Herod's Unlawful Marriage

On the subject of divorce and remarriage, notice Mark 6:17-18: For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.The new covenant was not in force at this point, but one thing we can learn from this incident is that it is possible for a couple’s marriage to be “unlawful” scripturally. Most churches and those claiming to be Christians seem to have lost sight of this fact. The new testament defines for us in places like Matthew 19:9 and Romans 7:2-3 what a lawful marriage is and what an unlawful marriage is, but the great majority just completely ignore it. They divorce and remarry and divorce and remarry, and then run merrily along as if they are living a faithful Christian life. All the while they are living in adultery in God’s sight. And the shame of it all is that 99% percent of the congregations just allow this to go on unchecked. Have you noticed that most religious people only follow the Bible when they agree with it?