I read this post today:

http://invisiblefootprints.blogspot.com/2005/02/where-does-adultery-begins.html

When I tried to comment, it had a 1,000 letter limit and I did not want to totally flood his blog comments with my post, so I am posting my reply here. 

This is one passage I have found a bit of mystery.  In the King James (everyone, I am not in for a battle of versions, just illustrating the point) the passage is:

Mat 5:31  It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

What I have found interesting it that is says for the "cause of fornication" and then goes on to mention "adultery" as the end result after the divorce.  I wonder if possible He was implying for grounds of a make that was not pure when married by promised to have been.  The reason I say this is that "Fornication" is something you do when you are not married and "adultery" is something you do after you are married.  In the OT a spouse would be killed in the situation of having fornication prior to the marriage while hiding it from their new spouse.

It may just be a battle on words, but it a passage that has made me wonder at times.  I know a lot of "Christians" that believe this just means that if their spouse sleeps with someone else they are free to divorce them.  Hope they are right for there are many in that boat.

In addition, it seems strange that there would be a "holding" over of adultery after a divorce.  You could kill the spouse then be forgiven but no if you divorced them?  I know it does not work that way, but many have asked this of me before, and I really do not have any absolute answers.

They only time I can see in the Bible that there seems to be an absolute allowance for divorce would be if you are married to an unbeliever and they request to be released or possible if a spouse was not virgin material when you married them and you thought they were.  I am not even sure of the latter one.  There may be the times of adultery in a relationship, but I think that is scary ground to walk on just in case.

I really do not know exactly where God stands on these issues.  He was clear about the woman caught in adultery and no one could cast the first stone (although He could have as He was pure but did not).  There are passages such as "love covers a multitude of sins" that help, but it is one of several areas in Christianity I just do not know for sure.  It does not seem absolute passages to settle this issue once and for all in my mind.

One other thought here.  If you lust after a person that you are not married to (let your thoughts run wild without trying to control them) and have been found to have committed adultery in your heart, in the one method of those passages, I wonder if that would free your spouse to divorce you... If that were the case, anyone could get divorced ;)

Thanks for the post!

NOTE: When this post was move to the new blog the comments were lost.