Mark 10:1-12
Marriage and Divorce
10 Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan. And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again.
2 The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.
3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”
5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’
7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
8 and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
10 In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.
11 So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Context
- Why were they testing Him on the topic of marriage? (Mark 6:14-29)
Reflection
- What does the Old Testament say about divorce? Why does God hate it? (Deuteronomy 22:22, 24:1-4, Leviticus 20:10, Malachi 2:14-16, John 8:1-11)
- Why does Jesus take them back to Genesis? (Genesis 2:18-25, 5:2)
- How is marriage a picture of the Gospel? (Ephesians 5:22-32, Hebrews 13:4)
Testimony Time
- How’s your marriage?
- How is there healing in divorce?
- Where do you need His grace right now? (Joel 2:25, Cor 7:10-14, 2 Corinthians 12:9, James 5:16, 1 John 1:9)
