Today’s flippant attitude toward marriage is nothing new. According to Edward Gibbons, the renowned historian, the divorce problem was one of five underlying causes contributing to the fall of the Roman Empire. Seneca spoke of Roman women as married to be divorced and divorced to be married. Many citizens of Rome were said to have marked the passage of time more by the names and number of their spouses than by months or years.
No wonder the Apostle Peter wrote of those of his day “having eyes full of adultery.” (2 Peter 2:14.)
Sadly, some things never seem to change.
But neither has divine truth changed: “And he answered and said unto them, have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matthew 19:4-6.)
Regardless what society may say, regardless what today’s media may attempt to mandate, we are not beasts, grunting and snorting our way through life at the mercy of nature’s baser instincts; we are God’s handiwork, created in God’s image, after God’s likeness. (Genesis 1:26.)
Mating partners come and go within the animal kingdom as desire and opportunity permit, but God has designed something more sublime and more permanent for people. Marriage is meant to last a lifetime.