Properly Oriented Love
Jesus is teaching crowd “as was his custom” when some Pharisees come and ask a question regarding the place of divorce.
Jesus’ question is about the command of the Law, but the Pharisees respond with what is allowed by the law. Jesus is focused on the positive answer, the Pharisees are focuses on what they can get away with. It’s a difference in focus.
It’s clear that in an ideal world, divorce would not occur. Yet, as Jesus acknowledges, this world is not ideal. Yet to focus on when or whether a marriage can be dissolved is the wrong focus.
At the end, Jesus’ condemnation of adultery is not against all those who are divorced. Instead, Jesus focuses on those who divorce “in order to marry another”. The point, again, seems to be that God does not deal in technicalities. If you divorce your spouse for the purpose of starting up another relationship, you are just as guilty of adultery. It’s a heart matter. You’ve already created a plan to damage another for your own selfish reasons.
Divorce is never an ideal, but it sometimes may be a painful reality. For those people there is comfort and healing offered by God. Marriage is, and should be, less about technicalities and what is permissible and more about how to honor and express a deep and growing love.
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