Quotes About Divorce and Remarriage

Quotes about divorce and remarriage from throughout Christian History.

Anonymous, A.D. 80 – 130

[Christians] marry, as do all others. They beget children, but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. (Letter to Diognetus 5)

Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 155

Concerning chastity, [Jesus Christ] uttered such sentiments as these: "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart before God." ... And, "Whoever shall marry a woman divorced from another husband commits adultery." ... So all who, by human law, are twice married are sinners in the eye of our Master along with those who look at a woman to lust for her. (First Apology 15)

A certain woman lived with an intemperate husband. She, too, had formerly been intemperate, but when she came to know the teachings of Christ she became sober-minded. She tried to persuade her husband to be similarly temperate, citing the teaching of Christ and assuring him that there shall be punishment in eternal fire inflicted upon those who do not live temperately and conformably to right reason.
     Nevertheless, he continued the same excessive living and alienated his wife by his actions. For she considered it wicked to live any longer as a wife with a husband who sought in every way means of indulging in pleasure contrary to the law of nature and in violation of what is right. Thus, she wished to be divorced from him.
     She was dissuaded by her friends, who advised her to stay with him, with the idea that at some time or other her husband might provide hope that he would amend his ways. She did violence to her own feeling and remained with him.
     But when her husband had gone into Alexandria and was reported to be conducting himself worse than ever, she—so that she would not, by continuing in matrimonial connection with him and by sharing his table and his bed, become an accomplice in his wickednesses and impieties—gave him what you call a bill of divorce and was separated from him. But this 'noble' husband of hers ... when she had left him against his will, brought charges against her, affirming that she was a Christian. (Second Apology 2)

Irenaeus, A.D. 183 – 186

Our Lord was compassionate to that erring Samaratian woman, who did not remain with one husband, but committed sexual immorality by contracting many marriages. (Against Heresies III:17:2)

Tertullian, c. A.D. 200

"But if you have taken a wife, you have not sinned" [1 Cor. 7:28] because to one who, before believing, had been "loosed from a wife," she will not be counted a second wife who, subsequently to believing, is the first. For it is from believing that our life itself dates its origin. (On Monogamy 11)