Mat 19:1-12 | Family | STEP | Galilee ; this was the poorest part of Palestine. Hence, Galilean was a term of reproach. Judea ; this lay to the south; and between it and Galilee was Samaria. Beyond ; on the east side of the Jordan.

Matthew 19:1-12

Galilee; this was the poorest part of Palestine. Hence, Galilean was a term of reproach.

Judea; this lay to the south; and between it and Galilee was Samaria.

Beyond; on the east side of the Jordan. Tempting him; for the purpose of ensnaring him, in order to get him into difficulty.

For every cause; whenever he chooses; as some of their teachers said that he might, and as they often did. Have ye not read; Ge 1:27. In matters of religion, the appeal must be to the Bible; and an intimate acquaintance with it, and a cordial obedience to its laws, will give one a great advantage over his adversaries. Marriage is an institution of God; honorable in all, ministers of the gospel as well as others; sacred in its obligations; and unless these obligations are violated by one of the parties, not to be dissolved till death. One flesh; they are so united as to be no longer two, but one, each being a part of the other. Compare the apostle's words: "He that loveth his wife loveth himself." Eph 5:28. Of course they ought to be one in views, affections, and interests; and for a man to break such a union as this by putting away his wife for every cause, is wrong. Thus the question of the Pharisees was answered. A writing of divorcement; De 24:1. Suffered; he did not direct it, or suffer it in any such sense as to imply that God approved of it, or that it was right. It was a civil regulation of a civil government, suffered for a time on account of the wickedness of men, and in order to prevent the greater evils which that wickedness would otherwise have occasioned. It was a regulation as to the mode of putting away; not to justify that wrong practice, but to lessen, in some measure, its evils.

Not so; from the beginning, and in all its stages, this putting away "for every cause" of one's wife was a violation of the will of God, as manifested in his works and his word. That God suffers the adoption, and for a time the continuance of practices, on account of the hardness of men's hearts, is no evidence of the moral rectitude of those practices. Nor is the giving of directions about them, and the adoption of regulations to lessen their evils while they continue, any evidence that God approves of them. The practices may still be a violation of what has been the will of God from the beginning, and obedience to him may require them to be done away. I say unto you; I give you the right interpretation of the will of God in this matter.

Fornication; here in the sense of adultery. If the case of the man be so with his wife; if a man, to obey God, must live all his life with one wife, provided she lives and is faithful, whether he is pleased with her or not, then it is not good for a man to marry. Cannot receive this saying; namely, that it is not good to marry. If all should, and act upon it, and not break any other command of God, the whole human race, when those now living are dead, would be extinct. Not to marry is contrary to the nature and wants of men, and to the will of God with regard to them. Ge 1:28.

It is given; some individuals are capable of living with comfort and usefulness in an unmarried state, and may lawfully think it not best for them to marry; and some may be called for a time to perform special services, or meet special dangers, where they could not properly provide for a family. Such a case was noticed by Paul, 1Co 7.1, and applied to some who lived in his day, on account of the then present distresses. Individuals, in some peculiar circumstances, may find it expedient and useful to take a course which, were it not for those circumstances, would be both inexpedient and hurtful; and the great body of mankind may be required by the plainest dictates of God's word to take a different course. So born; as to be unfit for marriage.

Of men; by the wickedness of men, for their own selfish and ungodly purposes.

Kingdom of heaven's sake; voluntarily abstaining from marriage in order to be more useful.

Let him receive it; if a person is so situated as to be clearly an exception to what is applicable to ministers and men in general, and is disposed to live in an unmarried state because he believes that he can be more useful by so doing, let him so live; but let him cultivate the utmost purity of heart and life, and manifest it in all his conversation and conduct.