Thursday, December 13, 2012

God Hates Divorce


This is series of articles designed to help professing Christians to turn from their wicked ways and get back to following New Testament ethics.  Compromise is increasing in the church.  Popular opinion among churchgoers is often in stark contrast to the very words of Jesus on many issues.  Christians need to know the word of God and get back to using it as a reference book when they are faced with important decisions.

14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Malachi 2:14-16 (KJV)
(to put away = to divorce)

 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Matthew 19:6 (KJV)

There are a lot of reasons why things keep getting worse and worse.  We talk a lot about the abortion, socialism, and homosexuality on this blog.  These are all important issues, but we don’t write many articles about divorce on this blog, despite the fact that it is one of the main reasons why things have gotten so bad.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that homosexuality is a grievous sin, but it seems like Christians are overemphasizing the idea that marriage is being ruined by those who would “legalize” gay marriage.  Marriage is an institution that is crumbling in this country, but if you got a divorce, most likely it was not caused by homosexuality.  It is much more likely that it was your own damn fault.  When marriages fall apart, families fall apart.  When families fall apart, nations fall apart.

I heard Dave Ramsey say on his show that money is the number one reason for divorces.  That is a dumb reason to get divorced.  If you can’t agree on how your money should be spent, then you should compromise and give the money to a good Christian charity instead.  Problem solved.  People should learn to the secret of being content in the good times and bad.  (Philippians 4:11)  That is why we say “for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, etc.”  If the preacher says these things and “until death due you part” or anything like this and if you say “I do”, but you don’t really believe it, then you are a liar.

The government encourages divorce in many ways.  With all the high taxes it is harder to make a living without both spouses working.  But with the mother working, the raising of the children suffers.  The government offers us a free babysitting service which we call public schools to make us not so angry about that.  The states get tax breaks from the federal government for how much child support they collect.  This gives the states incentive to cause more divorces or to do nothing to prevent them.

Our first scripture passage above mentions violence and the implication is that this is talking about the violence of a man against his wife.  This is a big reason for divorce.  And alcoholism is a big reason for physical abuse.  I would consider this to be one of the few legitimate reasons for divorce.  Under the law of the Moses, if a master inflicted a serious injury on his slave, the slave was automatically set free.  (Exodus 21:26, 27)  This being true, then it surely should also be true that if a husband does this to his wife, she should not be bound to obligations of the marriage.

Another reason is the one I talked about last week: Christians marrying non-Christians.  Sometimes true Christians will marry fake Christians.  Christians need to put aside their feelings and put their potential spouses to test before proceeding with courting them.

There is yet another important reason for divorces which, Lord willing, I will talk about in my post next week.

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