The Biblical Implication in Modern-Day Divorce and Parental Disputes
Some people separate church and law. Some people intertwine the two. If you're involved in a divorce or custody dispute in which religion is relevant, this post is for you--especially if you're the step-parent who is helping your spouse stand up for himself or herself and his or her parental rights.
Proverbs 30:23-21
Under three things, the earth trembles:....an unloved woman when she gets a husband..."
You're not controlling the situation. You're the fighter who is helping her husband fight for his rights. Always remember that no matter how you're perceived, your intention is honest and wholesome.
1 Timothy 5:14
"So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander."
If you are a good person who is being falsely accused of negativity, you have no reason not to fight and stand up for your truth.
Deuteronomy 21: 15-17
“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both...have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved...in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first fruits of his strength..
So, I'm just saying. This passage indicates the importance and relevance of children from previous marriages. If these children are so relevant in expectation regarding estate, they are certainly just as relevant in regards to parenting time. A father is not a bank or a visitor. He is a parent whose parenting rights are equal to those of the mother.
Proverbs 21:19
It is better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.
Why did your spouse divorce the mother of his child(ren)? Did she fight and bicker all the time?
1 Peter 3:1-5
...Husbands may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.
Surely, then, a judge will understand that for the exact same reason, a husband may be lost.
Matthew 5:32
Everyone who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immortality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Infidelity
Was her infidelity the main cause of the divorce? If so, the divorce was Biblically warrantable, it seems. Matthew 10:6-9 reminds us that Moses granted divorce from a wife due to the hardness of heart, even though, "from the beginning, it was not so."
1 Corinthians 7:12-15
If any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. The unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
This passage actually speaks from both standpoints, but I have only quoted the standpoint of a religious man and a lesser or non-religious wife. If you're being accused of being a bad influence on your step-child due to your religious beliefs, this passage completely negates that argument.
1 Corinthian 11:11
In the Lord, a woman is not independent of a man, nor a man of woman.
This can be applied not only to marriage, but to parenting as well. Neither sex can parent alone. This is why joint parenting should be the preferred method of parenting of divorced couples, unless one parent is proven unfit by the courts.
© 2017 Kerri Rowland
