Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV) – The LORD appeared to him from far away. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Genesis 24:27a (ESV) – “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His steadfast love and His faithfulness toward my master.”
Romans 8:38-39 (ESV) – For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Why is marriage so to the Lord?
1. The marriage best represents our with Jesus.
Revelation 19:7 (ESV) – Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready.
Ephesians 5:31-32 (ESV) – Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profoud, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
2. Marriage is our connection to another image-bearer of God, and therefore, should be kept .
Hebrews 13:4 (ESV) – Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
3. Marriage is a that includes God in the relationship.
Malachi 2:14 (ESV) – But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
Big Thought: A follower of Jesus lives out the beatitudes in honoring their .
I. The follower of Jesus is highly committed to in marriage.
Matthew 19:3-9 (ESV) – And Pharisees came up to Him and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Deuteronomy 24:1-4a (ESV) – When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD.
A follower of Jesus vs. a Pharisee
a. The Pharisees focused on the of divorce. Jesus and His followers focus on the of marriage.
b. The Pharisees referred to Moses’ provision for divorce a Jesus and His followers see it as a .
c. The Pharisees took divorce . Jesus and His followers take seriously.
When does Jesus permit divorce as a ?
- When there has been .
- When there has been abandonment.
1 Corinthians 7:15 (ESV) – But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
3. What about ?
In adultery and abandonment, divorce is commanded, but only permitted.
II. Followers of Jesus are highly committed to keeping their .
Hebrews 6:16 (ESV) – For the people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
a. Followers of Jesus must not make commitments.
b. Followers of Jesus must never make commitments.
c. Followers of Jesus honor their .