And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.
Mark 10:2 stands in Mark's account that continues a subject already introduced in the previous chapter, including the rich young man who came to Jesus to know what good thing he should do to inherit eternal life and whom Jesus loved when he saw him. It records the Pharisees tempting and testing Jesus with the question whether it is lawful for a man to put away his wife. The question came at a time when loose ideas of marriage prevailed and even in the most moral nation a man could divorce his wife for any cause. They hoped to trap him by drawing him into a position condemning Herod Antipas, whose rule covered the region where Jesus was staying and who was notorious for adultery.
The answer to the question connects divorce to God's creation of marriage: God made male and female and joined them as husband and wife, so marriage is a sacred institution of divine origin and a bond that no one but God can sunder. Jesus answers by placing marriage back on its original foundation from the beginning, when husband and wife were united never to be separated, the twain made one flesh as two equal but differing elements joined not only in their own life but in that of their offspring. God had suffered the blindness of the past, but in the increased light of Christ men must return to first principles.
The passage gives the New Testament law and standard respecting divorce: it is strict and exalted against a man putting away his wife, and in God's sight under the primal law a man should divorce his wife only for fornication, so divorce and remarriage are permissible only on Scriptural grounds. That teaching does not attempt to change any Jewish statute or civil law but is addressed to the individual conscience and soul, and heeding it does not violate civil law. The verse shows that men cannot be converted or saved through civil law. The chapter points to the Old Testament histories of Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon in polygamy and marital unfaithfulness as types hung up as living chart lessons for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, establishing the law of types and precedents to guard the inviolable sanctity of the marriage relation.
Roman Catholic doctrine and practice on divorce keeps that law much more closely than the practice of the Protestant churches has done, to the shame of the Protestant churches, and there is an earnest effort to bring Protestant practice nearer to the Roman Catholic standard. The effort ought instead to bring Protestant practice nearer to the New Testament standard, correcting the church by Scripture rather than by human ideas and human standards, for the tendency of the age is to belittle the authority of the Scriptures and glorify human ideas. Marriage is not a temporary contract to be ended at either spouse's whim, passion, or will, and men must abandon divorce at mere pleasure. Its divorce teaching rejects ending a marriage merely because spouses disagree or find life together difficult; such differences should be met with patience, mutual respect, willingness to yield where conscience is not at stake, and prayer, not divorce.
Mark 10:2 stands in Mark's account that continues a subject already introduced in the previous chapter, including the rich young man who came to Jesus to know what good thing he should do to inherit eternal life and whom Jesus loved when he saw him. It records the Pharisees tempting and testing Jesus with the question whether it is lawful for a man to put away his wife. The question came at a time when loose ideas of marriage prevailed and even in the most moral nation a man could divorce his wife for any cause. They hoped to trap him by drawing him into a position condemning Herod Antipas, whose rule covered the region where Jesus was staying and who was notorious for adultery.
The answer to the question connects divorce to God's creation of marriage: God made male and female and joined them as husband and wife, so marriage is a sacred institution of divine origin and a bond that no one but God can sunder. Jesus answers by placing marriage back on its original foundation from the beginning, when husband and wife were united never to be separated, the twain made one flesh as two equal but differing elements joined not only in their own life but in that of their offspring. God had suffered the blindness of the past, but in the increased light of Christ men must return to first principles.
The passage gives the New Testament law and standard respecting divorce: it is strict and exalted against a man putting away his wife, and in God's sight under the primal law a man should divorce his wife only for fornication, so divorce and remarriage are permissible only on Scriptural grounds. That teaching does not attempt to change any Jewish statute or civil law but is addressed to the individual conscience and soul, and heeding it does not violate civil law. The verse shows that men cannot be converted or saved through civil law. The chapter points to the Old Testament histories of Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon in polygamy and marital unfaithfulness as types hung up as living chart lessons for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, establishing the law of types and precedents to guard the inviolable sanctity of the marriage relation.
Roman Catholic doctrine and practice on divorce keeps that law much more closely than the practice of the Protestant churches has done, to the shame of the Protestant churches, and there is an earnest effort to bring Protestant practice nearer to the Roman Catholic standard. The effort ought instead to bring Protestant practice nearer to the New Testament standard, correcting the church by Scripture rather than by human ideas and human standards, for the tendency of the age is to belittle the authority of the Scriptures and glorify human ideas. Marriage is not a temporary contract to be ended at either spouse's whim, passion, or will, and men must abandon divorce at mere pleasure. Its divorce teaching rejects ending a marriage merely because spouses disagree or find life together difficult; such differences should be met with patience, mutual respect, willingness to yield where conscience is not at stake, and prayer, not divorce.