Marriage is sacred and binding

Right after speaking about Adultery, Jesus' next topic, surprisingly, deals with marriage and this is what he has to say in his sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:31-32:

31 “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

I can't think of marriage without thinking about my parents. They didn't believe in divorce, for better or worse they stuck it out even when they said they would leave, they stayed together. As children, my brothers, sister, and I growing up, we got to see what a real marriage
was made of. It was not the glitz and the glamour of the wedding day but it was every single day that my parents decided that "I am going to love you, stay with you and be faithful to you no matter what happens." As a child, the thought of my parents separating never came to mind, not once because, in my mind, they were going to be together forever. So I can only imagine the ramifications a divorce has on a child. It truly destroys their lives. If the divorce comes as a result of an adulterous affair, it makes things even worse. That one affair, one sexual encounter with someone other than your husband or wife, destroys lives forever. Studies upon studies have shown how detrimental divorce is to the psychological health of a child. It not only shatters the world of the child but the spouses as well in all facets including spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and sexually.

Jesus is saying that in days of old, divorce papers were given but the only reason He is saying we can divorce our spouse is because of sexual infidelity. He goes on to say that if you divorce him/her for any other reason, you make him/her a victim of adultery. Jesus uses a woman to illustrate His point. He said that she would become a victim of adultery because she is no longer married and any sex outside of marriage is considered adultery (fornication). Furthermore, if a man married a divorced woman, that man would be committing adultery. Now that's a tough pill to swallow!

But this only shows how serious marriage is, how serious God considers marriage, and how sacred and binding it truly is. God never intended for us to break the bonds of marriage but people were divorcing their wives from Moses' time and felt justified in doing it as they do today.

In Mark 10:1-9, Jesus addresses the subject of divorce when The Pharisees came to test him and he answered them by saying:

“Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh’;[b] so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

This ties in to his teaching on the mount about adultery and divorce. If there is no adultery, there should be no divorce and if there is a divorce and remarrying, there in turn will be considered adultery.

Some may think, in a perfect world this would be fitting but from the beginning until the end of time, God's word stands. You can twist it to fit your lifestyle but it will not be what God had ordained from the beginning. We can choose to follow it or not, but inevitably, the ball is in our court.

"Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." -Hebrew 13:4