“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits
adultery.”
(Matthew 5:31-32)

Eden glistened and glittered with all things beautiful. The crickets sang their evening song as the dew fell silently on flowers and fruits of magnificent quality. But what was most beautiful was marriage. Marriage was the “rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley” (Song 2:1) But if you want to know the heinousness of sin, look no further than the state of marriage today. As Shakespeare once said, “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

Ask yourself: how many marriages end in divorce? How many children grow up without any example of a godly marriage? The answer: one third. One of three children you meet come from a broken home and will in turn form another. A broken marriage will be felt in the tearstained pillows of future generations. That alone should stop us all in our tracks. What Tolstoy termed “the mania of self-love,” what Jesus called “the hardness of heart” spreads faster today than any viral disease (Mt. 19:8). Today, human courts may excuse our folly under the guise of “no fault,” but God does not. God chose to represent His love to us under the image of marriage, and our marriage culture today is a blot and stain upon all which marriage was intended to represent.

Now, men, I am looking at you this morning. You are the spiritual leaders of the home, and you will be held accountable. How can we claim to be the godly man of the Beatitudes while refusing to be meek, to be peaceable, to be merciful to our own flesh (Gen. 2:24)? Christ has done so to us, even when we have been a most faithless spouse. If God has instituted marriage for our own sanctification, He will give us the grace to continue therein (Eph. 5:25-27).

Husbands, would you love your wife, pray with your wife, worship beside your wife, repent to your wife, lead your wife? To do so would mend many ills and enrich many marriages. To do so would bring much glory to God, provide godly examples to our children, and establish lasting stability to our churches and communities. As it once was, let our marriages now be - a fragrant aroma and a beautiful sight for all to behold.