BUT NOT EVEN SUCH LIVE TOGETHER AS BROTHER AND SISTER ONLY AS BROTHER AND SISTER AFTER ENLIGHTENED BY THE WORD
It has been taught by some that persons who are unfortunate in the matter of having a divorced wife, and are married to a second, that if they live with her, they should live in celibacy. But we find no such directions in the Word of God. To take upon you such a vow, is but to go into bondage under the elements of the law. It gives place to the devil, to tempt, harass, and buffet the soul. All saints of God are taught by the Word and Spirit of God, and enabled by Divine grace, to live temperate, pure, spiritual minded, and abstinent in all things, to the full extent that God is glorified. And thus should they all live. Yea, “this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remains that both they that have wives, be as though they had none: and they that weep, as though they wept not.” 1 Cor. 7:29–31. How very forcibly those words come to us, upon whom the end of the world has come! But this holy life of self-denial should all be in the freedom of the Spirit and law of liberty in the soul, and not by binding yourselves under a slavish law which brings a snare, and usually works bondage and death. Flee from legality, and “live in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” If you are conscious that God forgives all sins of the past, and does not require you to separate, then live in the bonds of the Word of God as man and wife, and permit no man nor the devil to accuse you, nor put an unscriptural yoke upon you. “Whom the Son maketh free, is free indeed.” “Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.” Amen.
But should a man or woman, through lust and treachery, leave a companion and children, after living together for years, and take another, justice and righteousness demand that he put away the late espoused, and return and render satisfaction to the wronged family.
And for a man or woman professing to be saved in the present light, to allow the devil to “transfer his or her love” from a lawful companion to another, is a sin and abomination in the sight of God, which no person can be guilty of without first having lost the grace of God out of the heart, and becoming a reprobate. And such will have to put away the unlawful wife or husband, and make complete satisfaction to the wronged one before any saint of God can have confidence in them.
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.” Matt. 15:19, 20.
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Mark 7:21–23.
“Now the works of the flesh are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:19–21.
And we are plainly told “that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Ver. 21.
We should not allow the fact that our merciful High Priest can forgive them that are “ignorant and out of the way,” to cause us to lower the standard of his Word one jot or tittle, nor in the least mitigate the guilt of the willful transgressor.
On the other hand, we should not stumble the souls of such as give evidence that God has forgiven their wrong steps in the kingdom of darkness, because his Word is inflexible toward them that sin knowingly. The Lord give us both wisdom and love, that we may properly balance the claims of justice to the law of the Lord, and pity to the souls of men. Amen.