What God Has Joined Together

Word from the Center
Written By LCRL Staff

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There are times when the church’s teaching on an issue sparks discussion and controversy because there is some debate over the precise meaning of critical words or ideas in the teaching. Other times, a doctrine of the church generates keen discussion and disagreement because the teaching is exceedingly plain and clear but difficult to practice. The church’s teaching about divorce falls into the latter category.

Jesus is quite explicit and succinct. In the Sermon on the Mount, He establishes a sweeping prohibition against divorce, with “the ground of sexual immorality” as the only exception (Matt. 5:32). And then, in response to a devious line of questions from contentious Pharisees, Jesus fully quotes the last word of the creation account: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” He then declares the familiar words: “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:7–9). Later, in answer to His disciples’ need for clarification, Jesus is again terse and sweeping: The man or woman who divorces wife or husband and marries another commits adultery (Mark 10:11–12).

Following a few other relevant passages (Matt. 19:9; 1 Cor. 7:12–16), the church has consistently prohibited divorce with only two caveats: when one spouse is sexually unfaithful or when a spouse deserts the marriage. In such cases, the other spouse is free to recognize legally the tragedy that has in fact already occurred: The marriage has been shattered and destroyed by sin. Divorce is not the end of the marriage, but the acknowledgement of the fact.

Such sinful tragedies do strike even Christian marriages, nonetheless divorce must always be considered as a sad anomaly and never as a viable possibility for a couple committed to following God’s will for marriage. Of course, in the face of such a challenging teaching, questions about what precisely constitutes “scriptural grounds” for a divorce have notoriously generated what seem to be rather expansive understandings of “desertion.”

Rather than engaging in closely argued debates about when a Christian might seek a divorce, however, the wiser and far more beneficial course of action should be to emphasize that God intends every marriage to last a lifetime. The church, in turn, should follow her Lord in expecting nothing less from those who are married. Instead of finding a reason to get out of a marriage, Christian husbands and wives should take Jesus at His word, resolve never to break their promise to God and their spouse, and concentrate their efforts on nurturing and building their marriage and the marriages of everyone else they know. For the Christian, divorce is simply not an option, period.

Click here to read more from Pastor Biermann about marriage.

The Rev. Dr. Todd Biermann serves Faith Lutheran Church, Grand Blanc, Mich.

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