Is it OK for a married Christian couple to divorce?

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While marriage certainly has its great points and benefits, we can never deny that it also has downsides and other unpleasant moments. No matter how much they love each other, husbands and wives have occasional disagreements, misunderstandings, and other unwanted exchanges. But is this enough reason for them to call it quits and sign up for divorce?

The Word of God says "no."

Married into one

When we marry, we have to realise that we just don't live with one additional person in our living space. We don't merely add a person to the list of priorities we have for each waking moment. And we simply don't go out for work by day, and hope to have a romantic conversation when we get home by night.

When we marry our spouses, we are united with them into one, each of us to our respective spouse. We become one unit. The Lord Jesus reminds us,

"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'?" (see Matthew 10:4-5)

Read that last line again, "the two shall become one flesh." God designed marriage to be that way. It's more than just physical union through sex in marriage; it means becoming one in person – your priorities, thoughts, ambitions, dreams, your person, being in union with your spouse.

A new unit

In marriage, the husband and the wife become one unit. Whatever happens to one party affects the other, because they are joined into one. Think about it.

The husband loses his job, his wife feels financial instability. The wife spends too much, the husband needs to work more hours to earn the money they need for other things. The husband does something immoral, the wife's heart gets shattered into pieces. So on and so forth.

But no matter what happens, even if the married couple face hardship and much trouble, they are still one unit. The husband gets sick, the wife gets worried. The wife gives birth, the husband paces the waiting area. The kids grow old and leave home, the aging husband and wife stay together "till death do us part."

Stay together no matter what

God wants all married couples to stay together. The Lord Jesus continued in His reminder,

"So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder." (Matthew 10:6)

God wants all married couples to stay together, working out their marriage with His help. Think your marriage is beyond repair? It's not. Keep fighting for your marriage.

"For with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:37)