“But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery.” (Matt. 5:32)
Expanded Passage: Matthew 5:31-32
When facing matters of life and death, we will do almost anything: surpass limits, reorder priorities, or even sacrifice ourselves for another. Jesus teaches that the foundation of God’s inbreaking kingdom is a law of holy, self-giving love. It is a matter of eternal life and death, requiring us to drop everything and give everything.
As Jesus unveils the heart of the law during his sermon, he reveals the intense—even strict—requirement of one’s heart for practicing the holy love befitting of God’s people. A heart filled with Christ’s love considers hatred tantamount to murder; lusting tantamount to adultery. It directs honor to God rather than humans; it is satisfied only with boundless self-giving. Here, godly love esteems the union of marriage so highly that divorce and unfaithfulness are unthinkable, adulterous actually. As such, we must humbly acknowledge that a human construct (divorce) is incapable of sundering a God-ordained union.
Though primary focus here belongs to marriage, we might expand this truth to acknowledge the priority of our marriage to Christ as his bride. Holy love demands that relationship with Christ hold preeminence in all things, to the extent that “divorcing” him is unthinkable, adulterous even. We must be faithful in marriage as an expression of faithfulness to him. We must be faithful to our Bridegroom, who has revealed a love even deeper and stronger than that of marriage.
Honor Jesus, our Bridegroom, with unwavering fidelity.
Noah Cromer is, first, God’s child; second, a husband and father. He gladly serves at Southern Wesleyan University in residence life and as an adjunct professor.
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
