Hope Singapore: Beyond The LawSample

Faithfulness: Beyond the Break-Up Clause

"When the going gets tough, the tough walks out!" Divorce seems to be the common trend when married people face problems in their marriage or are simply not satisfied with their marriage. With this kind of trend in society, marriage is no longer the life-long commitment it used to be. Convenience is replacing faithfulness and commitment. As Christ-followers how are we to respond when we face problems in marriage or are not satisfied with it?

In speaking against the cultural standards of His time, Jesus gave a very hard teaching on the consequence of divorce. It is important to remember that the following teaching was given right after Jesus’ teaching on adultery and lust, and thus should be understood in relation to it.

Positively, we need to understand God desires us to remain faithful to our covenants. The law that Jesus referred to was originally intended to safeguard the women in the marital relationships that was beyond reconciliation, but by Jesus’ time, it was commonly used as a minimum requirement in order to proceed with a divorce. Here, Jesus reminds us that the original intention of God for marriages were for them to be lifelong commitments that could only be terminated due to the marital unfaithfulness of one party as this undermines the foundation of sexual exclusivity in the marriage bond. Even then, divorce was permitted but never commanded, thus giving the opportunity for God’s people to exercise the divine grace of forgiveness (Matthew 5:31-32a).

Negatively, we need to recognize that there are far-reaching consequences from our acts of unfaithfulness when we are unwilling to remain committed to the marital vows made. This following text was written for the men according to the original context, and is not meant to put the women in the more difficult situation by forbidding remarriage if they have been “unlawfully” divorced. Instead, it was meant to exhort the husbands that their selfish acts of divorcing their wives for the sake of their self-interests will result in repercussions of sin, here subtly implied to be accounted as their wrongdoings (Matthew 5:32b).