“Haven’t you read,” [Jesus] replied . . . “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “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.” (Matthew 19:3–9)
THE FIRST GROUND FOR DIVORCE. The Bible allows grounds for divorce. Jesus says marriage was instituted by God as permanent, yet he recognized Moses’ divorce laws because “the hardness of your hearts” brought about conditions in which it was warranted. The first condition is adultery. God designed sex as a covenantal act—as a way to signify and strengthen the giving of one’s whole life to someone. So to have sex with someone else is to become “one flesh” with them (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:16). That breaks the “one-flesh” union with your spouse, freeing the party who has been wronged to divorce and marry again.58 Such a solemn view of adultery seems quaint today, but divorce was even easier in Jesus’s day, and so the teaching was as radical then as it is now.
Reflection: How would you respond to a married friend who said he had had a brief affair, “but it was just a lark—it meant nothing”?
Prayer: Lord, please help me guard my eyes and thoughts by remembering the solemn nature of sex and adultery. Amen.