FROM THE PASTOR'S HEART

“Jesus Teaching on Marriage and Divorce!”

Matthew 19:3-10

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is

it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Have you not read that

He who made them at the beginning made them male and female,

and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother

and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So

then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God

has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to Him, “Why

then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and put

her away? He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of

your hearts, permitted 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; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

In the Law of God, in Exodus 20:14, the Lord God said, “You

shall not commit adultery.” This Law of God applies to both

men and women. In a day when men have changed the definition

of “marriage” to mean so much other that what God intended, we

must come back to the true teaching of our Lord Jesus on this mat-

ter. God’s first Covenant was made between man and Himself.

Marriage is God’s second institution and covenant for mankind.

Marriage is the “Covenant relationship between One man and One

woman for One lifetime, (i.e. until death separates them.) When

two persons are married they become One in their flesh. They are

no longer Two. God hates divorce. (See Malachi 2:16). Jesus taught

that those who divorce commit Adultery, which God commanded

mankind not to do. Jesus straightened out the religious leaders of

Israel when they tried to make excuses for divorce. Jesus said,

“Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and

marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is

divorced commits adultery.” Jesus said, “From the beginning it was

not so!” (i.e. permitted by God.) “Therefore what God has joined

together, let not man separate!