Does God permit Divorce?

God hates divorce. He hates it because it always involves unfaithfulness to the sacred covenant of marriage that two people have entered into before Him, Divorce always brings harmful consequences to the people who are getting divorced and their children. In Malachi chapter two verses fourteen through sixteen we learn why God hates divorce. God hates divorce,

Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, With whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion And your wife by covenant. But did God not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? God seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let no one deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one's garment with violence, Says the LORD of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously. Malachi 2:14-16

Divorce in the Scripture is permitted only because of man’s sin. Since divorce is only a concession to man’s sin and is not part of God’s original plan for marriage, all believers should hate divorce as God does and pursue it only when there is no other recourse. Believers should remember that with God’s help a marriage can survive the worst sins.

In Matthew 19:3-9, Christ teaches clearly that divorce is an accommodation to man’s sin that violates God’s original purpose for the intimate unity and permanence of the marriage bond.

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"

And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,'

and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?

So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate."

They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"

He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. Matthew 19:3-9

In verse eight of this passage, we can clearly see that Jesus taught that God’s law allowed divorce only because of the hardness of a man’s heart. Legal divorce was a concession for the faithful partner due to the sexual sin or abandonment by the sinning partner to the sanctity of the marriage, so that the faithful partner was no longer bound to the marriage. 

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Matthew 5:32.

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. Matthew 19:9.

Although Jesus did say that divorce is permitted in some situations, we must remember that His primary point in this passage is to correct the Jews’ idea that they could divorce one another “for any cause at all and also to show them the gravity of pursuing a sinful divorce. Therefore, the believer should never consider divorce except in specific circumstances, and even in those circumstances it should only be pursued reluctantly because there is no other recourse.

But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her.

And a woman who has a husband, who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace.1 Corinthians 7:12-15