Exposition of the Gospel of Luke

Contents

Only book 8, sections 2–9 (on Luke 16:18, divorce and remarriage), are published.

1. 8.2Ambrose opens his comment on Luke 16:18 by asking whether every marriage is from God, since Paul lets an unbeliever depart, and answers that a Christian's marriage to a pagan is not joined by God.
2. 8.3Ambrose explains from the Greek of Prov 19:14 that God joins a marriage where there is harmony, which is lacking when a Christian man is unlawfully joined to a pagan woman.
3. 8.4Ambrose urges husbands not to put away their wives, since the wife put away, unable to remarry while he lives, is driven toward adultery, and the husband is guilty of her fault.
4. 8.5Ambrose answers that divorce allowed by civil law is still forbidden by God's law.
5. 8.6Ambrose argues that a husband who puts away his wife and remarries is an adulterer under the appearance of marriage, and is to blame if she, out of necessity, marries again.
6. 8.7Ambrose answers the appeal to Moses with Christ's words: Moses permitted divorce for hardness of heart, but God's law from the beginning makes husband and wife one flesh.
7. 8.8Ambrose reads 1 Cor 7 as confirming that God never ordained divorce: Paul neither commands it nor authorizes the deserter, but only frees the deserted believer from blame.
8. 8.9Ambrose gives the spiritual sense of Luke 16:18: the marriage of Christ and the church, joined by God, which no persecution or heresy may separate.