Teaching About Divorce
1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from
1Galilee and
2entered
3the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.
2
And
4large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3
And Pharisees came up to him and
5tested him by asking,
6“Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause? ”
4
He answered,
7“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5
and said,
8‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and
9the two shall become one flesh’?
6
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
10What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. ”
7
They said to him,
11“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? ”
8
He said to them, “Because of your
12hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
9
13And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. ”
10
The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. ”
11
But he said to them,
14“Not everyone can receive this saying, but only
15those to
16whom it is given.