Show me a couple who thinks of divorce as an option, and I will show you a couple that has great potential for marital disintegration.

But show me a couple who has clipped the word divorce out of their dictionary, and I will show you a couple who will stand together.

Marriage is a divine institution, made by God. Yet marriage, made by heaven, has also been marred by hell. Some Pharisees once asked Jesus why Moses had made provision for divorce. If God planned for a man and woman to remain married until death do them apart, why did Moses allow divorce? Jesus had a ready answer.

He said it was because of the hardness of their hearts. Divorce wasn’t what God wanted, for God hates divorce. (Malachi 2:16) And then Jesus declared, “Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:9)

Now God allowed divorce in the case of fornication, but He did not command it. In fact, we are commanded to love. (Ephesians 5:25 and Titus 2:4) And what God commands us to do He will enable us to do. You can decide to do something about a bad marriage. Marriages are not generally healed overnight, but direction of a marriage can be changed.

Yet many couples give up.

They give many reasons for divorce, but they’re fallacious reasons. They won’t pass at the judgement bar of God. Even if you have an unfaithful wife, or an unfaithful husband, that doesn’t mean that divorce is either inevitable or good. Forgiveness and restoration are far better than divorce.

Do you doubt that? Then read the book of Hosea. Learn about Hosea and his wife, Gomer, a woman of many lovers who actually became a prostitute. Yet Hosea found her, forgave her, restored her, and restored the home. Not only is that story a picture of God’s persistent love for sinners, but it also models how couples, with God’s help, can mend marriages that seem beyond repair.