Daily Devotional
"It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
Matthew 5:31-32
Before we get to Jesus on divorce, we have to understand what Jesus is walking into. In his day, the school of Hillel had taught that a man could divorce his wife for almost any reason. The certificate of divorce Moses had permitted in Deuteronomy 24, originally given to protect women in a patriarchal culture, had been twisted into a loophole for men who wanted out. France observes with sadness that by Jesus’ time the Mosaic protection had become the Mosaic excuse. The very provision that guarded the vulnerable was now weaponized against them.
Jesus refuses to let the covenant be reduced to paperwork. In God’s eyes, marriage is not a contract that dissolves when the parties want out. Marriage is a covenant, and a covenant stands on the word of the one who gave it and the witness of the God who heard it. A contract says, “I keep my end as long as you keep yours.” A covenant says, “I am bound to this because I spoke this before the Lord.”
Jesus does allow an exception. Porneia, sexual immorality, has already broken the covenant bond by act, and the innocent party is not required to remain. Tim Crater’s work on the exception clause reminds us that even in Jeremiah 3, Israel’s harlotry drew God’s own language of divorce. The exception is real. But notice what Jesus does not say. He does not command divorce. He permits it for the innocent party. The default is always toward covenant, toward forgiveness, and wherever it is possible and safe, toward reconciliation.
Malachi 2 says God hates the breaking of the marriage covenant. He hates it because he made it, and because he sees the damage that spreads when it breaks. If your marriage is in a hard season, Jesus’ first word to you is not “leave.” Jesus’ first word is “remember what you said before me.” Then he points you to honesty, community, counseling, and the hard work of covenant love that Christ himself models toward his church.
Today's Challenge
Where in your closest relationships have you been defaulting to contract thinking, fairness, obligation, what you deserve, rather than covenant thinking, commitment, witness, what you vowed? Where is Jesus calling you to the harder, better work of covenant love?
Prayer
Father, teach me the love you have shown me. You kept covenant with me when I had nothing to offer and everything to flee from. Let that kind of love be in me toward my spouse, my family, my church, and my friends. In the hard seasons, give me the honesty to speak, the humility to listen, and the courage to stay. And where a covenant has already been broken, pour your grace over those who are grieving. Amen.
