Matthew 19:3-6 (ESV) And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
See also Malachi 2:16 and footnotes.
Jesus points to God’s original design for marriage: one man and one woman for life. What kind of marriage do you plan on getting, one defined by the laws of the land, or marriage as defined by God? If you’re getting a marriage as God defines it then you should be entering marriage with the mindset that divorce is not an option. Therefore, a prenup has no place in a Christian marriage.
Matthew 19:7-9 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
The hardness of hard is key here. Jesus taught that as Christians we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. Look at what immediately precedes this passage on divorce. At the end of Matthew 18 is the parable of the unforgiving servant. Ten thousand talents is an unplayable debt which is what we owe God. Jesus paid our debt in full on the cross. Back to marriage now. It is impossible for your spouse to accrue a debt with you that is anywhere near the debt that God forgave us. The plan for Christian marriage is to forgive and to seek reconciliation. 1 Corinthians 7:15 shows what happens when hardness of heart is present: the one unwilling to reconcile leaves.
See also Malachi 2:16 and footnotes.
Jesus points to God’s original design for marriage: one man and one woman for life. What kind of marriage do you plan on getting, one defined by the laws of the land, or marriage as defined by God? If you’re getting a marriage as God defines it then you should be entering marriage with the mindset that divorce is not an option. Therefore, a prenup has no place in a Christian marriage.
The hardness of hard is key here. Jesus taught that as Christians we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. Look at what immediately precedes this passage on divorce. At the end of Matthew 18 is the parable of the unforgiving servant. Ten thousand talents is an unplayable debt which is what we owe God. Jesus paid our debt in full on the cross. Back to marriage now. It is impossible for your spouse to accrue a debt with you that is anywhere near the debt that God forgave us. The plan for Christian marriage is to forgive and to seek reconciliation. 1 Corinthians 7:15 shows what happens when hardness of heart is present: the one unwilling to reconcile leaves.