Thank You Jesus For My Marriage. Matthew 5:31-32

Matthew 5:31-32

Teaching about Divorce

31 "You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’ 32 But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.

Deuteronomy 24:1-5

"Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes her a letter of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house."

In Jesus's day, the Jewish officials had taken the lose interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1 "but she does not please him" to mean a man could divorce his wife for any reason, even if she burnt his breakfast. Jesus is telling the people that is not what God intended when He gave this law. He explains divorcing for any reason, other than infidelity, is a sin. 

How the whole world could benefit from that teaching today. I tried to find statistics on marriage and divorce rates and this is what I found. In the mid 1990's the Census Bureau in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control who had tracked marriage and divorce rates stopped this practice due to budget restraints. 

Since then, marriage and divorce rates are based on poles taken by independent groups. We all know how inaccurate poles can be. Here is what the poles report. 1 out of 2 marriages end in divorce. That's 50%, one half, out of 6.9 marriages in 2015, 3.2 ended up divorced. In addition, contrary to recent articles, Christian divorces are not higher then non Christian divorces. According to the poles, regular church goers who place God at the center of their marriage, are 35% less likely to divorce. Interesting, Jewish marriages were found to have a 3% divorce rate. 

All the statistics aside, in my opinion, divorce is acceptable to so many today because people have just gotten lazy. Working for something is viewed as not worth the effort. It's easier to just give up and move on. We no longer care about hard work and marriage is hard work. 

I believe divorce is also acceptable in the case of abuse. No woman or man should be forced to stay in a abusive marriage. If spouses are treating each other in a Biblical manner, abuse would not happen. 

Ephesians 5:33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Did you catch that? One little word, MUST.  Its a command to love and respect, not an option. If you are following Gods command, you are not abusing your spouse.

This August David and I will be married 34 years. It has not always been easy and at times we've felt like giving up. But we didn't. It's been hard work and it's been worth it. I wouldn't have preferred my life spent with anyone else. 

Thank You Jesus for my marriage. 

Blessings, Cecilia