Marriage and Divorce

China’s divorce spike is a warning to the rest of the locked-down world because of the
coronavirus quarantine. Chinese media is filled with reports of marital strife. Shanghai-based
online publication Sixth Tone, reported that police in one county in Hubei province, near where
the pandemic began in Wuhan, received 162 reports of domestic violence in February—three
times more than the 47 reported during the same month in 2019. God is the author of Marriage.
It is important now to see what the Word of God says about divorce and how to avoid it. How
do you think the quarantine will influence the divorce rate in your country and region? Why?

OBSERVATION:
Mattew 19:3-9

1. Read Matthew 19:3-9 and circle the word 3 Some Pharisees approached him, and tested
divorce.

him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his

2. List everything you learn about divorce wife for any cause whatever?”

from this text.

4 He said in reply, “Have you not read that from

the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and
female’

5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave

his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh’?

6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore, what God has joined together, no
3. What is God’s design for marriage?
human being must separate.”

7 They said to him, “Then why did Moses

command that the man give the woman a bill of
divorce and dismiss [her]?”

4. What is God’s attitude toward divorce?

8 He said to them, “Because of the hardness of
your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your
wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

9 I say to you, whoever divorces his wife

APPLICATION:
(unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries
1. What is your personal attidude to
marriage and divorce?
another commits adultery.”

2. What is your relationship with God?

3. What specific steps are you going to take in order to protect your marriage?