Jesus’ View On Divorce

Divorce rates are going up…why? A study shows that for couples who pray together, the divorce rate is less than 1%. See more of what Jesus has to say about divorce.Divorce rate increases each day and the chances are that you have already been through such experience. The motives vary and are more or less subjective.

Especially when the two get married because of the right reasons (love, or at least they believed so at first) separation is a painful experience.

But how does Bible see divorce? I chose a passage describing this subject through Jesus’ eyes:

"When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

Also, when he talks about divorce, Peter, the Lord’s apostle says:

"To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?"1 Corinthians 7

"Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers." Hebrews 13:4

God is the One who invented marriage, so it should work! It does work but it is not always easy, in fact it is obvious that the partners should make it work, preventing those situations where things might take the wrong way.

The partners who pray together, stay together.

"Most of the Christian couples that I know do not pray together. I know one Christian brother who flat out refuses to pray together with his wife. He says he prays by himself, but he won't pray together with his wife. Praying with his wife makes him feel too uncomfortable, so he won't pray with her. I hate to say it, but his views are not uncommon. Very few Christian couples actually take the time to pray together. Pollster George Barna recently reported his findings from interviews with 3,142 randomly selected adults, 1,220 of whom were born-again Christians.

•Of those who are non-Christian, 23 percent have seen their marriage go through the devastation of a divorce.
•27 percent of those who call themselves born-again Christians have been divorced. (That makes the divorce rate higher among Christians than non-Christians)
•And of those who label themselves "Fundamentalist Christians," 30 percent have experienced a divorce.

FamilyLife has surveyed of thousands of Christian couples and found that less than 8% pray together on regular basis. That is a shockingly low percentage. However, the statistics that I found show that of Christian couples who actively pray together, the divorce rate is less than one percent. Less than one percent! This begs the question: How often do you pray with your spouse? Don't include the mealtime blessing, that doesn't count. The response to the question is enlightening because most couples very rarely pray together, with the exception of the mealtime blessing. So why don't we pray with our spouses? I think it's because we just don’t realize the importance of prayer to our marital relationship. Most people acknowledge that prayer is very important to them but they simply fail to do it on any regular basis. The fact of the matter is that if we don't pray very much, then prayer is really not very important to us." Steven Wickstrom (2004)

Prayer is the key in everything; it is obvious that marriage makes no exception to this rule. Pray before you marry, pray during it and with God’s help, you’ll not have to pray when you divorce, because you won’t.

May God keep you and your marriage, safe!
By Claudia Miclaus