Discriminating Against Biblical Marriage
by Michael R. Baggett
Would you have thought 20, 30, or 40 years ago we would live to see the day when Biblical marriage would be discriminated against? Biblical marriage is treated like just one kind of relationship in our society. In some cases, it is not recognized at all. What I saw today while filling out a medical form was very offensive.
I was filling out a medical form online and was asked who to contact in case of an emergency. I followed the prompt to the next page, which gave me the choices of father, mother, uncle, aunt, etc., but guess who was missing? Husband and wife were not even on the list! Guess what was on the list? Significant other. I suppose the terms husband and wife have been sacrificed to not offend those living together or those living in the gay and lesbian lifestyle! Doesn’t anyone care that those living in Biblical marriages might be offended by being left out?
Jesus pointed back to Genesis when discussing marriage. Jesus did not refer to them as significant others when looking back on the first marriage; Jesus called them male and female (Matthew 19:4). The first marriage introduced God’s first sacred institution, the home (Genesis 2:21-25). The married man, called a husband, and the married woman, called a wife, are to cling to one another in the bond of holy matrimony that God joined together, and they dare not ever put it asunder or separate! (Matthew 19:6).
God hates divorce! (Malachi 2:16). Before discussing remarriage, it must be clearly understood that God hates divorce itself. Is there any wonder why Jesus would enjoin such a strict code on those who would enter a second marriage? (Matthew 5:32; 19:9).
Can everybody who gets divorced remarry? The answer depends on what Country you live in and who you ask, right? Ask the average Joe or Jane, and they will justify most anyone’s remarriage. After all, we must be happy, right? If a husband or wife is not as fun as they used to be, just find someone else, divorce the old spouse, and enter another marriage and live happily ever after.
Wrong!
More that 67% of all second marriages fail, and a staggering 74% of third marriages fail, according to Sharon Pope ("3 Reasons Why so Many Second and Third Marriages Fail", February 5th, 2026). According to this article, many enter another marriage without having learned their own self-destructive patterns, which they bring to the new marriage. For instance, the pattern of looking for new icing on the cake once a marriage cools off. The unfaithful will be unfaithful. Secondly, many old unhealed wounds are often brought into new relationships, which can sabotage the new marriage. Marrying on the rebound can be dangerous. Divorce is often a symptom of a deeper problem within an individual who is never content. Often, these people merely “close one wound and open another.”
What divorce does to people is cruel. The promise “For better or worse, till death do us part” gets broken, and people die inside. Some men, women, and children never really get over the Trauma. Now, not only is the most special vow broken to one another, but to God, who is a witness and party in the covenant of marriage! That’s right; marriage is not merely a contract; it is a covenant.
“Yet, ye say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the LORD God of Israel says that ‘He hates divorce...’” (Malachi 2:14-16 NKJV).
Like any sin, divorce hurts God! The husband is hurt by the divorce. The wife is hurt by the divorce. Children are hurt by divorce. Why? Because it is against natural law. It is against God’s law. God in His wisdom created the man and the woman for one another, for companionship, happiness, and to populate the earth. Humans are distinct from dogs or animals. We have codes of conduct in the Word of God, and those codes do not change. Marriage forms the foundation of any society. As goes the home, so goes the church and the country. When selfishness replaces God’s wisdom, the home is shattered; the building blocks of a society come tumbling down one divorce at a time.
Jesus warns, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Matthew 19:9, KJV).
If you ask Jesus about the importance of stable homes and the effects of divorce on souls, His answer is clear, concise, and concrete. It is such a sad situation when many destroy their lives and souls, having never learned the law of Christ on marriage, divorce, and remarriage – and to take it seriously!
The relationships that involve only “significant others” exist outside of God’s will. The marriage between a man and a woman –a husband and a wife – is so sacred that God hates divorce itself, and Jesus only allows remarriage for the innocent party where a fornicating spouse is divorced because of fornication. God is more offended than I am when manmade medical forms leave off the husband and wife because someone living in a sinful arrangement might be offended!
“Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).
Friends, the Bible doesn’t say, “God might judge,” the Bible says, “God will judge.”
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
