A man divorces his wife for unscriptural reasons and marries a woman from another place who is already married (her first husband knows nothing of it). The woman becomes a Christian. The man divorces her and is finally reconciled to his first wife. Is he right to do that?

QUESTION: A man divorces his wife for unscriptural reasons and marries a woman from another place who is already married (her first husband knows nothing of it). The woman becomes a Christian. The man divorces her and is finally reconciled to his first wife.
Is he right to do that?

ANSWER: God did not join the man and the second woman together (Matthew 19:6-9). This arrangement was clearly adulterous. Therefore, both participants needed to truly repent and return to their first mates. A question left to ponder is: Did the man truly repent or did he return to his first wife simply because the second woman became a “Christian” and rejected him? The action of this man in returning to his first wife is scripturally correct, but to be right with God he must also be sorrowfully penitent for his ungodliness! Another question for consideration is: Did the second woman become a “Christian” while living impenitently in the adulterous situation? If so, her baptism was invalid, because true scriptural repentance must precede scriptural baptism. In other words, the second woman did not become a New Testament Christian unless, prior to her baptism, she first repented of (sorrowfully turned away from) her adultery!