What God Has Joined Together

If we set aside all the debate about the “exception clause(s)” we must conclude that our Lord Jesus intends for the marriage relationship to be a lifelong commitment. The Jewish leaders found all kinds of loopholes in the command to keep the ordinance of marriage, even citing that Moses allowed for divorce. But Jesus reminded them that divorce was never God’s intention. He only allowed it because of the hardness of men’s hearts and to provide opportunity for financial security for the rejected wife.

Our Lord’s interpretation of the law of marriage was so strict that even the disciples remarked, “If [the hostility between a man and his wife is that bad] it is not good to marry” (Matthew 19:10). This is a profound statement because everything that God created, including marriage, is created to be good.

The reason that Jesus’ prohibited divorce is not because He did not understand the raw emotions, incompatibility, or problems which are inevitably part of any marriage. The reason is that in marriage, two become “one flesh.” They are no longer two, but one. They have been made one, because God joined them together. The apostle Paul wrote, “He that loves his wife loves himself.”

If two people never fully became one with each other; if they hold back part of their total selves; it’s not hard for them to find a reason to go their separate, selfish ways.

Even if they continue living together in the same house.