From “Growing in the character of a disciple”: Chapter 6 – A closer look at the various types of people with whom we must be faithful
Over the past few decades there has been, throughout most of the Western world, a collapse in the sanctity of marriage. Divorce is at epidemic levels. One of the main causes of divorce, after selfishness, is unfaithfulness, where one party, or both, are committing adultery. For Christians that must never happen.
We must stay with our husband or wife through good times and bad, for richer for poorer, in sickness or in health, till death parts us. There must be an absolute determination to do all of that, no matter what happens. We must also resolve never to look at any person in an improper or lustful way. Be like Job. Make a firm decision not even to look at a member of the opposite sex:
1“I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?
Job 31:1 (NASB)
We need to make a decision, as Job did, that we will have eyes for nobody else and that we will not commit adultery, even in our thoughts. We need to honour all the vows we made on our wedding day, no matter what temptations later come our way, as they surely will. The prophet Malachi expresses the strength of God’s feelings about divorce very clearly. He says that God hates divorce:
13“This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favour from your hand. 14“Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15“But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
Malachi 2:13-16 (NASB)
