Paul Smithson
While Jesus was miraculously healing people beyond the Jordan,
the Pharisees came testing Him asking a question that is still
asked by many today; "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife
for just any reason?" (Mt. 19:3). Many today are confused
concerning what the Bible teaches concerning divorce and
remarriage. Yet, Jesus' answer to the Pharisees is still the
answer for us today.
Jesus replied, "Have you not read that He who made them at the
beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this
reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to
his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? "So then, they
are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined
together, let not man separate" (Mt. 19:4-6). To answer their
question Jesus referred back to God's institution of marriage in
the beginning (Gen.1-2). This record of God's creation of man
and woman and their union should have told them the answer to
their question. From the beginning God made male and female and
united them as one. Anything that would break this union would
be a violation of God's original plan.
Notice that Jesus did not say, WHO God has joined
together, but "What God has joined together." It is a man and a
woman who submit to be joined, but it is God who bonds the
marriage covenant. The courts of our nation state all kinds of
conditions for the marriage union to be broken. Some preachers
declare there are many reason for breaking the marriage bond.
But it is God that joins man and woman in this holy union and
only He has the authority to allow and state an exception to
this lifetime bond.
After Jesus' reply the Pharisees said, "Why then did Moses
command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"
(Mt. 19:7). Jesus reminded them that this was not a command,
but only something God permitted them to do because of the
hardness of their heart. This, however,was not God's original
design for marriage (Mt. 19:8).
He then said, "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife,
except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits
adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits
adultery" (Mt. 19:9). In this statement Jesus brought marriage
back to God's original design (one man and one woman for a
lifetime), and gave only one divine exception-- the sexual
immorality of one's spouse. To divorce and remarry for any
other reason is to be guilty of adultery. "Marriage is
honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and
adulterers God will judge (Heb. 13:4; see Rev. 21:8).
Jesus stated the truth concerning marriage in a way that
should not be misunderstood. If men and women enter into
marriage with this understanding they will have happier,
fulfilling , and lasting marriages. How we follow God's truth
concerning marriage, like all other things in life, will not
only have consequences in this life, but throughout eternity.
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