Vol. 8 No. 11, July, 2011

What God Has Joined Together,

Let Not Men Separate!

Charles G. Maples, Sr.

There are a number of things, of which we read, in His Inspired Word, that God has “Joined Together.”  eg. Grace & Obedience (Ephesians 1:5; Hebrews 5:8f); Faith & Works (James 2:21-24); Baptism & Salvation of the alien sinner (Mark 15:15-16); The saved & His church (Acts 2:38-47), etc.  But in this study I want us to consider what we might think of as His first such command/warning.

But first, just think for a moment of the arrogance of any mere man who would dare to; in any way; tamper with God’s arrangement of anything!  A number of times, at the conclusion of His Creation and Arrangements, that He concluded with, “and it was good.” – that is, it was JUST AS HE WANTED IT TO BE!  But He who desires that “all things work together for (our) good…”(Romans 8:28), knew that men (“considering themselves to be wise”), would come along and dare to rearrange things; to “separate;” in order to make them more pleasing to them!  And so it has become so commonly accepted in our society, that most; even religious men; think nothing of obtaining, granting and approving “Separating that which God has joined together, and particularly in that which is under consideration in our Text!

“In the Beginning,” God, who “made man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7); “In His own image” (Genesis 1:27); arranged what was “good” for man and woman (Genesis 2:18-24).  He then declared them to be “One Flesh” (v. 24)  Jesus Christ, who was with Him in that “Beginning” (Note John 1:3), was enlarging upon that when He stated the above, “So then, they are no longer two, but one flesh.  THEREFORE, what God has joined together, LET NOT MAN SEPARATE.” (Matthew 19:6)

We observe on every hand expressions of “deep concern;” the “wringing of hands;” from the religious and the non-religious; about the “breaking up of homes;” that it is “one of the greatest curses of our society!”  According to common statistics, more than half of all marriages come to be broken by divorce! This means that most children of our time will grow up without the benefits of a home, as God designed it, AND that, because “men” HAVE assumed the power to “separate what God has joined!”

At the heart of this problem is a profane attitude toward marriage, as God ordained it!  HEAR HIM: “A wife is bound by law to her husband as long as her husband lives;….” (I Corinthians 7:29). “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law (of God – cgm.) to her husband as long as he lives, so then if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called  (by God – cgm) an adulteress…” (Romans 7:2-3).

Marriage is a THREE-WAY Covenant!  That is, between a man and a woman and GOD, their Creator, and to Whom they must give account for their conduct in that marriage!  A couple was asked what had kept them together for 60 years; the reply by the woman, “WE MADE A VOW!”  Hear Almighty God: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools.  Pay what you have vowed.  It is better not to vow, than to vow and not pay.” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5)

In MalachI 2:16 we read that “The Lord God of Israel says that HE HATES DIVORCE…”  and so He says, “A husband is not to divorce his wife” and “let her not divorce him” (I Corinthians 7:11-13).  A divorce that comes about, “Except for sexual immorality” (Matthew 19:9), often causes one, or both, persons involved in that sin to add to that sin the sin of adultery, and cause someone else to “commit adultery!” (Matthew 5:32).

God’s wrath against this prevalent sin is seen in His warning; “Do you not know that…neither…adulterers…will inherit the kingdom of God?” (I Corinthians 6:9-10), and in Galatians 5:19ff it is listed among those “works of the flesh,” which will keep one out of “the kingdom of God!”  Then, in addition to those Scriptures, we read in Revelation 21:8 that the ultimate reward for adultery is “…the lake which burns with fire and brimstone…!”

HEAR THE CHRIST: “…I say to you, WHOEVER divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and WHOEVER marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:9)  Those words, from the Savior, are not difficult to understand!  Whether one  “understands” those simple statements by Jesus is likely to be determined by whether they have reverence for Him and what He has spoken unto us!  (See Hebrews 1:1-2; 2:1-3; Psalm 119:128).  Indeed, “WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER, LET NOT MAN SEPARATE!”