God’s basic law for marriage is seen when one removes the exception from Jesus’ words to the Pharisees. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife…and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery“ (Matthew 19:9 with “except for sexual immorality” replaced by an ellipsis). God intended for marriage to last for life because it fulfills an important need of man and woman, companionship.
God’s law applies to “whoever,” not being limited to Christians. “There is not any indication of what is termed ‘covenant legislation’ which only applies to Christians; all others being free to divorce and remarry as much as they wish prior to conversion and remain with the last marriage partner before one becomes a child of God” (“The Problem of Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage,” Writings and Notes of William E. Woodson 4).
Divorce is nowhere to be found in God’s original plan. It is a difficult subject to discuss because it involves the pinnacle of human relationships. The failure of that relationship is painful to the innermost core of a man’s heart. Woodson observed, “It deals with matters which, with very few exceptions, are and can be known for sure only by a very small number of people” (1).
Divorce is very personal. “Nothing could be more delicate than the intimacies of marriage; nothing could be more difficult to discuss than those aspects of these intimacies which have been perverted and destroyed” (Woodson 1). It can become quite volatile as the extended families of both partners sense the pain their beloved is experiencing.
The Pharisees apparently understood Jesus to be saying that God intended for one man to be married to one woman for life. They were driven to ask, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” Jesus responded, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:7-8). The Jews asked why Moses commanded, but Jesus said Moses permitted. Jesus returned to creation to demonstrate divorce was never part of God’s original plan.
Works Cited
Woodson, William E. “The Problem of Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage,” Writings and Notes of William E. Woodson. PDF. Henderson: Tom L. Childers, 2013.
