| Divorce: A Violent Act |
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I am preaching through the book of Malachi and preached this week on the verse in which God expresses His extreme displeasure with divorce.
Malachi 2:16 (NIV) "I hate divorce," says the Lord God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the Lord Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
While preparing my sermon I came across this quote from C. S. Lewis: "Christianity teaches that marriage is for life. There is, of course, a difference between Churches: some do not admit divorce at all; some allow it reluctantly in very special cases. It is a great pity that Christians should disagree about such a question; but for an ordinary layman the thing to notice is that Churches all agree with one another about marriage a great deal more than any of them agrees with the outside world. I mean, they all regard divorce as something like the cutting up of a living body, as a kind of surgical operation. Some of them think the operation so violent that it cannot be done at all; others admit it as a desparate remedy in extreme cases. They all agreed that it is more like having both of your legs cut off than it is like dissolving a business partnership or even deserting a regiment. What they all disagree with is the modern view that it is simple readjustment of partners, to be made whenever people feel they are no longer in love with one another, or when either of them falls in love with someone else." |
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