I am fairly confident that Jesus would not expect a defenseless woman to stay with a man or married to a man that beats her....and where is her dad....If my daughter he would get a beat down and If I was too old or weak to do it would hire someone to clean his clock and give him a dose of his own medicine....I have no use for cowardly faux men who beat and abuse women or children....as a matter of fact....my mercy goes out the window with such losers........
Amen brother-- The lady is absolutely free to divorce a physically abusive "husband," because it only amounts to a legalistic union. I was in a similar situation as a man being severely emotionally abused by a troubled woman in a legal marriage that we had planned to progress to church. There are several reasons why the abused lady would be free to divorce:
And these statements are clearly supported by the Bible--
1) Marriage is not meant to only be a legal union, but, a relationship centered on God's love, peace, commitment and security.
An abusive man (or less often a woman) legally disqualifies the marriage because a true marriage does not exist where there is abuse of a lady or children, because that is a sign that the man is not a Christian, but, controlled by the devil, and the love of Christ does not reign in the marriage, therefore, they are not married in the eyes of God, who is God of love and kindness, especially towards vulnerable people.
IT IS LOVEJ and GOD and the AUTHORITY of a CHURCH THAT MARRY'S A MAN AND A WOMAN NOT A LEGAL DOCUMENT.
This can be defended by the Bible and Church history by the strong condemnation of religious legalism by JESUS and JOHN the BAPTIST, time after time after time in the Bible. Sorry that I don't have the scriptures here but I will look them up at home. One of the is: "The Sabbath was made for God's people" not the other way around, and then Jesus said, "I am LORD even of the Sabbath." This means that the spirit of religious legalism is over-ruled by the Spirit of Christ's love, power and authority.
Another defense is that there are no mentions of abuse among the followers of Jesus, meaning that that was an offense so serious that it automatically disqualified them from all privileges of being with Jesus, amounting to immediate excommunication from church fellowship. The LORD only mentioned that adultery was the only grounds for divorce because it was CLEARLY understood, without even mentioning it, that physical abuse by a spouse towards their wife and children, was already understood as grounds for immediate excommunication from church, and immediate grounds for divorce.
THIS CLEARLY TRUE BECAUSE JESUS SAID THAT UNDER THE NEW COVENANT, EVEN LOOKING AT A WOMAN WITH LUST AMOUNTED TO ADULTERY, AND EVEN HATING SOMEONE AMOUNTED TO EMOTIONAL MURDER. SO, IF A MAN BATTERS HIS WIFE, OR CHILDREN, IT IS CLEARLY AN ACT OF THE DEVIL'S HATRED, VIOLENCE AND MURDER, THAT IF THE PERSON DOES NOT REPENT FROM COULD LEAVE THEM WITH A "GARMENT OF VIOLENCE," SIMILAR TO A HATEFUL, BITTER DIVORCE WHICH AMOUNTS TO EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE, MURDER OF A RELATIONSHIP, AND MURDER OF A SPOUSE'S TRUST, AND MURDER OF CHILDREN'S FUTURES.
3) So, having clearly established here that under the New Covenant, love over-rules the legalistic violence of the "spirit of religion" that both Jesus and John the Baptist said came from a "brood of vipers," the same brood of vipers that quoted scriptures as they murdered Christ, it is clear that scriptures can not be used to justify violence against women and children or as an excuse for a wife-batterer to claim a legal right to own a woman and forbid her to divorce him. He doesn't even have a legal right to beat a dog, which would also disqualify him from fellowship with Christian believers. So, if violence against a dog, disqualifies an abusive man (or less often a woman), from Christian fellowship, then violence against a spouse, clearly does also.
4) Further support of this is when Jesus said that"is it right (and legal) to do good on the Sabbath?" and then He answered the question by miraculous intervention. He also said "have you not read where King David, broke the rules to eat the Church bread when he and his men were hungry?"
CONCLUSION:
UNDER THE NEW COVENANT OF GOD'S LOVE AND MERCY, GOD'S LOVE OVER-RULES LEGALISM, AND THE BIBLE CAN NOT BE QUOTED TO JUSTIFY VIOLENCE IN A RELATIONSHIP/MARRIAGE.
THEREFORE, THE WOMAN WOULD HAVE IMMEDIATE GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE, AND TO HAVE THE MAN LEGALLY REMOVED FROM HER HOUSE, IN FACT IT WOULD BE HER OBLIGATION.
IF EVEN LOOKING AT ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE WITH LUST IS CONSIDERED ADULTERY UNDER THE NEW COVENANT, THEN ABUSING A SPOUSE SURELY ALSO IS. AND THIS WOULD ALSO INCLUDE VERBAL ABUSE, WHICH IS CONSIDERED EMOTIONAL MURDER UNDER THE NEW COVENANT.
SO, GOD'S LOVE OF THE LIVING WORD--CHRIST HIMSELF--IS HIGHER EVEN THAN THE WRITTEN WORD.
THE LADY IS FREE TO IMMEDIATELY DIVORCE HER LEGAL "PARTNER" WHO CAN NOT BE CONSIDERED A HUSBAND BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT TRULY MARRIED IN A BOND OF LOVE.
THE BIBLE CLEARLY SUPPORTS THIS.