Matthew 19:8 (KJV)
He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
There are very few subjects more hotly contested than those in our current passage: divorce and remarriage, singleness, and whether one should remain so. Concerning these things, Jesus says, “All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given,” and, “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
Here is the fact of it.
God created one man for one woman for a lifetime.
A man is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. (His wife is to do the very same. Consider the accounts of Isaac and Rebekah and of Ruth.) A new family is begun, and the two become one flesh, never to be parted again.
Marriage should be considered a joining by God, not merely an agreement between a man and a woman.
One man and one woman for a lifetime.
But then comes the objection: “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?”
Jesus answered, “Because of the hardness of your hearts.”
I notice that Jesus did not say the hardness of their hearts, but the hardness of your hearts. He pointed fingers. He made it personal. This is not merely a problem other people have; it is a problem the very people asking the question have. The fact that they even asked the question—that they looked for the qualifier—demonstrated that this hardness was present among them.
Okay, the hardness of the heart, the corruption of sin, and the fallen nature that exists in us all provide a qualifier and a way out.
“…but from the beginning it was not so.”
Why not follow the Lord and stop leaning on qualifiers?
From the beginning, God's will has been one man and one woman for a lifetime.
A man and his wife ought to stop looking for the way out and start seeking from the Lord the way to preserve what God intended from the beginning.
#GodsDesignForMarriage #OneManOneWoman #Matthew19 #FromTheBeginning #KJVBibleStudy
Stop Looking for a Way Out: Get Back to God's Original Design
Do you believe Jesus was pointing us toward God's original design for marriage rather than toward exceptions? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below and join the conversation. For more Christ-centered Bible studies, visit marvinmckenzie.org.
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