Mark 10:10-12 10And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12and if after divorcing her husband she marries another, she commits adultery.”
After Jesus spoke with the Pharisees and responded to their test, a similar pattern is followed, with him taking aside his disciples for further discussion. The disciples were either curious or, more likely, confused by what Jesus had just said. The location of their discussion is not specifically mentioned, but often the deeper teaching took place in someone’s house and away from the crowds and controversies.
The additional teaching focuses on remarrying after a divorce. Jesus extends his teaching about marriage in two ways. The first idea is found in the phrase divorces his wife and marries another. Jesus had basically just told the Pharisees that divorce is not God’s plan for people. A man should not divorce one woman so he can marry another that he likes better. The only legitimate reason to remarry another person is when the first spouse has died, thus ending the marriage since marriage is for those alive (Romans 7:2). Jesus’ statement preserves the importance and permanence of marriage. Divorce is not supposed to be an easy out so a person can marry another person.
The second idea is Jesus’ connection of divorce and adultery. The word adultery (moichan) occurs twenty-seven times in the New Testament and has the sense of sexually immoral activity with a person married to someone else. The Jews taught that a person could remarry only with a valid reason for divorce. Choosing to divorce one person in order to marry another does not nullify the marriage before God, and therefore, the new marriage is not valid but another form of adultery.
Verse 12 does two things. One is that it elevates the woman to a place of equal responsibility in a marriage. Unfaithfulness is not just an issue the husband might face but also the wife. The second issue is how Jesus connects this unfaithfulness to adultery. Divorce and remarriage break the seventh commandment. Just because a person divorces his or her spouse does not nullify the marriage before God. Jesus elevates the commitment involved in marriage and shows the spiritual danger that divorce can create for a person. The good news of the gospel is that sin can be forgiven, and marriages can be restored. The pain of unfaithfulness and betrayal can run deep, but there is always hope.
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