Although this rose is beautiful, it can also have hidden thorns. No doubt, when the Pharisees were questioning Jesus about their religious laws and allowances, they were hoping to look (beautifully) justified.

Jesus came to express love to a greater, more fulfilling degree. He was not just following the law perfectly (as holy) but also establishing a love relationship with mankind (which was not easy, or for His benefit- but painfully thorny).

The joining of husband and wife in matrimony is often referred to as becoming “one flesh”. It represents Christ’s relationship with the Church. (Christ and the church by BibleHub)

No doubt, there are times when one or the other marriage partner forgets to be selfless but is caught up in selfishness. #missingthemark

The good news is that our hearts can be softened again by God’s provision, we too have a way to be transformed by His great love for us. -Teresa

Mark 10:1-12 (ESV)

Teaching About Divorce

10 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

² And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,^[g] 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”