When the Pharisees tested Jesus by asking if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason, Jesus responded by going all the way back to God's marriage law set forth in the beginning: "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matt. 19:4-6).

Like many today, the Pharisees were not satisfied with this answer, and pressed Jesus concerning the marriage certificate Moses "commanded." Jesus corrected their view of the action taken by Moses (he did not command them to divorce their wives, but regulated a practice they had begun without God's authority) and again stressed God's law as set forth in the beginning (v. 8).

Divorce was never a part of God's plan. God's law for marriage is one man married to one woman for life. The only exception to this law is set forth in verse nine: "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."

This passage obviously applies to the subject of same-sex marriage. While our government has recently expanded the definition of marriage to include two people of the same gender, God's law has limited marriage to heterosexual couples.

A closer look at the passage also shows that polygamy was never a part of God's plan. Marriage is to be the union of one man and one woman for life.

I have been discouraged by the number of brethren who take issue with this conclusion. They have indicated that, while it is not acceptable in the Gospel age, polygamy was acceptable to God in previous dispensations. I contend that, as with divorce, polygamy was something God "allowed," but never endorsed.

Several men in the Old Testament had multiple wives, but I cannot find one instance in which their family life is an endorsement of polygamy. Consider the favoritism and turmoil that existed in Jacob's family. Elkanah showed favoritism to his wife Hannah. This caused his other wife, Peninnah, to provoke her and make her miserable (1 Sam. 1:2-7). King Solomon had "seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David" (1 Kings 11:3-4). None of these examples present polygamy in a favorable light.

The example of David is often used as a means of justifying polygamy under the Law of Moses. After all, David was a man after God's own heart, and how could he have been a man after God's own heart if he was engaged in a practice that was wrong? David was a man after God's own heart, but in marrying multiple wives he violated a command of God found in Deuteronomy 17:17. And, like the examples cited above, David's family life cannot be said to be an endorsement of polygamy.

Who knows what challenges lie on the horizon for this country. With a victory having been won for one perversion of marriage (same-sex marriage) who knows what other perversions will be accommodated in the future? Regardless of what man does, God's law concerning who can and cannot be married still stands, and those who fear the Lord and tremble at His Word will abide by His law.