Title: Marriage and Divorce

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:2-9
“The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him. And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.’ 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.”

Main idea: What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Mark 10:9).

The statistics tell us that nearly one in two marriages taking place in the United States today will end in divorce, and the statistics are not much better for Christian marriages. We see the evidence of decay all around us.

Here are the some of the famous quote about marriage

A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple.
-French Proverb

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. -Robert Quillen (1887–1948)

Choose your wife by ear rather than by eye. -Billy Graham

A man too good for the world is no good for his wife. -Jewish Proverb

A wife is not a guitar; you can’t play on her and then hang her on the wall. – Russian Proverb

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you will become very happy. If you get a bad one, you will become a philosopher. – Socrates (470–399 b.c.)

It is not marriage that fails, it is people that fail. – Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969)

The reasons for marriage.
The only thing that was not “good” about creation was the fact that the man was alone (Gen. 2:18). The woman was created to meet this need. He needed a companion who was equal to him and with whom he could find fulfillment. God’s answer to this need was Eve. Marriage makes possible the continuation of the race. “Be fruitful, and multiply” was God’s mandate to the first married couple (Gen. 1:28).

Old Testament View of Divorce
Because sinful human nature made divorce inevitable, Moses had instituted laws to help its victims. Under Jewish law, only a ­husband could initiate and carry out a divorce. The civil laws protected the women, who, in that culture, were quite vulnerable when living alone. Because of Moses’ law, a man could no longer just throw his wife out—he had to write a formal letter of dismissal, a certificate of divorce, so she could remarry and reclaim her dowry. Under Old Testament law, divorce was permitted according to Deuteronomy 24:1–4. This passage was not concerned with the case of an adulterous wife (the penalty for adultery was death, Deut. 22:22). Rather, it deals with divorce because of dislike or “incompatibility.” God hates divorce (Mal. 2:16), that is, unscriptural divorce. He does not hate all divorce because He speaks of Himself as having divorced Israel (Jer. 3:8). This was because the nation forsook Him to worship idols. Israel was unfaithful.

Jesus’ Teaching on Divorce
Divorce was never God’s intention for man. His ideal is that one man and one woman remain married until their union is broken by death (Rom. 7:2, 3). Jesus made this clear to the Pharisees by appealing to the divine order at creation (Matt. 19:4–6). Whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery (Matthew 5:32). Jesus did not teach that the offended person had to get a divorce. There can be forgiveness, healing, and a restoration of the broken relationship. This would be the Christian approach to the problem. But, sad to say, because of the hardness of our hearts, it is sometimes impossible to heal the wounds and save the marriage. Divorce is the final option, not the first option.

Is Divorce Permitted?
In Matthew 5:31, 32 and 19:9, Jesus taught that divorce was forbidden except when one of the partners had been guilty of sexual immorality. Therefore, even though divorce is not the ideal, it is permitted in the case where one’s partner has been unfaithful. Jesus allows divorce, but He does not command it.

May a Divorced Person Remarry?
Jesus would seem to prohibit divorced persons from remarry­ing, forcing them to live either in celibacy or in sin. 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” (Matthew 19:9). Jesus’ main point was that people should not use the divorce laws to dispose of a partner in order to get another one. God intends marriage to be a lifetime commitment (Genesis 2:24). May a divorced person, who truly repents of a sinful past and commits his or her life to God, remarry? We long for a simple, direct reply to that question, but we have only biblical context as an answer. We have Jesus’ high view of marriage and low view of divorce recorded in the Gospels.

Jesus proclaimed new life—full forgiveness and restoration—to all who would come to God in repentance and faith. Spiritual discernment is essential here, but the gospel— God’s promise of wholeness and full healing—includes the sacred bond of marriage. Churches should be ready to give a repentant, formerly married person the opportunity to marry another believer. Some Christians hold a harsh view that ignores the Lord’s escape clause for the innocent victim of a broken marriage. If the innocent party is a woman and she remarries, they cast stones at her in a cruel way.

Here is an example: commentator John Phillips writes: A woman suffers for years because of the infidelity of her husband. The woman seeks refuge in divorce and begins to pick up the shattered fragments of her life. At this point her husband abandons her and leaves her to get along as best she can. Eventually she meets a man who proposes marriage. He is an itinerant servant of the Lord, a man she honors and respects. The woman, according to the Lord’s own rule, is an innocent victim; she has Scriptural grounds for fifty divorces. So the marriage takes place. Almost at once the man receives a letter from a group of professing Christians to whom he has ministered on many occasions; he is told that he will no longer be welcome as a speaker in their church because his wife has two living husbands. The poor woman now has a new cross to carry. She is made to feel that she is some kind of pariah. Such heartlessness is not the spirit of Christ (John Phillips).

Application
It is true that Christians who marry out of God’s will and get divorced often remarry (to Christians) and that God in grace often to sanctify and bless the second marriage. Does this mean that God modifies his standards? absolutely not. But it does mean that divorce and remarriage, as bad as they are, are not unforgivable and that God is always willing to begin again with us wherever we are or whatever we have done. God is a God of second chance. In my opinion, Christians who have been divorced and then remarried can truly repent of their sin and be restored to the Lord and to the fellowship of the church because divorce is not an unpardonable sin. In the matter of divorce, it seems that almost every case is different. Therefore, the leaders of a local church must prayerfully investigate each case individually and judge it according to the Word of God.

Let’s pray together
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the families, husbands, wife and their children. May all these families stay together, worship God together and serve the Lord together and your blessings be on all these families. In Jesus Name Amen.