JESUS said that if a man "puts away" his wife and marries another, except for the cause of fornication, he is guilty of committing "adultery."
The Church today uses this statement by JESUS to condemn people who have previously divorced and remarried by telling them that they are now living in sin.
The Hebrew word "shalach" translates the term "putting away," to "separate," a "separation." It does not mean "divorce."
The New Testament Greek word "apoluo" translates the term "putting away," to "separate," a "separation." It does not mean "divorce."
In the Book of Malachi, God does not say that He hates "divorce," but that He hates "putting away."
In the Old Testament, some husbands would become unhappy with their wives for any number of reasons, and they would just simply "put away," "separate" from their wives. This practice was very unfair to the wives because the wife could not legally re-marry since she was still legally married to the husband who "put her away." Because of this practice by the husbands which put the separated wives in a very unfair and difficult situation, Moses enacted a Bill of Divorce which required a husband to put into the hands of his separated wife a Bill of Divorce which then freed her from just being separated from her husband, to the status of being legally divorced from her husband. This then allowed the divorced wife to legally re-marry.
Please take special notice that JESUS does not say in Matthew 19:9 that a man who marries a "divorced" woman is guilty of committing adultery. Rather, JESUS clearly states that a man who marries a woman who has been "put away" (which means "separated" not "divorced") by her husband is guilty of committing adultery, because the man would be marrying a woman who was previously "put away" by her husband who did not put into his "separated" wife's hand a legal Bill of Divorce. Therefore, the man would be marrying a woman who was still legally married to someone else which JESUS defines as the act of committing adultery.
Did you know that the Laws of Moses consists of an astounding 613 Laws. Did you know that out of the 613 Laws of Moses, that there is no Law that says "thou shalt not divorce." Did you know that the only Laws against "divorce" and "remarriage" were: (1) the Priests in the Levitical Priesthood were not to "marry" a "divorced" woman. They could only "marry" a virgin. (2) if a person was twice "divorced," they were not to"remarry" their previous 1st spouse.
Other than those 2 Laws, a "divorced" person was free to "remarry."
Today, there is a great deal of wonderful research material at our disposal. And yet, because today's Church has not taken the necessary effort to research out the matter of divorce and remarriage, there are undoubtedly a large number of Christians who have unnecessarily been living under condemnation and guilt because they went through a divorce and then remarried. Also, there are those who have divorced and decided not to remarry, because they do not want to be accused of "adultery." What a tragedy.
JESUS came to set us free. Not having a good understanding of the true meaning of certain Biblical doctrines that have a great impact upon our lives, puts us in bondage.