Commentary - Mark 10:1-12

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, the Pharisees, ever looking for a way to trip up the Lord, come to Him with a question about divorce. Their intent is malicious, but Jesus uses their test as an occasion to teach foundational truths about God’s design for marriage. He masterfully turns their legalistic quibbling back to the bedrock of creation, contrasting the temporary concession of Moses with the permanent, creational intent of God. The Lord establishes that marriage is not a mere contract, subject to the whims and hard hearts of men, but a divine joining, a one-flesh union that man has no authority to sever. He concludes with a stark warning to His disciples, defining remarriage after an illegitimate divorce as nothing less than adultery. This is a high and holy standard, and it is meant to be.

The entire exchange reveals the radical nature of the kingdom Jesus brings. It is a kingdom that restores what was lost in the Fall, that calls men and women back to God's original design, and that refuses to accommodate sin. The world, and even the religious establishment of the day, had made peace with broken homes. Jesus comes to declare that in His kingdom, God’s creational norms are the standard, and grace is the means by which we can begin to live them out.

Outline

Context In Mark

This teaching on divorce comes as Jesus is making His final journey toward Jerusalem, where He will be crucified. The shadow of the cross is lengthening. As He moves toward the ultimate act of covenant faithfulness, laying down His life for His bride, the Church, He is confronted with a question about covenant faithlessness in marriage. The contrast is stark. The Pharisees are concerned with legal loopholes that allow a man to dispense with his wife. Jesus is concerned with the covenantal heart of a God who joins, and the high calling of a man and woman to reflect His faithfulness.

This section is part of a larger theme in Mark where Jesus' authority is repeatedly challenged by the religious leaders. Here, as elsewhere, He demonstrates that His authority is not just His own, but is rooted in the very Word of God from the beginning. He is not an innovator overthrowing Moses; He is the Creator and Lord who reveals the true and original meaning of the law that Moses gave.

Key Issues

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 1 And standing up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

Jesus is on the move, heading south toward His final confrontation in Jerusalem. His ministry is not static; it is a pilgrimage. And wherever He goes, the crowds follow. The hunger for truth is palpable, even if it is often mixed with a desire for miracles or political deliverance. But Jesus' custom, His regular practice, is to teach. He is the great Prophet, the Word made flesh, and His primary method is the declaration of truth. He does not simply do things; He explains the meaning of things. This is the pattern for all faithful ministry. We are to be people of the Word, teaching the whole counsel of God as is our custom.

v. 2 And some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.

Here come the troublemakers. Notice their motive is not to learn, but to test Him. The Greek word is peirazo, the same word used for Satan's tempting of Jesus in the wilderness. The Pharisees are acting as agents of the adversary, seeking to impale Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. The debate over divorce was a live one, with the school of Hillel taking a liberal view (a man could divorce his wife for almost any reason, like burning his dinner) and the school of Shammai taking a much stricter view (divorce was only permissible for sexual immorality). If Jesus sided with Shammai, He would anger the crowds and Herod Antipas, who had unlawfully divorced his wife and married another. If He sided with Hillel, He would be seen as lax on the law. Their question is a trap, plain and simple.

v. 3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”

Jesus does not walk into their trap. Instead, with perfect wisdom, He turns the question back on them and, in doing so, shifts the entire ground of the debate. They are asking about what is "lawful," what a man is "allowed" to do. Jesus takes them back to the source of the law itself: Moses. He is not asking for their interpretation or the rabbinic traditions, but for the actual command. This is a master stroke. He is forcing them to quote the very Scripture they hope to use against Him, and in so doing, He is preparing to show them what it actually means.

v. 4 And they said, “Moses permitted a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY.”

And they take the bait. Notice their careful choice of words. They say Moses "permitted" it. They are referring to Deuteronomy 24:1-4. They are presenting this as a positive right, a permission slip from Moses to get rid of a wife. They see the law as a list of allowances, a way to manage sin rather than a standard of righteousness. This is the heart of all legalism. It seeks to find the bare minimum required, to know how close to the line it can walk without technically crossing it. They are focused on the paperwork, the certificate of divorce, which to them sanitizes the whole transaction.

v. 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote for you this commandment.

Jesus now springs the trap. He agrees that Moses wrote this, but He reveals the reason, and it is not a flattering one. It was not because divorce is a good thing, or part of God's ideal. It was because of their "hardness of heart." The law in Deuteronomy 24 was not an institution of divorce, but a regulation of it. It was a concession to a fallen reality. Men, in their sinfulness, were going to divorce their wives regardless. This law, then, was a curb. It forced a formal process, providing the woman with some legal protection. It was a judicial stopgap, a divine limitation on a sinful practice that was already rampant. It was God's merciful condescension to human wickedness, not His endorsement of it.

v. 6 But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.

