By Keith Sharp
God’s original plan for marriage was that one man and one woman should live together throughout life (Genesis 2:21-24; Matthew 19:4-6). Sinful men degraded marriage to polygamy and allowed easy divorces for the most frivolous reasons, relegating the woman to the position of a slave. Moses, because of this hardness of the hearts of men, relaxed God’s original intention concerning the marriage tie, allowing divorce for “some uncleanness” (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). This legislation protected women from the abuse of evil men. However, even at that time God hated divorce (Malachi 2:13-16).
Jesus restored both marriage as an institution and the woman as a person to the lofty plateau they occupied in the beginning. Marriage is a God-ordained institution for a lifetime (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9). To divorce and remarry for any cause other than fornication is to be an adulterer (Matthew 5:32; 19:99 Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18; Romans 7:1-3). The woman is raised to the position of man’s “help meet” (helper equal to him) (Genesis 2:18), an “heir” with him “of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7).
Those “silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts” (2 Timothy 3:6), who would exchange the honorable state of matrimony for the damning relationship of fornication (Hebrews 13:4) and abrogate the Gospel in the name of “women’s liberation” should take notice that they are fighting that which has won for them the rightful honor and liberty their fair sex enjoys.
Truth Magazine XIX: 22, p. 348
April 10, 1975