Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
Question 1
What are the things that make marriage important?
Question 2
What does it mean that two become one flesh when they are married?
For years, our society has lost sight of how good and serious marriage is. Rather than seeing it as an agreement to spend the rest of your life with another person, loving and supporting each other in service of God, many people think it’s temporary, which can be broken if you change your mind. No doubt we have all seen the sad effects of marriage breaking.
Even in Jesus’ day, there was a lot of debate about when it was okay to divorce your wife. The Pharisees come to Jesus once again to see what He had to say on the subject. Initially Jesus asks them what the Jewish law says. It is clear that the law (which came through Moses) allows divorce because the hearts of the people are hard. Marriage is good because it is the pattern God has arranged – that one man and one woman leave their families and form a new family. These two different people are completely connecting with each other, becoming one body, in order to help each other serve God.
If this is the case, if marriage means that you are one body with the other person, then the last thing that should be on your mind is to be split from that person. The attitude we should have when getting married is that we are going to be with the other person until death separates us.
Amazingly other parts of the New Testament teach that marriage is a picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ (the husband) and the Church (the wife). This picture tells us many things, but seeing Jesus’ approach to marriage gives us an assurance that He will never break that relationship.
Question 3
When thinking about how God created one man and one woman, what does this tell us about the right relationship between husband and wife?
Question 4
Why do you think God designed this way of having a relationship?
Pray
if God’s intention is for you to marry, he will give you wisdom in choosing a mate for life.
