To the Married #1512

10 Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. 11 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife. (1 Corinthians 7:10–11, NKJV)

Paul now addresses “the married” with a command that is mandated by and agrees with what Jesus commanded in Matthew 19:6, “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate (“put asunder,” KJV).” Marriage is for life and must be entered with solemn commitment and earnest resolution (Matthew 19:4-6). God does not merely excuse ending a marriage He has joined together. Therefore, 1 Corinthians 7:12 does not give permission to do the very thing prohibited in verse 11 (i.e., to depart from the one to whom God joined you). In verse 11 Paul applies the principle of verse 10 to a marriage that ends without God’s approval (see Matthew 19:9 for God’s permission to put away a spouse “for the cause of fornication” and marry another without sin). To avoid adding sin upon sin when a marriage is sundered one must “remain unmarried” (because remarriage would be adultery, Luke 16:18) or else “be reconciled” to one’s rightful spouse (the one to whom God obligated you for life, Romans 7:2). The command and its consequences apply equally to husband and wife (v. 11). We sin against God when we end our marriage for any and every reason (Matthew 19:3). Let us uphold the honor of marriage by not separating what God has joined together.

Honoring Marriage #338

4  And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5  and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6  So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

While marriage is being redefined to suit the desires and pleasures of men and women, the One who arranged marriage for humanity continues to expect His parameters to be respected and followed. Jesus agreed that marriage is between “male and female”; there is a husband (male) and a wife (female). Same-sex marriage is the consequence of sinful, unnatural desires of the mind and flesh and will never have divine sanction no matter how many courts of men declare otherwise. Jesus also observed that the husband and the wife are “joined together” by God. He concluded that we must not separate what God has joined together. Marriage is for life, not until the married couple decides to “uncouple” or divorce. Let us honor God by honoring marriage as He gave it.