About the year 394 AD, a church leader named Jerome received a letter from a fellow pastor asking for counsel. A woman named Fabiola had committed her life to Christ, he wrote, and desired to enter into communion with them as a congregation. The question he had was in regard to the marital status of this woman. Fabiola was happily married, it seemed, but not to her first husband. She had been married before, but had gotten divorced and then married again while her first husband was still living. What should he tell this woman who was applying for membership in the local body, and, more importantly, in the body of Christ?
If you are a typical Christian, you will probably be taken aback by Jerome’s reply. He wrote back to the pastor and told him that this woman should separate herself from her current husband and should live in celibacy from that day forward. Only then could she be admitted to communion. Only then could she be considered to be right with God. Only then could she have the assurance of the eternal life after which she was so diligently seeking.
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Does Jerome’s answer shock you? Does it seem harsh and unloving? Does it appear to you that Jerome was twisting Scripture into some horrific interpretation that would actually require a happily married couple to separate from each other?
Or was Jerome’s answer the correct one, the Scriptural one, and therefore the most loving answer he could possibly have given?
If you are a church leader, how would you have answered the inquiry concerning this woman? Would you have instructed her to separate, as Jerome did? Or would you have given her your blessing to remain with her current husband, citing any one of a variety of reasons? Or would you, perhaps, have told her that “it depends,” and that you would need to know more details about her particular situation before you could give her a direct answer?
Finally, how much does it matter what you would have told her? How important really is this entire question of divorce and remarriage?
If you live in the United States, you live in a country where nearly half of all marriages will end in divorce. And most of these people who do divorce will eventually get married again. And most of these marriages will occur while the former spouse is still living.
Yet, most people in this country also consider themselves to be Christians. They firmly believe themselves to be on their way to Heaven. Most people, including those in your congregation, would assert without any doubt that their names are in the Lamb’s book of life.
If any of them are wrong, how are they going find out?
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