Biblical Teaching on Marriage

A recent study on divorce has revealed that divorce is increasing in India. In New Delhi alone, 30 to 75 divorce cases are files everyday. It has been found that in the last one decade divorce has increased by 150% in Kerala, 150% in Punjab and Haryana, 40% in Calcutta and 25% in Madras, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Once, the problem of divorce and breakdown in the family life belonged to America and the Western countries. But now this evil has spread to India also. The Bible gives clear teaching on family and marriage. Let us see the fundamental teaching of the Bible on marriage to avoid breakdown in marriages.

• Marriage is instituted by God: “And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him a helper comparable to him’… Then the rib which the Lord had taken from man, He made into a woman, and brought her to the man… …Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh” Gen 2:18-24.

• Marriage is honourable: “Marriage is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” Heb 13:4, 5.

• Marriage is intimate and permanent: Jesus 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? So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” Matt 19:5, 6.

• God hates divorce: “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence’, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously” Malachi 2:16.

• Divorce is committing adultery: Jesus said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” Mark 10:11, 12.

Married life ends only in death: “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man”Rom 7:2, 3.