Divorce.
Because the contracting parties at the marriage shrine do not feel and have not properly considered the obligations and responsibilities of a married life, but enter in from selfish desires, then finding it attended with cares and responsibilities they do not care to bear, they seek opportunities for release. The legal union is often severed by the same authority as was given. But as the civil power can not create two hearts into one, nor make of twain “one flesh and bone,” neither can such authorities create two of what has been made one. The law of Heaven is, What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Mat. 19:6.
The Word of God fixes death as the limit to the bond of union. “For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth: but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she [pg 244] shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Rom. 7:2, 3. “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth: but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” 1 Cor. 7:39. “And he [Jesus] saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.” Mark 10:11, 12. In Mat. 19:9, we read, “And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
Some have thought there was a lack of harmony in the teaching of Jesus as recorded by Mark and Matthew. Mark makes the plain statement that whosoever puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery. He makes no exceptions. Matthew says, “Except it be for fornication.” There is no disagreement here. It is the prominent thought each has that makes the difference in the statements. The truth that Mark wishes to teach is that there is no just cause for a man marrying who has a divorced wife. The plain statement is if a man puts away his wife and marries another he commits adultery. There is no exception. There is no just cause for [pg 245] his marrying, and if he does it is adultery, no matter what may be the cause of divorcement. The truth that Matthew teaches is that there is one just cause for putting away the wife. This is a just cause for putting her away, but not for marrying again. Every one that divorces his wife, even though it be for fornication, and marries another violates Mark 10:11 and Luke 16:18. A man may put away his wife for fornication, and not transgress a single text in the Bible. Fornication is the only just cause for man to put away his wife, or the wife the husband.
Some have fallen into the dangerous error of putting away the wife because the Scriptures say, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” 2 Cor. 6:14. This is a wrong application of this text. No doubt but it does forbid the unmarried Christian yoking up with an unbeliever, as in 1 Cor. 7:39 the woman whose husband is dead is at liberty to marry whom she will; only in the Lord. However, it does not teach the breaking of the marriage yoke. Matthew gives the only cause. Paul says, “If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.” 1 Cor. 7:12, 13.
A man once told us that God showed him to leave his wife. (She was a true wife.) He was decidedly mistaken and should have tried the spirit. “What [pg 246] therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” The word joined is from the Greek suzeugnuo. and means “yoked together.” This yoke man can not break. When God by his saving grace unites a soul with Christ, no man can break the bond of union. Sin, and sin only, will sever the tie that binds them together. When God unites husband and wife into one flesh and bone, no civil court can break the bond. When woman has become so untrue to her husband and false to her marriage vow as to have sexual connection with another man, God allows such an unchaste sin, and such a sin only, to dissolve the union. Why is fornication the only just cause for disuniting husband and wife? Why is sin the only cause of separation between Christ and the Christian? It is because the design of God in sending his Son to the world was to destroy and prevent sin. Then of necessity when his purpose fails there can be no union. The design of the Almighty in instituting marriage was to secure a legitimate population of the world, or to prevent the lewd, indiscriminate sexual intercourse. When this purpose fails the object of marriage fails, and there can be no union.
Brooklets joining form the river,
Rivers joining form the sea;
Love uniting hearts together
Beat as one eternally.