“FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO”
(PART 1)

The Pharisees in Matthew 19:3 came to put Jesus to the test. This testing was not because they wanted to know if indeed Jesus was truly the Messiah. Nor was it because they wanted to learn some great truth from Jesus. Their intent was to find some way to trip Jesus in His own words that they might have some reason to discredit and denounce Him.

Jesus answered them by going back to the original plan of God in Genesis 1:27 and 2:24. It was God who made them male and female. And it was God who designed marriage as one man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife. It is God who makes the two to become one flesh. And what God has joined together man must not separate (Matthew 19:4-6).

The Pharisees, not willing to receive this teaching, asked about Moses' “command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” (verse 7) Jesus answered, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Verse 8). The Pharisees used the word “command” where Jesus used the word “permitted.” But this permission was based in the fact that the people had hard hearts. Therefore, for a time, it was allowed. Nonetheless God hated and still hates divorce (Malachi 2:14-16).

According to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19:8-9, there is only one reason a person may divorce a spouse; that is for fornication. Fornication is from the Greek word porneia. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defines porneia as 1) illicit sexual intercourse, 1a) adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc., 1b) sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18, 1c) sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mark 10:11-12, 2) metaphorically the worship of idols, 2a) of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols.

In Matthew 5:32 Jesus said this, “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality [porneia—fornication] causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” Here Jesus is saying that if a man divorces a wife for a reason other than fornication, then he is putting her in an untenable situation she has been debauched or tainted. This reminds me of the situation where a man and woman divorce because they are having trouble getting along and then play a waiting game to see which one will commit fornication first so the other may remarry “with God’s blessing.” Oh, the lengths some will go to in order to “get around” the word of God.

Such an attitude disregards Jesus’ words, “let not man separate.” Paul addressed this situation as well in 1 Corinthians 7:5 and verse 27a. “ Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” “Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed.”

When a husband and wife are married, they make a vow to each other before God in heaven that they will love, honor and cherish one another till death separates them. This union is to continue whether in poverty or in wealth, in sickness or in health, in the good times and in the bad. The only reason given by Jesus that this union may be dissolved is fornication.

If Jesus were to return and walk the earth again today, there is no doubt that many would line up to test Him concerning His teaching on divorce and remarriage. You would see lawyers and judges, college professors and politicians, the “elite” and the common people, and many elders and preachers who would seek to justify themselves, their beliefs and practices before Him. Yet I am confident that each one would hear the words spoken by Jesus so long ago, “But from the beginning it was not so.”

A genuine Christian heart will not seek a way to “get around” the teaching of Jesus. A genuine Christian will seek a way to follow Jesus’ words. A person of mature faith will explore every possible means to keep his or her vows. A person who truly loves (agape) will go to very great lengths to demonstrate that love to his or her spouse (Ephesians 5:25). “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matthew 19:6).

- Steve Vice