“His disciples said to him, ‘If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry.’” (v. 10)

When you find a Scripture that so much of the world is readily living up to, it’s worth paying attention.

Short version: Jesus teaches that marriage, under heaven, is designed to be indivisible. Man is made for woman. A man is made for a woman. The union of their flesh equals a oneness that ought to endure. A husband cannot leverage Moses’ instruction on a whim, legally divorcing for any reason. He, under God, is inextricably enmeshed with the wife he ought to honor and cherish and uphold. Instead of divorcing, save for very few causes, he ought to die to self.

And the disciples say, “If that’s what marriage is, maybe we shouldn’t.”

That’s what our world has concluded. The selflessness of marriage—the total commitment to purity and provision and protection, with the other and for the other—is anathema. Our neighbors don’t reject marriage because they don’t like marital things. They reject it because everything is subject to their supremacy first. Anything that asks him to love her like Christ loves the church—upholding her and shielding her and dying for her—doesn’t fit in a selfish age.

You see this verse everywhere.

Pray, repent, and love—so that it won’t be seen in your home.

— Tyler