Only death breaks the marriage bond.
“So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Romans 7:3 (KJV 1900)
If you go by what scripture says, I certainly do. You cannot justify Divorce in the NT. Or divorce and remarriage in the OT. You can only help destroy families when they reach their breaking point by teaching Divorce or divorce and remarriage. That's the fruit we judge by.
For any hoping to find a loophole in the "except clause" of Matthew 19:9, there isn't one. Notice the innocent wife divorced from the adulterous husband in the first part. Jesus says the man who marries her also commits adultery, which would mean the except clause does not work in this case. The State executed adulterers making remarriage legal. But since they did not in this case, she and her husband # two are also adulterers.
What did Jesus say?
" Adultery in the Heart
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
Agree with Reynolds. Lust for anyone besides one's spouse is adultery. And remember, in the days when Scripture was being first written, women didn't have too many rights.
But it's largely a question of one's conscience, same as eating meat offered to idols was in Paul's day.
I feel no need to pray for him. He needs to be delivered to Satan. He should give full vent to the fires of his lust till he is utterly consumed. If he is actually saved, that life will rise from the ash heap of his existence, and he will return to the faith, as it were, yet bodily much worse for the wear.
Neither counseling, prayer, multi-step programs, nor prison can reform someone sold out to his lusts. In fact, it's too bad he committed a crime—at least it's still a crime for now. Because prison will interfere with the process. That may be God's design to reserve him for the day of judgment.
Anyway, yes, he should be divorced.
In fact, I will say the marriage union is already dissolved.
If you "church" a man for his sin, his wife isn't "churched" with him, and union with the body of Christ, is a thicker union than marriage. They're both undone.
If you're looking for a legalistic out, I'll give a word about Christ's statement: saving for the cause of fornication. He didn't say for the cause of adultery. It can be any illicit sexual interaction. One's paramour doesn't have to be in person.
Of course it is, and if it's more than that which is common...in otherwords...if it's an inordinate lust and cannot be controlled (self-control is a fruit of the Spirit) , it will bring forth outward sin, and that is the act that gives ground for divorce.
But not every appearance of evil gives ground for divorce.