HOST: Ron House
SPONSOR: Start2Finish
Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast 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 not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”
There is possibly no one issue in the church or in the religious world as a whole that has caused more controversy or trouble than the issue of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. But as we see from this reading, the controversy over this issue is not a new one. Even in Jesus’ day (and in fact long before Jesus’ day), it was a problem among God’s people. The Jews come to Jesus to ask His opinion on the issue. In essence, what Jesus tells them is not to depend on men, whether it be Moses or rabbis of their own day, to guide their thinking on marriage, but rather to look at what God desired and designed when He created marriage in the very beginning. God’s intention and plan for marriage was that it be a lifelong bond between one man and one woman. God creates that bond in marriage, and only God has the right to dissolve it. Oh, how much better our world would be if everyone would respect and abide by God’s plan and design for marriage.
Why do you think faithfulness and commitment in marriage matters to God?
Don’t forget to pray and have a great day!
