"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must ..." (Matthew 5:31-32)

"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Matthew 5:31-32)

Is Jesus changing Mosaic law?

Jesus continues to comment upon the Mosaic law - that is, the law as promulgated by Moses and continued through the temple tradition.

It is important to understand that Jesus was speaking to his students who were following him, some 2,000 years ago. This means he is teaching to a particular time and circumstance.

How do we know this instruction was applicable to a certain time and culture?

We can consider the source of Jesus' point: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce." Where does this come from? Was this just what the institutional temple teachings of those days were?

No. This comes from the time of Moses. As stated in Deuteronomy:

"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house ... (Deuteronomy 24:1)

In other words, divorce was a custom as far back as Moses' time, some fourteen centuries before Jesus.

Why the difference?

So why did Jesus teach this, contrary to institutional temple law? Jesus is discouraging divorce because it had become commonplace to write a divorce certificate for minor reasons so the man could chase down another woman. This doesn't mean that Jesus was saying that divorce was not sometimes necessary.

Divorce is prevalent in modern times, with well over 50% of marriages today ending in divorce. The institution of marriage has become thoroughly secular, with the purpose of marriage often revolving around sexual attraction, money, or other materialistic motives.

Marriage within a spiritual context would be undertaken for the purpose of supporting each others' (and possibly children's) spiritual growth in their relationship with God. A marriage based on this premise would have no reason for divorce unless one of the partners decided that their relationship with God was not important.

The symptom of this can be adultery by one of the partners. This act represents a person's deciding that their own physical satisfaction is more important than their relationship with their partner, and God.

Can these teachings be applied today?

As we seek to apply this teaching today, we must also bring into context the time and circumstance of the teaching and our culture today - just as Jesus was doing 2,000 years ago.

We must live within the society our body lives in at the moment.

Today we live in a secular society and a majority of adults have been divorced. Are we to shun every divorced person? Are we to ignore the opportunities for people to grow spiritually despite this secular society? This would be a gross oversight of practical reason.

Marrying a divorced person with the purpose of each partner helping the other develop their relationships with God is a marriage that transcends the circumstance of a past divorce. The criteria of becoming closer to God prevails, as Jesus teaches:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)

“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because ...” (Matthew 19:8-9)

“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:8-9)

Why is Jesus teaching this?

This is Jesus’ response when the Pharisees asked him:

“Why then, did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” (Matt. 19:7)

The Pharisees were responding to Jesus' instruction that discouraged divorce (Matthew 4-6)

This illustrates clearly that time and circumstance is a critical point in the teachings of God's representative. We cannot take these teachings out of the context of who the instructions are being given to. We can see that Moses' instructions were specific to people whose "hearts were hard." A hard heart - taken from the Greek phrase, σκληροκαρδία (sklērokardia) - relates to a person who is proud and stubborn.

This opposes a person with a soft heart - someone who is humble and empathetic.

By Jesus' statement, we can also know that his teachings were also intended for a specific audience and people. He often spoke directly to his students and disciples. Other times he spoke to a large public gathering. And we find the content of his teachings different for each.

Why does a hard-hearted person need the opportunity to divorce?

Because we have the freedom to be reasonable as well as the freedom to be stubborn and proud. We have the freedom to bicker about mundane issues or let those issues roll off our backs. We have the freedom to make winning an argument more important than our relationship with our spouse.

In the same way, we have the freedom to stay married or divorce our spouse. God has granted each of us this freedom, as confirmed by Jesus and Moses.

Ultimately, these freedoms are grounded in the freedom each of us has to acknowledge and honor God or deny God's existence and say everything is an accident.

Yes, God gave us the freedom to deny His existence, just as He gave us the freedom to love others or harm others.

Our freedom ends, however, with death. The physical body will not live forever. It will die, and each of us who occupy a physical body will have to experience the death of that body. There are no ifs or buts about that.

And because we are not these physical bodies, our marital relationship ends at the time of death of the physical body as well. It is not as though we stay married after the body dies. This was confirmed by Jesus:

"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." (Matt. 22:24-30)

The phrase "they will be like the angels in heaven" confirms as Jesus has elsewhere, that we are not these physical bodies. When the body dies, the spiritual self leaves the physical body.

