Too many marriages today are entered with one eye on the back door.

Too many marriages today are entered with one eye on the back door. “I know we said ‘til death do us part’ but there are exceptions.” Consider God’s view of marriage as your standard. “For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away:” (Mal. 2:16) Jesus said, “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matt. 19:6) In simple words, He was saying two married people are put together by God and man cannot separate them without consequences.
In speaking on this years ago, I brought out a piece of ¾ inch plywood. I had taken a chisel, placed it carefully at one of the glue seams, and split the wood in half. But, try as I might, I couldn’t separate the plies as they were before gluing. Both sides were damaged. So is a broken marriage.
One problem is that couples think of their marriage as a civil contract instead of a covenant. There is a difference. A contract a conditional agreement between two individuals. If one breaks his part of the bargain, then the contract is severed. A covenant, on the other hand, is a vow to God relating to another person. God calls marriage a covenant. (Mal 2:14) Solomon warns us not to enter into a covenantal vow lightly. Listen: “. . .Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God. . . therefore let thy words be few. . . When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?” (Ecc. 7:1-7) Read the entire passage thinking of the vow you made or will make in marriage.
If you recited the traditional marriage vows, the official said something like this: “Do you (groom) take (bride) to be your wife – to live together after God’s ordinance – in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?” The wife’s vow is similar except that she also promised to “love, cherish, and obey.”
Instead of devising ways to get out of an unhappy marriage, God wants us to take our vows seriously and concentrate that energy on making it all He designed it to be.