Divorce

My position is as follows: a married couple should not ever get divorced, except in the case where one or the other has been unfaithful to his or her partner. Why do I say that? It is because Malachi is explicit in quoting God, “I hate divorce” (Malachi 2:16). Those are pretty strong words. It is not too often in Scripture that God is quoted as hating something. Why then is this ignored so often? Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, “But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband…and that the husband should not divorce his wife.” That can only mean one thing—do not get divorced!

Jesus Christ gave only one situation in which divorce is allowable, and that is in the case of unchastity. In Matthew 5:31-32, Jesus teaches, “It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Jesus repeats this statement in Matthew 19 and in Mark 10. Not only is divorce a sin, but it leads to more sin, namely adultery. Joseph was going to divorce Mary quietly because he thought she had been unfaithful to him.

Marriage is designed to be a lifetime commitment. Jesus says in Mark 10:9, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Paul Hamar writes concerning the subject, “God made one husband for one wife, and anything contrary in this setting is breaking Christ’s command.”[1] We have always heard in marriage ceremonies, “Until death do us part.” The death of a spouse releases the other person from the bonds of marriage. That really is the only honorable way for a marriage to end. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 7:39, “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord” (see Marriage to a non-Christian). Furthermore, Paul goes on to say in Romans 7:2-3, “The married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband.”

Brother and sisters, let us live our lives with love for one another through the good times and the bad times, the thick and the thin. How tragic it is that statistics show that the divorce rate in the Church matches that of the world at 50 percent! This should not be the case. Divorce is wrong in God’s eyes, and therefore, it is wrong in my eyes as well.

[1] Paul A. Hamar. The Book of First Corinthians. (Gospel Publishing House: Springfield, 1980), 58.