Divorce

Matthew 5:31-32 “31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Introduction

“Our society, including many professing Christians, has rejected biblical conceptions of both love and marriage. Love has become a mixture of physical desire and vague sentimentality; marriage has become a provisional sexual union to be terminated when this pathetic, pygmy love dissolves.” -D. A. Carson

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ re-defining of the Law.

Context for Marriage and Divorce

What does the OT say about marriage?

Marriage is designed by God.

Genesis 2:18 “18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Marriage is designed to be permanent.

Genesis 2:21-24 “21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

What does the OT say about divorce?

There are exceptions made for divorce.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 “1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”

This is the passage used by Jesus in Matthew 5 so we will only use this particular passage. There are many other laws explaining even more specific circumstances. Remember, Jesus is not re-teaching the Law but clarifying the Law.

The Jewish understanding of divorce had weakened marriage. Divorce was common then just as it is now and had lasting effects.

Malachi 2:13-16 “13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

God was not accepting their offerings to him. He was not accepting it because of their sin of taking marriage lightly. It showed that covenant, promise, and commitment meant nothing to them.

The proper understanding of marriage in the OT is complete and total commitment in spite of a spouse’s actions. The permission of divorce was not a requirement of divorce.

Jesus’ Re-Defining of Marriage

Matthew 19:1-9 “1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 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’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 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. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Jesus keeps the big picture perspective when he is questioned. He explains that marriage has not changed and the goal is still lifelong devotion and commitment.

The only thing that has changed is sinful man. The Law only included the option for divorce because of the sinfulness of man.

Sexual immorality is the only allowance because it is a direct breaking of the covenant of marriage.

Application

God’s standard for marriage can only be enforced to Christians.

Lost people will act like lost people.

The breakdown of the family structure in our culture is not caused by a lack of commitment, less biblical teachings, or a misunderstood role of sex. It is 100% because of slavery to sin.

The context of the entire Sermon on the Mount is righteousness found in Christ.

Becoming a Christian after being married and divorced.

We become completely new when we get saved. Nothing in our past is held against us because Jesus has redeemed us!

2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The effects of sin can be redeemed

One spouse gets saved.

Paul challenges the believers in Corinth to stay with them if possible in an effort to be a witness to them.

1 Corinthians 7:12-16 “12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?”

Conclusion

God does not desire for divorce but wants marriage to be lifelong.

God knows what it’s like to be on the bad side of adultery.

God can and will redeem any situation that we allow him.

Luke 19:10 “10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”