Does God Hate Divorced People

One of the questions that came from our community last week broke my heart. A new follower asked if God hates divorced people! Her family has been giving her a hard time about her divorce and remarriage and calling her a sinner and she wants to know what the Bible says. 1. First off, I want to do a little attitude check for anyone who is worried that God might not take kindly to those who are struggling through divorce. In John 4, we find Jesus at a city well, deep in conversation with a woman who, according to vs. 18, has had 5 husbands and is with the 6th man, but not married to him. Look how Jesus interacts with her: he reveals that he is the one sent to save mankind and seeks to meet her deepest needs. Although he was honest about what he knew of her life, there wasn’t condemnation—just a call to get to know him. God loves people more than he hates their sins or poor choices, and he always seeks to engage them and show them his love. The heart of a true Christian will seek to do the same. 2. God DOES hate divorce. He says so in Malachi 2:16. But why? Is it just an arbitrary thing because God wants people to be stuck together in misery? Definitely not. There are two main reasons I can ascertain from scripture. A. God hates divorce because it tells something about who He is! In Genesis we’re told that God made mankind in his own image—and that he divided this one image into two parts, male and female and that together, those traits would unite to form a picture of God. Additionally, all over the Bible we see that God uses the marriage analogy to represent his undying love for his people. In Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul compares the union of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church. He desires us to be in a covenant “no-matter-what-to-the exclusion-of-all-else” relationship with each other, to explain to the world that that’s how he’s going to be in relationship with us. As John and Noel Piper put it in This Momentary Marriage “The meaning of marriage is the display of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people.” So you can see that when so many marriages are not working out God would grieve that his ability to teach the world what his love looks like is also hanging in the balance. B. God also hates divorce because he loves people, and he knows that divorce is painful and messes with every aspect of a persons’ well-being. People I know who are going through divorce feel sad, angry, exhausted, frustrated, guilty. Their self-esteem plummets. They wonder if they’re enough. If they’ll ever be loved. They worry about their futures and their finances and especially about how it will affect their kids. Point of distinction: God doesn’t hate the people people who are divorced—but he hates what the divorce does to his people. 3. Last point I’ll make today is that when I read the context of why God hates divorce in Malachi Chapter 2 and Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19, I come to this conclusion… Even more than God hates divorce, he hates hardening of our hearts that lead to crappy relationships. He hates the disposable people, me first culture that we see in society and admittedly have sometimes been a part of. Matthew 19:8 says this… 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. It wasn’t supposed to be this way—God made marriage to be a blessing and a journey of practicing other-centeredness, but we’ve got hardened sinful hearts. We need help, but sometimes no matter what kind of help we get, relationships fall apart. If this has happened or is happening to you right now, please know that God loves you more than you can imagine and his hatred of divorce is due to his great of his love for his people. That’s all for today! I just want to let you know that I have a special time set aside to pray for my friends who are struggling through divorce issues. Feel free to contact me through the platforms mentioned below and I’ll pray for you by name! Contact info: Contact me and the volunteers I work with--here through messenger. We check messages at least 3 times during the week. This is the preferred method but you can also email us at [email protected]. Resources for restoring relationships: Hope Restored Program-- https://hoperestored.focusonthefamily... Love & Respect DVD set-- https://www.amazon.com/…/dp/B01N6QVTN... Resources for learning more about the topics explored today: BLOG on why divorce is permitted in the Bible: https://hoshanarabbah.org/…/why-did-y... BLOG on Biblical reasons for divorce: https://www.christianitytoday.com/…/w... Favorite YouTube Channel video on how Hosea's marriage illustrates God's people's brokenness and adulterous nature https://thebibleproject.com/explore/h... John Piper's Book: https://www.amazon.com/…/dp/1433531…/...