If a person has re-developed their loving relationship with God they will return to the spiritual realm - as a spiritual person - an angel - while their physical body decomposes.

What did Jesus mean by 'not this way from the beginning'?

Jesus is speaking figuratively about the purity of the soul. The word "beginning" is being translated from the Greek word ἀρχή (archē). This is not the kind of "beginning" that people might understand with "from the beginning" as they might today.

Rather, the word means "origin" and "used absolutely, at the beginning of all things" according to Thayer's Greek lexicon.

In other words, Jesus is referring to our spiritual origins. The origin of the soul.

For example, the New Living Translation translates Jesus statement to:

"Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended."

This indicates - as does the Greek - that Jesus is referring to the purity of the soul prior to our downfall into the physical world.

The spirit-person is soft-hearted. In such a demeanor it would not be difficult for the spirit-person to honor the wedding vows.

But once fallen, the spirit-person becomes enmeshed within the world and exerts self-centeredness. Such a consciousness results in abandoning the designs of the Supreme Being - and sometimes even denying the Supreme Being completely.

But one who knows the temporary nature of the physical world and knows their relationship with God is eternal has the perspective to understand that marital disagreement is trivial in comparison to our relationship with Him.

This perspective allows a person to be more understanding of their mate and be able to work out marital disagreements. Unless of course, as Jesus states, there is marital unfaithfulness.

Does someone who remarries commit adultery?

Jesus' statement indicates that time and circumstance are significant when it comes to following the recommendations of great teachers. It relates to what is practical and what kind of society we live in. 

Certainly, following every recommendation of an ancient teacher will be impractical should we try to live within the society we live in.

One might consider how some groups will cut themselves off from general society in order to uphold certain rules set down in their laws. The Amish are one such group, for example.

The problem with this sort of separation is that it becomes difficult to reach out to and help others. Besides, will giving up our automobiles and riding horses necessarily help us achieve love for God?

We can also consider the difference between Jesus' missionary work and John the Baptist's. John stayed in the country and throngs of people came out to hear his sermons. Jesus, on the other hand, traveled the land and stayed in towns and villages, even eating with villagers from time to time - which he was criticized for.

This illustrates that Jesus wanted to reach out into the modern society of his times, in order to teach people love of God. By doing so, he made a number of compromises in terms of who he mingled with and traveled with.

Just as Moses adapted his teachings to the time and circumstances, Jesus is also doing that with his teachings. Both assessed what was practical in terms of people being able to live in society and try to grow spiritually at the same time.

And yes, there is significantly more hard-heartedness in modern times, though Jesus indicates there was plenty of hard-heartedness at that time.

Yet Jesus also clearly lays down a standard that can be applied from a sense of integrity. The point he is making is that in every case we should be determined to work out our differences with our spouses.

In other words, divorce should not be something that is done whimsically. If the other person has been unfaithful, divorce is practical, because the other person has broken their commitment. We can still be forgiving to such a mate. But if the other spouse wants to continue to not honor the marriage then what marriage is there?

Divorce is also practical if the marriage is not conducive to spiritual growth. Marriage is a system that allows two people to help each other learn lessons of love and mercy, and help each other grow spiritually. If it doesn't, then there is little purpose for continuing it.

We must not confuse marriage with finding our "soul mate." The Supreme Being is our soul mate. The reason we look for a soul mate is that we have forgotten our relationship with God.

Why do many people divorce?

The reason that many people divorce is because the marriage was based on the assumption that our spouse would fulfill us somehow, either sexually or otherwise. We thought they would complete us. We thought they were our perfect mate.

We were wrong. We found out after a while that they didn't fulfill us, and they didn't complete us. This is because none of us are perfect mates to each other. God is the only Perfect Mate. He is our Soul Mate and Best Friend. He is our Perfect Match.

The central criteria anyone should have in marrying another and in staying together is whether the two help each other grow closer to God, and help each other serve God. This is the intended purpose of marriage.

