As people who have been loved by a covenant-keeping God, we ought to keep our covenants to one another in marriage. God hates divorce because of what it does and what it will continue to do.
Consider This
- To the married, don’t fixate on the catastrophes of others’ divorces so much that you overlook the compromises present in your own marriage.
- To the divorced, there is no way to avoid your pain, but God can use your story to protect another from similar regret.
- To the single, follow God according to the clear standards within the Bible.
Mal. 2:10-16
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
Avoid This
- Disregard (2:10) – When you begin to disregard God’s expectations, no sin is beyond your justification.
- Dissatisfaction (2:11-12) – When a person feels dissatisfied in a marriage, he or she will seek a forbidden fix.
- Deceit (2:13) – You cannot deceive God into approving your religious offerings while you abandon your marital commitments.
- Divorce (2:14) – When you divorce the covenant with your spouse, you are also forsaking the covenant with your God.
- Devastation (2:15) – A marital drift will lead to a couple’s divorce but end with a family’s devastation.
- Desertion (2:16) – Marriage provides a loving covering, but divorce brings a painful desertion.
Implement This
- To the married, do everything you possibly can to see your marriage finish well.
- To the divorced, God hates your divorce even more than you do, but He doesn’t hate you.
- To the single, never settle for anything less than God’s best when it comes to protecting your purity and selecting your partner.
- To the children, learn what you want to repeat and what you want to reject from the marriages around you.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
