25 Helpful Bible Verses For When You Married The Wrong Person & Want To Get Divorced
Some unions are not of God.
pexels Do you feel like you married the wrong person and want to end your marriage?
The divorce statics clearly demonstrates there is a growing number of people unhappy with who they choose to marry.
To understand if you should take away your promise of marriage from your spouse, you should know why it’s there in the first place.
Some faiths, such as Catholicism views marriage as a holy sacrament, and so getting a legal divorce is possible but to the church, the marriage still is valid until an annulment is made.
In other faiths, a legal divorce is also a religious one. So, depending on what faith you practice, your beliefs may play a part in your decision to divorce, if at all.
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Then, there's the love part. Not wanting to be with your spouse can be confusing especially if you still love them. Relationships begin and end with love, whether you’re feeling it or not. So love is central, but it is rarely fully understood.
You may wonder if your emotional attachment is a sign that you are supposed to be together. For Catholics, as long as a couple lives in a valid marriage it is always connected to God, even if they’re not married in a church. A lot of the stories in the Bible have marriages that never involve the church, yet are still connected with God.
The Christian minister and the Christian culture do not add anything essential to the marriage, but they also don't take anything away from it.
Joining to God in a relationship is not something that happens gradually over time, it is actually immediate once you become pronounced husband and wife.
Jesus emphasizes this idea that one connection is only true with God. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, they believed you can easily jump in and out of a marriage without any consequences. Jesus presses them to see that it’s not possible.
To have a divorce without just cause is against God's will, according to the Catholic church, but it's not an unforgivable sin. In Christianity, divorce is something not to be taken lightly, but it's also forgivable. (There are justifications so you can marry again, which involves your ex-partner dies or if they commit adultery while engaged or during your marriage.)
To understand more why it’s that case, we can look to the Bible as a resource.
These are the best Bible verses if you’re a Christian or Catholic who believed they married the wrong person.
1. Don't feel guilty for things out of your control.
"But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace." — Corinthians 7:15
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2. Focus on God.
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." — Psalm 37:4
3. God views marriage as an eternal bond.
"And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” — Matthew 19:9
4. Sometimes people don't do what they should, and it's not your fault.
“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” — Malachi 2:16
5. Be kind.
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." — Ephesians 4:32
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6. Act in a way that honors your vows, even when you are hurting.
"Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives." — Peter 3:1
7. Divorce is a tough decision.
"So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” — Matthew 19:6
8. Rethink your priorities.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." — Matthew 6:33
9. Love is gentle.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful." — Corinthians 13:1-13
10. Show respect and expect the same in return.
"However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." — Ephesians 5:33
11. Focus on how you feel about your marriage, not how others feel.
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." — Genesis 2:24
12. Let God help you in times of need.
"Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." — Peter 5:7
13. When single or apart from your partner, use your time wisely.
"I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.
And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.
I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord." — Corinthians 7:32-35
14. Your choices affect one another.
"For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." — Corinthians 7:1-40
15. Sometimes there are reasons to divorce.
"But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." — Matthew 5:32
16. Feeling lonely when single is a normal human emotion.
"Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” — Genesis 2:18
17. Some people were made for singleness.
"For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” — Matthew 19:12
18. No one can make a person cheat or leave a marriage. They do so by choice.
"Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." — James 1:13-17
19. A marriage supposed to be loving.
"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." — Ephesians 5:25
20. Each partner has a duty to the other.
"The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.
Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." — Corinthians 7:3-5
21. Marriage, both healthy and broken ones, carry strong emotions.
"And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." — Genesis 2:25
22. Take the time you need to work on yourself.
"To the married, I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife." — Corinthians 7:10-11
23. God will never leave you.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit." — Romans 8:1-39
24. God is there for you through your trials.
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." — Psalm 84:11
25. Marriage is hard, but it's not impossible with God's help.
"Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall." — Peter 1:10
Steven Hall is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture, and relationship topics.