The Great Paradox of Divorce

As you know if you are regular here, I am a lawyer. On occasion, I volunteer for the local bar association’s program to provide legal advice to those who cannot afford it. As part of the program, I field calls from people asking questions touching on various areas of the law.

This is a change for me because I am a trial lawyer, specializing in trying employment law cases. What amazes me each time I volunteer is the sheer number of callers seeking legal advice regarding obtaining divorces. It is literally every other call. I always pass the call on to another lawyer because it is not my field of law and because I don’t want to participate in putting asunder what God has joined together.

It would be easy enough to scoff at the world and the fact that those who reject God and talk so romantically about visualizing world peace, and imaging a world without religion can’t even get along with those they vowed to love forever, but Christians fare only a little better.

While it is true the statistics show that those who claim to be Christian and regularly attend church are significantly less likely to divorce, the percentage of divorces amongst Americans who claim to be Christians is alarmingly high. That rate is even more alarming when one considers Jesus made it quite clear that God prohibits divorce except in the most narrow of circumstances. That God generally forbids divorce is not enough to keep most Christians from getting divorced.

Here is thing though: marriage is one of God’s best tools for making a Christian more like Jesus. Marriage forces one to subordinate their will to that of their spouse, to learn to love unconditionally, and to face one’s faults on a daily basis, which is why it is probably God’s best tool for our sanctification. 

The paradox then is that those Christians who give up on marriage are the ones who need marriage the most. GS

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