Malachi 2:15,16 - You belong to Him in body and spirit

2:15

“Has not the one God made you?” This is so fundamental and is at the root of so many of our problems, and the distorted worldview so many have. We are created beings, and we were created by God. Two of the things this means are (i) God knows what is best for us; (ii) we have a responsibility towards God. We so often talk and act as if we are our own. This is simply not true, we are not our own. Rather, we belong to God “in body and spirit”. Only then will we be who we are truly meant to be. And God denies Godly offspring, and they can only be produced within a faithful marriage. We must not be unfaithful to our wives. Note that the onus is put on the husband.

2:16

The Lord then speak very firmly about what He thinks of the man who divorces His wife. Men are meant to cherish and protect their wives. A man who divorces his wife does violence to her. This violence may well be physical, but it can also be psychological or emotional. God created us, and the primary building block of society is the family. A husband and wife are meant to work together, living as one. It is not a contract, it is a covenant. When divorce happens it always involves two things: sin and pain. The sin may be very much on just one side, though can also be pretty evenly balanced, but by definition there will be sin. There will also be pain, for we were not created to be divorced, not created to be in loose relationships, but created to be in faithful relationships. Our society is looking to make divorce “easy”. There are two things wrong with this. The first is that divorce cannot be made easy, it is always painful. Secondly, our focus should be on being more faithful.