Having explained the temporary concession, Jesus now pivots to the permanent, creational standard. He bypasses Moses and goes all the way back to Genesis. This is crucial. To understand any biblical doctrine, we must begin where God begins. The Pharisees were bogged down in case law for a fallen world. Jesus takes them back to the world as God made it. Before sin, before hardness of heart, there was God's design. And that design begins with the fundamental created reality of male and female. Marriage is not a social construct; it is a creation ordinance, woven into the fabric of the universe by the Creator Himself.

v. 7 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER,

Quoting directly from Genesis 2:24, Jesus lays out the foundational actions of marriage. The first is leaving. This is a public, decisive act of separation from one's primary family unit. A new household, a new allegiance is being formed. A man is to leave his father and mother, not to abandon them, but to establish a new priority. His wife is now his primary relation. This leaving is the necessary prerequisite for the cleaving that follows.

v. 8 AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

This is the heart of the matter. The leaving and cleaving result in a new reality: one flesh. This is not merely a poetic metaphor for a close relationship. It is a profound, covenantal, and physical union. The sexual act is the consummation and seal of this one-flesh bond, but the bond itself is more than just the act. It is a new entity. God takes a man and a woman and, in marriage, creates a new thing: a single organism. "They are no longer two, but one." This is a divine miracle, a supernatural joining. The math of the kingdom is one plus one equals one.

v. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

This is the thunderous conclusion. If marriage is a work of God, if He is the one who does the joining, then what man has the authority to undo it? The answer is none. The Pharisees were asking about what man is permitted to do. Jesus tells them what man is forbidden to do. Man cannot separate what God has joined. Divorce is not just a personal decision; it is an assault on a divine institution. It is man attempting to tear apart what the Almighty has fused together. This is the high ground to which Jesus has brought the entire argument. The question is not "When can I divorce?" but rather "Who am I to think I can undo the work of God?"

v. 10 And in the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again.

The Pharisees are silenced, but the disciples are stunned. This teaching was as radical to them as it is to our modern ears. They recognize that Jesus has just dismantled the entire cultural understanding of marriage and divorce. So, in private, away from the crowds, they press Him for more. This is a good sign. They are wrestling with His words, not dismissing them. They want to understand the implications of this high and difficult standard.

v. 11 And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her;

Jesus does not soften the blow. He states the matter plainly and without qualification in this context. To divorce a wife for any reason other than the one He provides elsewhere (sexual immorality, as noted in Matthew's account) and marry someone else is to commit adultery. The civil certificate does not change the spiritual reality. In God's eyes, the first marriage is still binding. Therefore, the second union is an adulterous one. Notice He says the man commits adultery "against her," his first wife. He has violated his one-flesh covenant with her. This is not a no-fault situation; it is a grievous sin against a specific person.

v. 12 and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”

And here, Jesus does something remarkable for the time. He applies the same standard to the woman. In that culture, a woman's ability to initiate divorce was limited, but not unheard of, particularly in Roman society. Jesus elevates the woman to a position of equal moral responsibility. The covenant is binding on both parties. If she illegitimately divorces her husband and remarries, she too is an adulteress. The one-flesh union is a symmetrical reality. The command of God is not a double standard. What God has joined, neither man nor woman may separate.

Application

The teaching of Jesus here is a hard word, but it is a good word. It is a call to see marriage not as a consumer product to be discarded when it no longer brings us happiness, but as a sacred covenant to be honored as a reflection of Christ's love for His Church. Our culture treats divorce as a regrettable but normal exit strategy. Jesus treats it as a violation of a divine institution.

First, we must repent of our low view of marriage. We have been shaped more by Hollywood than by Holy Scripture. We must ask God to give us His eyes for the beauty, permanence, and sanctity of the one-flesh union. This is the foundation.

Second, for those who are married, this is a call to radical faithfulness. Your marriage is not ultimately about you. It is about the glory of God. It is a picture of the gospel. Therefore, you are to fight for it, invest in it, and refuse to entertain the world's easy outs. When hardness of heart arises, and it will, the answer is not divorce, but repentance and grace.

Third, for the church, we must be a community that upholds this high standard while also ministering grace to the broken. We cannot bless what God condemns. We must teach the truth about divorce and remarriage. But we must also be a hospital for sinners. For those who have been sinned against through an unjust divorce, we must offer comfort and protection. For those who have sinned by divorcing illegitimately, we must offer the grace of the gospel, which is able to forgive and restore even the most broken lives. The standard is high, but the cross is sufficient.