Daily Devotional For Sunday, January 4, 2026
Good morning and it is my prayer that your 2026 is a great year for all of you. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. We are picking up with the same passage we looked at yesterday because of the content and length of it – Matthew 19:1-12:
“When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; (2) and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. (3) Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?’ (4) And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, (5) 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’? (6) So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’ (7) They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?’ (8) He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. (9) And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.’ (10) The disciples said to Him, ‘If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.’ (11) But He said to them, ‘Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. (12) For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it’” (NASB).
Marriage and divorce are hot topics today. We live in a culture where relativism and subjectivism determine truth. Truth is how you define it for you and you can’t define it for others. In essence, people have become a god unto themselves that they worship and bring their “tithes and offerings” to in life. Marriage does not begin with two people “falling in love” with one another. Feelings are not enough to hold any relationship together, especially a married one. Why? Feelings are like the tide – they come in and they go out. They rise up and they go down. This is why a marriage’s greatest battle is your feelings. They have to be resisted or they will be persistent and before you know it, you’re soon self-existent.
Marriage does not begin when two people start to date and it certainly does not begin when two people co-habitate. Living together is not a marriage; it is a mirage. Marriage does not begin when two people are sexually active with one another. They are not “one flesh,” but two sinful fleshes attempting to be one. Sex in marriage is God’s way to bond two people as one flesh. Traditionally marriage was consummated by two people, male and female, naked and unashamed giving themselves to each other as Adam and Eve did in Genesis 2:24.
Two people who simply live together will struggle with doubts if they use sex to hold the relationship together. By that I mean, they may think, “Does he or she still love me and is committed to me?” Marriage is for that purpose. The Pharisees as we have been seeing had two rabbinic schools of thought on divorce: The School of Hillel (liberal) and the School of Shammai (Conservative). Based on the wrong interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1-4, they concluded that Moses had commanded Jewish men to divorce a wife as a means of escape from being trapped in the wrong marriage. As we saw a couple devotionals ago, Hillel said “any reason” literally meant any reason. Shammai said only for infidelity. They ignored the “if” in verse 1, which in Hebrew can be translated as “since” also. Moses was not commanding divorce, but only permitting it on a limited condition.
Thus, they should have read Malachi 2:16, “‘For I hate divorce,’ says the Lord, the God of Israel” (NASB). Jesus reminded them that God never commanded divorce, but permitted it because of the hardness of their hearts. Jesus’ point in verse 8 that those who divorce their wives except for immorality and remarry, commit adultery in God’s eyes. The Greek New Testament word Jesus uses here that is translated as “immorality” is [πορνεία; porneia]. It is where we get our English words “porn and pornography.” This is broad term and it can refer to adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, rape, and etc. Paul uses this same word in 1 Corinthians 10:8 to refer to 23,000 God killed on one day by a plague in Numbers 25:9. Though sexual immorality is a reason to divorce, divorce is not commanded by God even for this.
Jesus cannot get any plainer than this about marriage, divorce and remarriage. This is why we read the disciples' reaction and then Jesus’ reaction – “better not to marry” and Jesus’ response with “not all men will accept this . . .” In other words, if you cannot enter marriage with a resolve to stay married to the death of one of you, then you should not marry and remain single and celibant. Jesus says that divorce for reasons other than adultery creates adultery.
The last part with its discussion on eunuchs does not mean that Jesus was saying that if any man wants to serve God with no distractions, “Castrate yourself” Some had interpreted this way historically. For example, Origen, who lived between 184-254 AD, was an early theologian in the church who did this and later regretted it. God created and ordained marriage first, not singleness. Jesus is not placing being single above being married. Jesus is simply saying that as a single person you have more time to serve the kingdom of God. New Testament scholar Norman T. Wright says this:
“Just as a car is made to drive safely on the road, not to skid around colliding with other cars, so marriage was made to be a partnership of one woman and one man for life, not something that could be split up and reassembled whenever one person wanted it.… Moses didn’t say, as it were, “when you drive your car, this is how to have an accident”; rather, “when you drive a car, take care not to have an accident; but if, tragically, an accident occurs, this is how to deal with it” (Source: Norman T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 16–28, p. 42).
From the Sermon On The Mound, Jesus reminded us that sin, any sin, especially sexual sins, first start as an attitude before they become an action (see Matt. 5:21-48). Jesus used the word “eunuch,” which in His day and ours would refer to 3 types of men:
- Those men who were sexually impotent due to a birth defect or injury.
- Those men who chose to be or were made eunuchs to serve to oversee a king’s harem for example. They had one of the most important and well paid positions because they posed no threat to the king’s harem since they were absent of any sexual desires.
- Those men who chose a life of singleness to serve God and the Kingdom of God. Jesus and Paul would be good examples of this.
As I conclude, let me close with these final statements:
- Marriage is ideal and is supposed to be an unbreakable bond between a man and a woman.
- Life is not about perfection and includes sin. There are times that secrets kept buried during dating, the honeymoon and early marriage come to light. Hidden traits come to the surface that had been repressed for years. It is hard, painful, ugly, horrible and puts huge strains on any marriage covenant. Sometimes even the best Christian counseling is unable to help resolve due to the trust that has been lost.
- Any of us who have never gone through the messy misery of divorce, should never judge, condemn or look down on those who have. Why? We may never know all the context, conditions and circumstances that ended the marriage. In this case, we give grace and forgiveness. It is easy to judge what you do not know and have not experienced.
- I personally believe that when any spouse is abusive, this is an act of immorality. I do not believe that Jesus is telling a wife (for example) to stay in a marriage where she and/or her children are in danger of harm to their lives. I have not always held to this position, but with years under my belt studying Scripture, I have come to be less legalistic and hardcore about this due to the real life circumstances of people I love.
Assignment: If you are married, what have been the reasons you have chosen to stay married? If you are single, how are you using your time to further the Gospel and the Kingdom of God with free time you would not have if you were married? If you have been married to the same spouse for years, do you ever look down on those who divorce? How might you change that attitude of judging them to loving them like Christ?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 19:6b, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to honor You on the subject of marriage and singleness. Both You required purity, godliness, and righteousness. Give me grace to do this. Help me to forgive those who do not. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly