Teaching About Divorce

19 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from ^(A)Galilee and ^(B)entered ^(C)the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ² And ^(D)large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³ And Pharisees came up to him and ^(E)tested him by asking, ^(F)“Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” ⁴ He answered, ^(G)“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ^(H)‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and ^(I)the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ^(J)What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷ They said to him, ^(K)“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸ He said to them, “Because of your ^(L)hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ^9 (M)And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”^[a]

¹⁰ To the married ^(A)I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): ^(B)the wife should not separate from her husband ¹¹ (but if she does, ^(C)she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and ^(D)the husband should not divorce his wife.

¹² To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. ¹³ If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. ^(E)Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. ¹⁵ But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you^{[a] (F)}to peace. ¹⁶ For how do you know, wife, ^(G)whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?