I don't know, maybe they'll be called by God." But coming to understand this passage, what's it telling us? They are hagia. They are already set apart. God's already got a connection with them. God is working with them. God is calling them. So if you've got a believing father or a mother, and I believe this extends to grandmas and grandpas, you got a connection there that God has given them His Spirit. He's working with their children. He's working with their grandchildren. They're offset into a special category. And so this passage is telling us God is calling children.

In fact, we sing that song, don't we? God is calling children. Yeah, He is. He is. So you have a believing mom or dad, you're in a special category and God is calling you. You're not spiritually separated from God. And so what a powerful, meaningful statement that is made here. In fact, we've got study papers on this very fact that point out our children are not unclean. They're not apart from God. They have the opportunity for a special relationship with God, and God's going to do everything He can to draw them to Him. And so, boy, that is such a powerful thing that we can take to heart, that God is... He doesn't turn His back on the family. Because after all, what is God doing anyway? I mean, He's building a spiritual family. Family is what it's all about. And so when you think about, you know, the attacks of Satan, well, no wonder he attacks marriage.

No wonder we can't even define what a marriage is in America anymore. It's about anything you want it to be. That's what we say. But God says, "No, this is what the family is." And the family points us to God. It points us to the plan and the purpose. It points us to the gospel. It points us to what God is all about. What is God's purpose, and His will, and His way? It all has to do with family. And this physical family should give us keys to understand the spiritual family that God is creating. And so what a powerful section of Scripture at this point. And so we recognize that God is working with those children, and the time will come when He will certainly call them and work with them, and they have, you could say, unique access to God that those outside the Church just don't have. Okay, so let's go back then to verse 14, once again, talking about believing husbands or unbelieving wives or believing wives and unbelieving husbands. We have another situation that is impacted just the way life works sometimes.

1 Corinthians 7:15 "If the unbeliever departs..."

Remember the unbeliever is the apistos, the one that is not in the faith, the one that's not converted. The unbeliever leaves. The unbeliever leaves. They're not pushed out the door. They're not forced to leave. You've got a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever. This one says, forget it. I've had it. The believers done everything they could, you know, to be a loving wife or to be a loving husband. And yet, they can't handle it. They can't deal with it. They leave. They leave. What happens in the situation like that?

1 Corinthians 7:15 Well, Paul says, "Let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace."

God has called us to peace. And so here we see one of the reasons why divorce would be allowed within the Church. And not only divorce, but what's the obligation then of this person? Does she still have to be married to this guy who left, didn't want anything to do with them? I mean, I've seen situations where a husband who's an unbeliever refuses to support the family any longer. Says, "Well, I work. I'm keeping my money. You're on your own. If you want to be a part of that Church, fine, go ahead. But I'm not going to support family who won't do what I wanted to do." Well, what's the obligation there? Well, they're leaving. They're not even willing to support the family. And so here we see very clearly then, this is a reason, a valid reason for divorce. And so we have the unbeliever departs. You did everything you could to try to work it out, but you're not under bondage. You're not bound together in that sense. And so whether it's the man or the woman, whatever, either way. And we see God's called us to peace. Yeah, because sometimes that becomes the issue in their marriage. You're in that Church and I don't want anything to do with that. And that could be a big part of the problem. And so do we force someone to stay together in a situation like that? No, no, we don't.

Now, this can literally mean the person leaves. Right? The case I mentioned that husband didn't want anything to do it walked out the door. Didn't want anything to do with his wife, his kids, anything. Get out. He left. Yeah, it could physically point to that particular circumstance. But when you talk about an unbeliever, they might not walk out the door. It might just be utter turmoil within the home that just never goes away. And it's, basically, war between the husband and wife. Okay, they don't leave physically. Does that mean they have to stay together? No, no. An unbeliever who acts that way, they've fire departed whether it is physical or whether it's just in their mind, they've already left. They've left the marriage, they're unwilling to work things out. And so we see that's the issue.

And it's also interesting. So it doesn't have to physically happen that you leave, you walk away. When we talk about an unbeliever, it's easy to think, well, we have someone who's a baptized member and we have someone who's unbaptized. And that unbeliever departs, whether it's physical or just the way they act within the home, within the marriage. Well, what about two individuals that are both baptized, the husband and the wife is baptized. Is it possible for one to be apistos? Yeah, absolutely it's possible. What determines that? Is the determination simply the fact that they got dunked? Does that point to, well, you're converted because you got dunked in baptism? And so you're converted. And so we've got two converted people. So if they split up, well, your only option is to reconcile, that's it. Or would it be something else?