Two people can assist each other on a practical level as they help each other remember our Best Friend. They can share spiritual insights and share prayer, and glorify the Supreme Being and His Holy Names together. This type of relationship pleases the Supreme Being and Jesus.

Sharing our relationship with the Supreme Being with our spouse makes gives our marriage spiritual context.

“Not everyone can accept this instruction – except those ...” (Matthew 19:11-12)

“Not everyone can accept this instruction – except those to whom it has been given. Because there are some celibates who were so born from their mother’s womb; and there are some celibates who were castrated by men; and there are some celibates who made themselves celibate for the sake of the sanctuary of the spiritual realm. He who able to accept this, let him accept it.” (Matthew 19:11-12 LG)

Is this about instruction or word?

Note first that this translation is being derived from the Lost Gospels of Jesus rather than the NIV. This clarifies the translation somewhat. For example, the NIV says, "Not everyone can accept this word". What "word" are they referring to? A particular word? Or Jesus' entire philosophy?

In those translations, "word" is being translated from the Greek word λόγος (logos). This is not the appropriate translation, as λόγος can mean a teaching or doctrine, but also means, according to the lexicon, "decree, mandate or order," or "a continuous speaking discourse - instruction."

Here, "instruction" would be the more appropriate translation, because Jesus is referring to a particular instruction he had given about marriage and divorce.

What does 'to whom it is given' mean?

This follows this statement placed by his disciples:

“If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” (Matthew 19:10)

Jesus is admitting that this teaching about remarrying being equivalent to committing adultery will be difficult for many people to follow. But he is also stating that he meant this instruction specifically for those whom he was speaking with. Who was he speaking with?

He was speaking with some Pharisees that were challenging him regarding Moses' teaching about divorce. And they came to "test him" according to Matthew 19:3.

Jesus is clarifying that the instruction was intended to "those it has been given.”

This means Jesus was directing his instructions specifically to those who were seeing themselves in the position of teachers, representing Moses. He was also instructing his students and disciples.

These instructions were different than those Jesus gave to a general audience. Jesus often utilized parables when he spoke to general audiences. And he spoke of the Supreme Being in a more general manner.

What are eunuchs?

The NIV and other versions have translated the Greek word εὐνοῦχος (eunouchos) to eunuchs. But what are eunuchs?

The Greek word εὐνοῦχος can mean someone who as been become emasculated - their genitals were removed. But this also means a person who is impotent and cannot have children, or someone who simply doesn't marry, or otherwise doesn't have sex.

In other words, Jesus is referring to someone who maintains a lifestyle of celibacy. Thus, "celibate" is a more appropriate translation of what Jesus is referring to - someone who makes the choice a celibate lifestyle.

This means that while impotence was one reason a person might not have a family - another related to a devotional decision: Dedicating one's life to the service of God.

What does he mean by 'he who able to accept this'?

Jesus is offering leeway in this discussion of marriage. He is suggesting that we have some flexibility in terms of whether we want to marry or stay single.

We also see here by default and by the previous statement that indicated a person should not whimsically divorce that Jesus did not teach that everyone must be celibate.

Otherwise, how would the population continue? How would people have a chance to raise children and steer them towards coming to know the Supreme Being if everyone was celibate?

Didn't Jesus teach the importance of family?

What Jesus' statement also conveys is that he did not teach that the family was all-important as many teachers of some sectarian institutions teach. These teachers sentimentally proclaim the importance of family, yet Jesus specifically taught the importance of dedicating one's life to the Supreme Being - whether having a family or not:

" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)

Marriage and family life can become extremely complex. There are lots of logistics to be attentive to for a father or mother. This requires a focus on the physical issues of children and their protection. This can distract a person from their focus upon their devotion to God.

Family life can also encourage misidentification with the physical body. These physical bodies are temporary. At the time of death, each of us spirit-persons will leave this physical body and all the body's family behind.

Then again, if one can share the worship of God with their family members, family life can be used as a service to the Supreme Being.

In other words, we can utilize our talents and strengths, whether as a parent or a single person, towards loving, serving and pleasing God. These are practical teachings of Jesus.