Arguing From the Lesser to the Greater to Establish Biblical Divorce

Jeff Crippen ♦ 11th April 2012 ♦ 4 Comments

UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.

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Hebrews 2:1-3a ESV
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? ……….

The epistle to the Hebrews uses the word “better” numbers of times.  It does so because it employs the “if the lesser is true….then the greater is true.”   If people were held accountable to the Old Covenant which was given through Moses, THEN surely we are even more accountable under the New Covenant, given through Christ.   You see how it works?  Lesser to the greater.  Here is another example –

Hebrews 7:7-10 ESV
It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

Here, the Apostle is demonstrating that the priesthood of Melchizedek (Christ) is a greater priesthood than that of Levi, because Levi (existing in “seed” form in Abraham) paid tithes to Melchizedek.  If the lesser is true, then surely the greater is true.  Christ’s priesthood is greater.

What has all of this got to do with abuse and divorce and remarriage – our focus in this blog?  Simply this –

If Scripture allows for the abandoned party to be free (not under bondage) from the marriage covenant when the guilty party deserts them (1 Cor 7), then because this “lesser” evil is grounds for divorce, the greater evil must also be grounds for divorce.  And what is the greater evil?  It is the abuser continuing in the “marriage” and persisting in abusing his victim.  This greater evil surely gives the victim biblical grounds for divorce, because the lesser evil (literal abandonment) is biblical grounds for divorce.

Do you see it?  And how bizarre and unjust we are in the Christian church!  The thing smacks of the religion of the Pharisees who strain out a gnat and swallow the camel.  We are more prepared (though there are many who even refuse this) to grant as grounds for divorce – desertion – than we are for active, ongoing verbal, physical, emotional abuse!   But surely the latter is the greater evil.  God repeatedly uses the argument from the lesser to the greater in Scripture, and therefore we are justified in doing the same.  If we strain out a gnat, then let’s be sure to strain out the camel too!