Knowing The Word in Luke 16:18

Divorce and Remarriage

16:18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

Comments

Divorce was never the aim of the Law. The Law allowed men to divorce their wives (Dt. 24:1-4) but not wives their husbands. This provision in the Law was because of the hardness of men’s hearts. Biblical marriage is meant to be a life-long union between a man and a woman with the two becoming one (Genesis 2:24). Jesus was not advocating for a law for the larger society or even in the Church in this statement. He was not judging those who divorce and remarry. Instead, he expressed how we should regard the sacredness of marriage. He also implicated men, who abused the ability to divorce their wives, by holding them responsible for breaking the commandment against adultery. This brief statement by Jesus that Luke inserts in the sixteenth chapter, has been misunderstood throughout the generations. Remember, Jesus is full of mercy and grace and forgiveness, and this statement must be understood within that context.

Application

In today’s verse, Jesus was talking with the Pharisees. One Pharisee, Hillel, who lived after the time of Jesus, thought it enough if a wife spoiled her husband’s dinner that he could divorce her. Another rabbi who lived after Jesus, Akiba, said a man could divorce his wife if he found a prettier woman. It was likely this kind of thinking that proceeded from the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees that caused Jesus to talk about divorce and remarriage.

Among other important reasons, marriages fail today because of people’s hard-heartedness. We are all sinners, and sin damages relationships. The problem Jesus had with the Pharisees was their inability to see themselves as sinners, condemned by the law, who needed a savior—the Savior who stood right in front of them! How do you see yourself in terms of sin?

Prayer

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind but now I see