bwe - Matthew:19:1-12

bwe@Matthew:19:1 @ When Jesus had finished this talk, he left Galilee. He went away to the part of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan River.

bwe@Matthew:19:2 @ Many people followed him. He healed them there.

bwe@Matthew:19:3 @ The Pharisees came to Jesus to test him. They asked, Is it right for a man to send his wife away from him for any reason?

bwe@Matthew:19:4 @ Jesus answered, Have you not read this? From the time God first made people, he made them a man and a woman.

bwe@Matthew:19:5 @ God said, "A man must leave his father and mother and must stay with his wife. The two of them will be like one person."

bwe@Matthew:19:6 @ So they are not two people any more, but they are one person. Man must not separate what God has joined together.

bwe@Matthew:19:7 @ They said to Jesus, Then why did Moses make this law? He said that a man may give his wife a paper to show that he does not want her any more. Then he may send her away.

bwe@Matthew:19:8 @ Jesus said to them, Moses wrote that law because your hearts are so hard. That is why he let you send your wives away. But in the beginning it was not that way.

bwe@Matthew:19:9 @ But I tell you this. No man may send his wife away unless she has committed adultery. If he does, and if he marries another woman, he commits adultery. And if a man marries a woman who has been sent away by her husband, he commits adultery.

bwe@Matthew:19:10 @ The disciples said to him, If a man and woman are like that, then it is better not to marry.

bwe@Matthew:19:11 @ Jesus said, Not everyone can agree to that. But God has chosen some not to be married.

bwe@Matthew:19:12 @ Some men cannot marry because they were born that way. Some were made that way by men. Others said, "I will not marry, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." Anyone who can do this, should do it.