Forgive Your Erring Spouse

Don’t rush in seeking divorce when your spouse errs. Remember, you are going through baptism of fire. Your resolve to love and faithfulness is being tested.  

⁹ Do not be quickly provoked in your soul. ECCLESIASTES 7

⁶ Don’t do anything out of an injured pride. SIRACH 10

⁸ Be self-controlled and alert. 1 PETER 5 

If you must magnify the sin of your spouse, then magnify your sins too. For you have also sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). 

⁵ Love is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs… ⁷ It [is ready to excuse] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails [it does not come to an end]. 1 CORINTHIANS 13

¹¹ It is to [your] glory to overlook an offense. PROVERBS 19

Do not ape what the ungodly do, who at the slightest excuse abandon their spouses or trade-in them for “a new model.” Imitate God. Show your spouse his fault then give him a chance to correct it. God did not divorce Isra’el because it committed adultery. God did because Isra’el committed adulteries (Jeremiah 3:8).

⁴ If [your spouse] sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, “I repent,” forgive him. LUKE 17

¹⁴ If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. MATTHEW 6

Make divorce your last option. Reserve it for the recidivist offender. Recidivism makes it clear as the sky that the offender is not of God; his avowed love and faithfulness is all pretension and sham.

⁹ Love must be sincere [without dissimulation]. ROMANS 12

¹⁸ Dear children, we must not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 JOHN 3

Repent, Marital Offender!

As for you, marital offender, learn from your mistake. Do not aggravate the situation. Do your best not to repeat your offence. Reciprocate the love and faithfulness of your spouse. If therapy or counseling is required of you, submit to it with all honesty and humility.

⁵ Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for. PROVERBS 16

¹² Love covers all wrongs [sins]. PROVERBS 10