Divorce

 Divorce, regardless what your religious or ethical views are, is a huge decision and we all know that God hates divorce. The focus of this post is to give my views for those in abusive marriages. 

All reasonable people realize divorce is to be avoided and every marriage has "seasons" where it seems there is no hope, only to overcome and grow from what once was seen as impossible. But many women, and some men, are in abusive relationships: where  verbal, physical or sexual abuse is a pattern and the spouse stays in the marriage because the Bible says - "Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives." 1Pe. 3:1

I believe if a person is in an abusive relationship, and they were able to have the direct council of Christ, that this is near to what He would say --- 

"Dear daughter, God has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives.... to set at liberty them that are bruised." Lk. 4:18 Your husband is commanded to love you as I love you, and to treat you the way he wants to be treated. Because He has violated the foundational truths of the kingdom of God, I give you freedom to find safe refuge, to follow legal means to see him incarcerated for his violence against you, to seek legal aid to prevent future attacks and if at all possible, to lead him to repentance. 

Be 'wise as a serpent' when leaving: plan, prepare and execute quickly, removing the children and yourself from his reach.          Seek restoration and remedy with diligence, but do not re-enter the relationship until you have seen the lasting fruits of repentance. And if he will not stop his abuse, you are free to leave; and if time will not work, and civil law and counseling is of no avail, then you are free to leave his violent and degrading influence on yourself and your children. You are no longer in bondage to him, because he has violated the marriage vows: so you are free to remarry after you have taken time to learn how this happened and taken careful consideration of how to avoid this from happening again."

This is the opinion of one man, and I'm certainly not a scholar, and each person must seek and search their own heart and the heart of their spouse before giving up completely and seeking divorce.