What would determine whether or not you're a believer or an unbeliever or pistos or apistos? What's the determining factor? Your fruits, your actions, your habits. If you're habitually in a pattern, acting in ungodly ways. Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit. But it also talks about the works of the flesh. And so if your behavior is emulating the works of the flesh, what are you? I don't care if you've got dunked. That has nothing to do with it. If you're not submitting to God's Spirit, you're an unbeliever. You're acting like an unbeliever. You act like an unbeliever. You are an unbeliever because you're not allowing God's Spirit to work in you, whether you even got it in the first place. You're showing evidence that maybe you never did. And so this concept of an unbeliever departs is certainly one of those circumstances that we see very clearly would be a reason to divorce, and it would allow the individual who is converted to then remarry.

And it's an exceptional situation. It's an exceptional situation. Not talking about working out problems and little issues and the challenges that life brings normally. No, this is war in the household, an unwillingness to even try to work things out. That unbeliever could be in the Church, but are they converted? No, no. And so it could be either one of those situations, an individual who has an unconverted mate who came into the Church that way, or it could be even two converted individuals who married in the Church. But the fruit of certainly one of them is that that was never their perspective. They didn't ever act as though they were converted, or maybe they just did end up that way. They didn't keep responding to God's Spirit and it just degenerated to that. And so this idea of an unbeliever departs is certainly part of this whole concept of what Paul is talking about here in the confines of marriage. And this would then be a valid reason for divorce.

And what's interesting in this is that instead of the mate deciding, and we talked about you come into the Church as a believer and your mate doesn't come into the Church, you stay married. If you can have a decent marriage, you stay married. But if they're unwilling and war in the household erupts, they leave. Well, who made that decision then? Well, you didn't. You didn't make that decision because that wasn't yours to make. They decided on their own. So we're not cutting them off from God. God's actually set them apart is what we read earlier. God actually set them apart. But they chose to jump ship. They chose that. They chose that way, not you. And so we have that point emphasized here that, in a sense, we don't have that right to usurp God's decision. Now, if, yeah, known situations where even in the Church at times, it's usually an exceptional situation, two people baptized in the Church and there's abuse. There's abuse.

You know, I've had situations, not very often, but at times it does come up where someone's an abuser in the relationship. And sometimes it can work both ways. More often than not, it's the husband abusing the wife verbally, physically, you know, in a number of different ways. Is there an obligation to stay married in that situation? No. No. Why? They're an unbeliever. They're acting like an unbeliever. Even though they were dunked, they're acting like an unbeliever. They're acting like an unbeliever. That's their behavior. That's their perspective. You don't have that obligation to stay married. And so that becomes an important aspect that let God make that decision, they walk out the door, they're abusive, you don't have to live under those terms. And so Paul is dealing with those different situations, trying to delineate what is the proper perspective for us as God's people, and the perspective of God in the marriage. And so if you're looking back at verse 16, that situation of a believer and an unbeliever.

1 Corinthians 7:16 "How do you know, oh, wife, whether you'll save your husband? Or how do you know, oh, husband, whether you will save your wife?"

You're going back to that situation I talked about with the man who was a pastor in a different Church. If they would have divorced, would have never worked out it seems. But, ultimately, God decided and the man finally responded to God, which is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing situation. So don't take that authority to yourself. Now, one thing we'll want to talk about, this is just one example of what would constitute, I guess you could say, a legal divorce within the Church. We'd already talked just a little bit about another reason, really, the only other reason that falls under this. Of course, any kind of abuse situations like that fall under unbelievers. There's also another aspect that you could talk about this. So we could put abuse under this category. I believe that fits as well. That's acting like an unbeliever. They've departed. What else fits in this particular situation? We could say fraud also fits under that category. I mean, you could say it's another category, but I think it kind of falls under that idea of acting like an unbeliever. So what we'll do next time, we'll talk about what is fraud? What constitutes fraud? Why would that be a valid reason to divorce?

And then we'll spend more time talking about what Christ delineated, that concept of sexual immorality. How does that play into the circumstances for a valid divorce within the Church? And we'll talk more about, okay, divorce and then remarriage. We talked about the one instance here, that you can separate, if you're converted individuals, you can separate in the Church, even get a legal divorce by the laws of this world, but that your only choice then is to come back together and reconcile. You cannot remarry. We'll talk about how the Church decides those types of cases. And sometimes it gets really convoluted and very difficult to go through these kinds of things.

So if nothing else, we should learn from the situations here, is that marriage is a serious thing, and you don't go into it with your eyes closed. You want your eyes wide open coming into marriage, because God counts it as a very serious, serious obligation. It's a covenant. And so we definitely want to do that so we can avoid all of this. Okay? We want to avoid all of this as much as we can. So next time, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about the sexual immorality, peace when it comes to divorce. We'll talk about fraud as well. And then we want to talk about our policies within the Church, and how do we handle that within the United Church of God. Something that would be important just to recognize what we do as far as those situations within God's Church.