Day 27: Matthew 19:1-15
Teaching About Divorce. Let the Children Come to Me.
I think this teaching could be very reassuring for people who are insecure in their marriages but know the other party to be faithful followers of Christ.
Put divorce out of your mind
Jesus's teaching on the subject of divorce very eloquently informs readers that divorce should be avoided. Period.
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6 ESV)
I think this teaching could be very reassuring for people who are insecure in their marriages but know the other party to be faithful followers of Christ.
Why was permanent union a turn-off?
When the disciples heard that divorce is not an option for God's followers, they basically retorted that it's better to remain a bachelor than to enter into marriage on God's terms (Mt 19:10). Why was permanent union with a wife such a turn-off to the disciples?
A commentary on Bible Hub explains that in Jesus's time, divorce was commonplace, and that the idea of being inseparably connected to another, flawed human being for the rest of one's life on earth was an incredibly hard pill to swallow. Given the high divorce rate (40% to 50%, according to the APA) in the United States, it's easy to see why Christianity would be so unattractive to secular Americans.