God’s
Law of Marriage
By
Shelby G. Floyd
“Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces
his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 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. –Matthew 5:31-32 NKJV
In the days of Christ, not only the Gentiles, but also the Jews, were divorcing their wives for every cause which one can imagine, and were marrying other wives. The crafty Pharisees came to Christ tempting him concerning his position on the subject of marriage and divorce. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” (Matthew 19: 3.) They sought to put Christ in a dilemma; they hoped that he would either contradict his earlier teaching in the sermon on the mount concerning divorce and remarriage (Matthew 5:31-32), or they hoped that he might contradict what Moses had taught in the law concerning divorce. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4.) They also hoped to pit Christ against the two different positions held by the Jews. Hillel, and his followers, held the position that a man could divorce his wife for any cause whatsoever; while on the other hand, Shammai, and his followers, said that adultery was the only cause for divorce.
Is Divorce
and Remarriage Lawful For Any Cause?
In view of the fact that the state legislatures are passing laws making it easier for divorce and remarriage, the question asked by the Pharisees is certainly pertinent for our times. According to the question of the Pharisees, the cause for which a man puts away or divorces his wife must be a lawful cause. Therefore, divorce and remarriage is to be governed law; not the law of man for man has made it lawful for one to put away his wife for just about any cause, but it must be according to the law of God. Therefore, the Pharisees were really saying “Is it lawful according to God for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” The words put away in the original literally mean, “To loose from, sever by loosening, undo,” and is used in Matthew 19: 3, and also verses 7-9, of divorce, “to dismiss from the house, to repudiate.” (Thayer, p. 66.)
Christ answered the question of the Pharisees by pointing them to God’s law as originally given through his servant Moses. What Moses recorded concerning the original law of marriage was older than what Moses later taught concerning divorce. Matthew wrote,
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 they shall
become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God
has joined together, let not man separate."
(Matthew 19: 3-6
Concerning
the above statement there are several observations which we wish to make.
First, God’s law as originally given concerning the marriage relationship had
been recorded in the scriptures for hundreds of years for man to read and to
understand. The reason so many people disobey the word of God is because they
do not read and study the scriptures to find out the will of God. On this, the
question of Christ is certainly to the point: He said to him, “What is
written in the law? What is your reading of it? (Luke 10: 26 NKJV.)
God Made
Them Male and Female
Secondly, we notice that in the beginning God made man and woman. This is contrary to the evolutionary hypothesis which theorizes that man came about as the result of a gradual change from the lower order of primates. Jesus said, “…that he which made them at the beginning made them male and. female.” (Matthew 19:4.) Man then did not come about by the process of evolution, but he was the result of the creative power of Almighty God. In the opening chapters of Genesis, we read how God created man, both male and female. The Bible is the only infallible source of man’s origin. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1: 27.) Since God made man in the beginning, then man is not eternal. Anything that has a beginning cannot be eternal in nature; however, the one who made man is eternal since he antedates all creation.
Leaving and
Cleaving
In the third place, we note that because God made them male and female, for this very cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. Therefore in the marriage relationship there is both a leaving and cleaving. Since, upon maturity a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, the marriage relationship therefore is stronger than the parental relationship. In the marriage relationship the man forsakes his parents in order to cleave to his wife. The original word for cleave literally meant to glue upon, or glue to; but in connection with marriage it is used tropically with reflexive force, “To join one’s self to closely, cleave to, stick to.”(Thayer, p. 547.) Many marriages fail because there is not both a leaving and a cleaving. Without these two elements, no marriage can be successful. Concerning the word cleave, Albert Barnes comments,
“The word cleave denotes a union of the firmest kind. It is in the original taken from gluing and means so firmly to adhere together that nothing can separate them.” (Barnes on the New Testament, “Matthew” p. 194.)
Jesus therefore pointed the Pharisees back to God’s original law concerning the marriage relationship. (cf. Genesis 2: 23-24.)
God Joins
Them Together Versus Man Puts Them Asunder
Fourth, we notice that after a man left his father and mother, and cleaved to his wife in the marriage relationship, they therefore became one flesh. In every lawful marriage God joins the husband and. wife together. What God has joined together man does not have the right to divide or to put asunder. God, who in the beginning made them male and female, and united them in the marriage relationship, from the beginning did not intend for them to divide or to put asunder that divine relationship. As Jesus said, “...from the beginning it was not so.”(Matthew 19:8.)
God intended for one man
and one woman to be united together in marriage until death separates them.
Marriage is for those who love God and one another. Copyright
© 2007