"'For I hate divorce!' says the Lord, the God of Israel. 'To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,' says the Lord of Heaven's Armies" (Malachi 2:16; New Living Translation). Today, if a marriage relationship doesn't remain exciting, the normal course of action is to divorce and remarry. But this is not God's desire and design!

In Scripture we see that Moses permitted a bill of divorce because of constant sinfulness and selfishness. But Jesus Christ addressed this problem further:

"The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?' And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?" So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.'

"They said to Him, 'Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?' He said to them, 'Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.' And 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 19:3-9).

Divorce cuts to the heart of God's design of people being at one. God is all about oneness of mind and heart, most importantly with Him. Notice Jesus' final prayer to God the Father immediately before His crucifixion: "That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John 17:21). God is for intimate relationships, not the severing of relationships.

[Read the article: The Ultimate Purpose of Marriage]