“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

This is a hard word for many to accept. I would like to point out that Jesus makes it very clear that: 1) Marriage is between and husband and a wife. There are no exceptions here for the cultural changes of the society they lived in. While various forms of sexual immorality and perversion existed back then all around the Jews, Jesus did not include those forms as acceptable or as comparable to the marriage covenant between a husband and a wife. 2) God hates divorce. Sexual immorality is the only acceptable reason listed here for divorce by men to their wives. In this culture, it was typically the wives who were divorced by their husbands. For women, physical abuse (wife or children) is another reason that qualifies out of the sheer humanity of the crime.

As sinful humans, we are looking for, many times, an easy way out, a way to satisfy our human desires. Jesus is saying that we need to think long and hard about the consequences and ramifications of divorce. First, it breaks a covenant with God and our spouse. Second, it is hard on our children. Third, many times we are running away from a situation that God wants us to bear up under and work through.

I will have been married for 26 years as of this October. Over those years, there have been a lot of sweet patches and some challenging patches. But neither my wife or I wavered in our covenant with each other. We always knew it was based on a solid foundation, our relationship with God and his Word.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is an old song lyric, and as it applies to marriage, can be really true. Relationships go through challenges and we can choose to trust God in tough challenges.

Marriage is a precious living treasure, like a tree that produces good fruit. It must be nurtured, invested in, have a good root system, and be resilient.

Lord, fortify my marriage and help me to continually be a man who honors my marriage covenant with you and my wife.