Sociologists say our age is more polygamous than any other in history. Perhaps our polygamy wears a different face, but in principle it is the same. When partners divorce, remarry, divorce and remarry again, they are accumulating spouses. In some areas of our world, the rate is as high as one out of every two marriages dissolving in divorce. This cycle of union and separation is absolutely contrary to God's Word.
The new U.S. Census Bureau data show that the divorce rate, after rising sharply in the early 1970's, has remained relatively stable-not to mention high. Fewer than half the couples who first got married in the late 1970's made it to their 25th anniversary. Of the women who first got hitched in the late 1980's, only 57% reached their 15th anniversary, compared with 79% of brides in the late 1950's.
Jesus says we are to leave our parents and "cleave to" our spouses. The verb cleave suggests there are times when we have to hold on tightly and tenaciously. Paul plainly agrees: Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband (1 Corinthians 7:10). He adds a word to the husbands: ... And a husband is not to divorce his wife (1 Corinthians 7:11).
Marriage, according to God's Word, is to be exclusive. Man is to worship one God and devote himself to one mate. The Old Testament stated that anyone guilty of coming between a husband and a wife would be put to death. Jesus goes even beyond the law forbidding adultery and says that anyone who cultivates the wish to commit adultery is already guilty of it in his heart.
Marriage is a covenant of love and loyalty between one man and one woman. It is a sacred relationship that should not be taken lightly, just as our relationship with Christ cannot be taken lightly.
“Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.””
Matthew 19:6 NLT
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