Honor Marriage

Welcome to the Panhandle, glad you could make it. Today’s subject is both important and controversial today. The divorce rate continues to climb, and divorce has invaded even the homes of Christians. Someone has commented that couples “are married for better or for worse, but not for long.” We need to examine again what Christ Jesus taught about this subject.¹ Matthew 19:4-6 is our Scripture for today’s blog, with verse 6 being our focal point for this general command. But also we will look at verse 9. So come on in, pull up a chair, open your Bible and let’s do a little surfing.

⁴ And he answered and said, “Have you not read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female ⁵ and said, ‘On account of this a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.” Matthew 19:6

The Pharisees came with a question about divorce to try and get Christ Jesus to trip Himself up. Christ Jesus had taught in the Sermon on the Mount regarding the God-given covenant of love and the sanctity of the marriage relationship as indissoluble. The question was raised in a manner designed to trap Him between two schools of thought. In regard to a man’s divorcing his wife this is focused by the phrase “for just any reason.” The question was not on the legitimacy of divorce; they assumed this. Rather it was on the easy policy of the Hillel school and the much more strict Shammai school, who interpreted the Law with rigor.

What God did when He established the first marriage teaches us positively what He had in mind for a man and a woman. So, Christ Jesus' answer emphasized God’s act of creating male and female in and for companionship in a covenant of love. He emphasized their unique equality and oneness in the marriage covenant, that a man should leaves his parent's home and with his wife the two become one flesh. And that they should establish their own household. Recognizing God’s act of making two to be one, man is not to sever what God has joined.²

For anyone to break a marriage covenant is a sin, except where that covenant has already been disregarded by immoral living.³ I know what a lot of you are doing right now, you are bowing up your back and you are about to turn this off, but please hear me out. Divorce for any other reason other than a cheating husband or wife is a sin and for that person to remarry is a sin. If we could build a marriage after God’s pattern for marriage, we would not have to worry about divorce laws.⁴ But let me let you in on a secret, where life happens sin happens. Divorce happens, but is not the “Scarlet D” and It Is Not The Unpardonable Sin. Divorce, like any other sin you commit, will be forgiven if you will ask.

Let me say this again so you don't think I'm judging you, if your spouse cheated on you and the marriage ended in divorce I am not calling you a sinner and saying you need to repent. But God did not institute marriage for it to be broken because you don't like the way your spouse cooks or because they put on weight or they start loosing their hair or...the list goes on. I know marriage can be hard sometimes, but if both of you will do your best to make it a Godly marriage then it will more than likely survive those hard times. Remember God instituted marriage to be a life-long commitment between a man and a woman. And that is the short version of what Christ Jesus is talking about here in verse 6.

Well, that’s it for today. Again thanks for dropping by and I meet ya here next week. Until then I pray that our Lord and Saviour will richly bless you and yours.

Biblesurfer

1 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 68). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

2 Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Matthew (Vol. 24, p. 18). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

3 Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Matthew (Vol. 24, p. 18). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

4 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 68). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.