What Does the Bible Say About Divorce?
What Jesus taught, what Moses permitted, and where grace meets broken covenants — Scripture on divorce, carefully.
Jesus taught that marriage is God’s lifelong joining — “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6) — that Moses permitted divorce “because of the hardness of your hearts,” and that unfaithfulness is the exception he names (Matthew 19:9). Paul adds desertion by an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7:15). Scripture grieves divorce without abandoning the divorced.
Back to the beginning
Asked about divorce, Jesus declined to start with Moses’ permission slip and went back to Eden: from the beginning, male and female, one flesh, joined by God. Divorce, he said, was permitted for hardness of heart — a concession to brokenness, never the design. The Bible treats marriage as covenant, and God says plainly through Malachi that he hates the treacherous putting away that shatters it.
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
The exceptions Scripture names
Jesus names fornication — sexual unfaithfulness — as ground on which divorce is not adulterous (Matthew 19:9). Paul, addressing marriages to unbelievers, adds that if the unbelieving partner departs, “a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.” Most Christian traditions also recognise that abuse breaks the covenant’s substance. Scripture’s exceptions are protections for the wronged, not loopholes for the restless.
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.
Grace after broken covenants
The same Jesus who taught marriage’s permanence sat at a well with a five-times-married woman and offered her living water — and she became his messenger to her town. Divorce is not the unforgivable sin; no failure is beyond “the God of all comfort.” For the divorced, Scripture holds both truths: covenants matter enough to grieve, and grace is sufficient enough to rebuild.
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Quick answers
- Is divorce an unforgivable sin?
- No — Scripture names only one unforgivable sin, and divorce is not it. God’s grace covers broken marriages as fully as any other wound; Jesus’ tenderness to the Samaritan woman (John 4) is the standing proof.
- Can a divorced person remarry?
- Christian traditions differ. Many hold remarriage permissible where the divorce was on biblical grounds (Matthew 19:9; 1 Corinthians 7:15); others are stricter. Scripture calls for seeking peace, counsel, and a clear conscience before God.
- What should someone in a hard marriage do?
- Scripture urges pursuing restoration where safe — “God hath called us to peace” — with counsel (Proverbs 11:14), prayer, and honest help. Where there is danger, protection comes first; the covenant was never a license for harm.
