If I were to recommend to someone to file for legal separation would that be Biblical? There is no abuse or anything unbiblical going on, its just they do not communicate.
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Is a marital legal separation Biblical?
- Thread starter evangelist6589
- Start date
No it is not Biblical.
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Wouldn't it be better to recommend to them that they find a way to communicate? Seek counseling, from a pastor or qualified counselor? Go to a lake or park and just talk about the lake or park?
By recommending that they legally separate, aren't you violating Matthew 19:6?
By recommending that they legally separate, aren't you violating Matthew 19:6?
My confusion was because your opening post was asking if YOU recommended it. I understand now.
You asked about "legal separation." The laws of your state are not in the scriptures, so by definition they would be extra-biblical or not biblical.
Unless you are one of the parties to this relationship, you don't actually know for sure what is going on.
A legal separation is usually the first step toward a legal divorce according to the laws of states where couples either have to live separately or signify in other ways that the marriage is broken.
If the issue is truly a lack of communication, I would urge this couple to seek assistance and learn to communicate with each other. Unless it was an arranged marriage, there was something that attracted the man and woman together in the first place. A logical place to start is to rediscover the first stage of attraction and then figure out how to grow the relationship from that time.
If there is nothing immoral or destructive going on in the relationship, there should be no reason to even consider a separation. Of course, the reality of a marriage is that it takes two persons to keep a marriage together and only one to destroy it. If one partner wants and separation and the other does not, it will probably happen one day regardless.
Unless you are one of the parties in this relationship, you don't necessarily have enough information to judge the pastor's advice. There may be highly destructive things going on in the relationship that the pastor knows about that you do not which would make separation an act of grace so that both parties can have space to possibly rebuild the relationship.
The problem with this is 'they do not communicate' is not a biblical reason for separation and/or divorce. Now, if the married couple are both lost, I think you might be at a disadvantage because they might be opposed to counseling done with a Christian counselor.
So, you should never recommend separation to anyone, even those who are lost. The best advice I can give you is to pray for them. If they approach you pray that God uses you as a tool to bring reconciliation to their marriage.
The pastor is bad?
Something to think about: If he were to leave his Wife, his Christian Testimony would be called into doubt by those he would try to evangelize.
I strongly disagree. In cases of abuse, when there are children being exposed to extremely bad behavior (as with a friend of mine, when her husband brought home another woman and declared that they were going to live as husband, wife and wife), drug addiction (being around the use of dangerous drugs), etc.
People can do horrible things to each other in marriage and we need to soberly recognize that. God does not want anyone to be a punching bag, abused, or have children harmed.