"The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:3-6; Gen. 2:24). This necessitates the conclusion, that no man or body of men can dissolve marriage other than according to the decrees of God. The fact that a civil judge says, “divorce granted,” means nothing if the divorce is not based upon what God’s word teaches about this God ordained institution.
Note, these Pharisees came tempting him. They were trying to entrap him trying to destroy the Lord's influence. The Lord's response: "Have ye not read." That is, is it possible that you do not know what your own Scriptures say? (We must always be willing to take what the scriptures say and lay aside our opinions.) Then the Lord went to the Bible record of God's creation of marriage and the home. God made (created) "them male and female": One Adam, one Eve, one male, one female. The Lord says, "For this cause "--that is, because God created them male and female. "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife." There are two crucial words here: "leave" and "cleave." "Cleave is the Greek word kollas, which means "to glue together, fasten, or unite." Those properly joined together in marriage are to leave all others and are to cleave to each other.
Then the Lord declares "and the two shall be one flesh." Two individuals they are, two personalities; but they are one in love, in aim, in purpose.
The Lord also said, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Marriage is God's creation. The laws to govern it are God's laws. When two persons eligible (according to God's law) for marriage join themselves together in sacred matrimony, according to the laws of God and the laws of the land, they are also joined together by God. Hence, the declaration, "Let not man put asunder!"
The word “joined” means: to yoke with, to unite, to join together. The fact is that when God Himself has done the joining, no man can change or un-join. "What therefore God has joined together, let not man"--any man--even think that he can change or cancel out this joining. Since this is God's joining, any grounds upon which there can be a "putting asunder" has to come from God.
God's law on marriage from "the beginning" has been one husband and one wife for life. “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man” (Rom. 7:2-3). “She is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord”(I Cor. 7:9). One in the Lord is a Christian.
"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
For questions or comments about this article, email Don H. Noblin. If you decide to email me, please include the title of the article. Thank you.