What kind of commitment are you making if you marry?
Does God give us a way out or reasons that we are allowed to divorce?
Matthew 19:4-9
And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from 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 they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
In this text, the Pharisees, who knew scriptures and the law better than anyone, got put in their place by Jesus. You see, they were focused on their own desires instead of their relationship with God. Besides trying to trap Jesus in his words, they were more concerned with their own selfish gain.
When we marry, we are making a commitment between God and us first, and then we turn to our spouse and make a life long commitment to them. It is God who does the impossible and joins two human beings to become one! Jesus notes it is because of our selfish desires that Moses’ law permits a reason to divorce. Now if you are in an abusive relationship, then no one is going to blame you for stepping away. But can God heal that marriage and can that kind of marriage have reconciliation? Absolutely! That maybe would be considered an act of faith to stay in that kind of marriage.
Jesus went to the point of death to suffer for us, His bride. To what point are you willing to lay down your life for your spouse?
Do you keep the view of marriage as being united as one human being inseparable as stated in Genesis 2:24?
Don’t let the selfish desire of the heart create division between you and your spouse.
By Andy Finch | Truckee, California