4. Divorce is Hateful to God ː Spouses Should Be Faithful ‘Till Death and Beyond

World Scripture

The lawful thing which God hates most is divorce.¹⁹
Hadith of Abu Dawud (Islam)

Some Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from 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 they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Matthew 19.3-9

The Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel.
Malachi 2.14-16

God has indeed heard (and accepted) the statement of the woman who pleads with you concerning her husband and carries her complaint to God; and God hears the arguments between both sides among you. Surely God is Hearing, Seeing. If any men among you divorce their wives by zihar, calling them their mothers, they are not their mothers; none can be their mothers except those who gave them birth. They utter words iniquitous and false.²⁰
Qur’an 58.1-2

The husband receives his wife from the gods; he does not wed her according to his own will; doing what is agreeable to the gods, he must always support her while she is faithful. “Let mutual fidelity continue until death”; this may be considered as a summary of the highest law for husband and wife.²¹
Laws of Manu 9.95, 9.101 (Hinduism)

It floats about, that boat of cypress wood,
There in the middle of the Ho.
With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead,
He was my mate;
And I swear that till death I will have no other.
O mother, O Heaven,
Why will you not understand me?
It floats about, that boat of cypress wood,
There by the side of the Ho.
With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead,
He was my only one;
And I swear that till death I will not do the evil thing.
O mother, O Heaven,
Why will you not understand me?²²
Book of Songs, Ode 45 (Confucianism)

A virtuous wife who, after the death of her husband, constantly remains chaste even though she have no son, will reach heaven just as do men living a life of renunciation.
Laws of Manu 5.160 (Hinduism)

They continue by legislation to attack the indissolubility of the marriage bond, proclaiming that the lawfulness of divorce must be recognized, and that the antiquated laws should give place to a new and more humane legislation. Many and varied are the grounds put forward for divorce, some arising from the wickedness and the guilt of the persons concerned, others arising from the circumstances of the case… in a word, whatever might make married life hard or unpleasant… Opposed to all these reckless opinions stands the unalterable law of God, fully confirmed by Christ, a law that can never be deprived of its force by the decrees of men, the ideas of a people or the will of any legislator: “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubi (Christianity)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

When man and woman became husband and wife, their relationship should be eternal. If the beginning was good, the end also should be good. It should remain constant. If you were happy in the beginning, you should be happy at the end.
(86:109, March 14, 1976)

Children who grow up in a loving home become anxious and distressed if hear that their parents want to divorce. Good children will claim, “I am your child, the union of both of you. You should make any kind of compromise for me. Please be the great parents I know you are. I need you.” We should teach young people that this claim is just: their parents have no right to divorce due to their parental responsibility for their children. Because of their love for their children, parents do not have any right to even contemplate divorce. Young people in this country should assert their rights and launch an anti-divorce movement.
(October 23, 1977)²³

Young people: do not think that if you do not like their spouse you can choose to divorce her. The universe is not made that way. If you value yourself, you should value love just as much. Therefore once you are bound together as husband and wife, you have to maintain that relationship for eternity. All human beings are destined to walk this path. That is where the value of a human being lies.
(117:292, April 11, 1982)

God is the absolute being. God is one, not two. Adam and Eve had the characteristics of God, so they were also absolute beings. Adam was created with God’s male characteristics, and Eve was created with God’s female characteristics—these characteristics are absolute.

The love that can unite the inner [male] and outer [female] characteristics is absolute love; even God obeys it absolutely.

Therefore love regards each husband and wife as the one and only couple in the universe. They are absolute, eternal and unchanging. Yet because couples do not understand this principle, they divorce. As long as you maintain your foundation in this principle, you can never divorce.
(226:171, February 4, 1992)

Why do a husband and wife fight? They fight because they each want to receive love. Couples who only want to receive love will not last. A family whose members only want to receive love will fall apart. But a family whose members are determined to give love to each other will not break down. It will survive, even if others wish it ill. Love that prompts us to live for each other is eternal love.
(36:76, November 15, 1970)

If a wife is boastful and despises her husband, she puts herself in hell. What is hell? It is the universe’s trash can [for people who lack love]. However, even if a wife is on the verge of plunging into the deepest hell, if she has a righteous husband who holds on to her hand, saying, “I will stay with you, no matter what,” then she will not go to hell. The same is true when a wife does that for her husband. This is the gospel of all gospels.
(161:324, March 8, 1987)

When a bride-to-be or husband-to-be is asked, “How long will you love your spouse?” If he or she answers, “As long as my spouse is young,” would their partner be happy with that? Rather, the answer should be, “I will love my spouse until death, and further, for eternity.”

Eternity encompasses the future and beyond. When you say that you will love your spouse until your death, it means that you will love and give everything you have to him. Am I right? The term, “eternity” covers all, and “until death” means to love everything about your spouse. We can be satisfied with nothing less.
(37:24, December 22, 1970)