Matthew 19:7-9 7They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one ‘to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away’?” 8He said to them, “On account of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9But I say to you: whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery.”
The Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus again with another question quoting a small phrase in Deuteronomy 24:1. They were not happy with his first answer because they could not dispute his argumentation. What Jesus said made it impossible to have any divorce, and they were not willing to live by this high ethic. They used the strong word command in their appeal. In the original passage in Deuteronomy, the way this idea is stated uses a condition and possibility and not a command to give one’s wife a certificate of divorce. They were interpreting the Bible according to their own presuppositions and purposes.
Jesus sees right through their reasoning and corrects their wrong interpretation. He responds with words that are taken far too lightly in our day. He points out that Moses made an exception to God’s creative purpose because of their hard hearts. The Hebrew slaves treated marriage far too lightly. Women were not treated with respect and could be passed on to other men for just about any reason. They did not know or at least did not live out what Genesis 1-2 taught about God’s will for a man and woman. What Moses said in Deuteronomy 24 actually provided more protection and rights to women than was being practiced. The hard-hearted men treated women as objects to be possessed and not as people created in God’s image and meant for intimate and life-long union and companionship. What ancient Israel and the Jews of Jesus’ day were doing was not God’s will.
In verse 9, Jesus provides one exception for divorce and repeats the ideas in the Sermon on the Mount in 5:31-32. The term sexual immorality (porneia) can be used for many kinds of sexual deviancy. In this context, it refers specifically to sexual acts with any other person except one’s spouse. Sex is the most intimate of human acts. To commit sexual acts outside of marriage harms one’s deepest self and builds emotional, spiritual, and physical walls with one’s spouse.
Divorcing for any other reason and marrying another person is a form of adultery. The second marriage breaks the vow and intention of the first marriage. God’s will is for one man and one woman to be joined together for their entire lives. The couple builds a life together, and from this union emerge many blessings, including children. Marriage is not a human decision that can be changed but is the will of God that should last all our days.
Jesus is not saying here that sexual immorality should lead automatically to divorce. God can heal even the deepest wounds and bring reconciliation and restoration to a broken marriage. But the danger of compromise in marriage can be exceedingly difficult to overcome without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit who softens the hardened hearts, breaks down the walls of separation, and provides the strength to forgive the other person. Scars are difficult to remove, but God’s grace is more powerful than our sin.
How can we maintain strong marriages? The answer is in Jesus. When we live out kingdom principles and model the way of the cross, we will put the other person first. We will not do anything to harm that person. Our greatest goal in this life is to see our spouse grow in the Lord and make it to heaven. Compromise in marriage and the result of divorce always come about because of sin and someone’s selfishness. Holiness and purity that come by walking with Jesus are the answer to the type of marriage for which we were created.
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