The Exception Clause and the Words of Jesus We Try to Escape
The Covenant Marriage Christ Gave, Not the Loophole We Search For
The modern church treats the so called exception clause as a doorway out of covenant. The assumption is that if adultery occurs, Scripture grants permission for divorce and remarriage. This belief is so entrenched that any challenge to it sounds foreign and unwelcome. Yet Jesus never granted such permission. The controversy exists because many are committed to finding a loophole, not to hearing the Word of God.
When Jesus addressed divorce in Matthew 19, He made clear that covenant vows are not negotiable. He upheld the permanence of marriage. He dismantled the Pharisees’ excuses. He restored creation order. The exception clause does not create a justified pathway out of marriage. Christ is simply identifying unions that carry no covenant standing before God and therefore cannot be preserved.
This article examines what Jesus said, why He said it, and why the modern church prefers to avoid His meaning.
The Beginning of the Argument: Jesus Returns to Creation
Before Jesus ever mentions porneia, He grounds marriage in Genesis. The Pharisees want a legal discussion. Jesus gives them a creational one. He begins where God begins.
“And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created 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 flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’”
Matthew 19:4-6
Jesus does not answer by appealing first to Moses but to the Creator Himself. He sets aside their procedural categories and confronts the reality of the covenant God ordains. God joins a man and a woman in a one flesh union. No human authority has the right to dissolve what God joins.
The Pharisees ask why Moses allowed divorce. Jesus answers that Moses permitted separation only because of their hardness of heart, not because God ever approved of dissolving what He created. Jesus directs them back to creation because that has always been the true standard, not the allowances given through Moses.
The Meaning of Porneia: Unlawful Unions, Not Adultery
When Jesus finally mentions an exception, He does not use the word moicheia. He uses the word porneia.
Porneia and moicheia are not interchangeable. The Holy Spirit inspired the distinction. Scripture uses moicheia to mean adultery. Porneia covers sexual sin that violates God’s creation order, including unions God never recognized as lawful.
This is the category revealed in Leviticus 18. Certain relationships are forbidden because they violate the creational boundaries God Himself set. These unions were never lawful marriages. They had to be ended because they never possessed covenant legitimacy.
Deuteronomy 22 gives a particular example. A man discovers on the wedding night that the woman he married had concealed a previous sexual relationship. The supposed marriage is exposed as illegitimate. This specific case sits within the larger Levitical category of unlawful unions.
Jesus is not granting divorce for adultery. He is identifying the reality that some unions were never joined by God and therefore must be ended by obedience. That is why He chooses porneia and not moicheia. He is not describing covenant violation. He is describing a relationship that was never a covenant.
Why Adultery Never Dissolved a Covenant
Scripture is always consistent in treating adultery as a grave sin. It violates covenant and wounds households. It is never presented as grounds for dissolving marriage. The prophets use adultery as a metaphor for Israel’s idolatry. God does not divorce His people. He disciplines, restores, forgives, and redeems. Covenant remains covenant even through grievous sin.
If Jesus intended to permit divorce for adultery, He would have said so. Jesus intentionally distinguishes porneia from adultery, directing the reader to the category of unions that violate creation order rather than to marital infidelity.
Why the Disciples Responded with Shock
After Jesus rejects the Pharisees’ reasoning and asserts that marriage is permanent, except in cases where the union was never lawful, the disciples react strongly.
“If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”
Matthew 19:10
Their shock is evidence of what Jesus had just taught. They understand that Jesus has closed the door on divorce. He has removed every excuse. He has affirmed that marriage binds for life. The only exception relates to unlawful unions that God never joined. A man cannot dissolve what God has created.
The disciples see the weight of this and respond honestly. If the union cannot be dissolved, the only path available is lifelong faithfulness. Jesus affirms that they understood Him correctly.
Paul’s Witness in 1 Corinthians 7
Paul never contradicts Jesus. He applies the same creation order and the same covenant permanence. He writes:
“But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and the husband should not divorce his wife.”
1 Corinthians 7:10-11
Paul assumes that marriage is permanent. He gives no allowance for remarriage. His instruction is simple. Remain unmarried or reconcile. This matches Jesus perfectly.
Later, when addressing abandonment by an unbelieving spouse, Paul does not grant permission to remarry. He acknowledges that separation may occur because sin is real. Yet he never grants covenant dissolution. The believer is never freed to enter another marriage.
Paul’s teaching only makes sense if Jesus did not permit remarriage and did not treat adultery as grounds for dissolving covenant.
Deuteronomy 22 and the Torah Categories Jesus Assumes
When Jesus speaks of porneia, He draws on the categories that Israel knew well. Deuteronomy 22 describes a situation in which a supposed marriage is exposed as fraudulent. The union must be ended because it was never a marriage in the first place.
This case sits within the wider Leviticus 18 framework. Both identify unions that violate creation order and therefore cannot be maintained.
Jesus assumes these categories. The Pharisees know them. The disciples know them. The early church fathers know them. That is why the early church unanimously rejected remarriage after divorce. They understood that Jesus did not alter the permanence of marriage. He clarified the difference between adultery within a real covenant and the exposure of a union that God never recognized.
The Modern Desire for Loopholes
The modern appeal to the exception clause does not come from careful exegesis but from the urge to defend divorce. It reflects a heart that seeks release from covenant rather than obedience to Christ.
People want a loophole because they do not want to repent. They want their decisions affirmed. They want freedom without responsibility. They want covenant without cost.
Jesus offers no such permission, because He requires inward fidelity that cannot coexist with self fashioned loopholes. He confronts the human instinct to escape duty. He exposes the desire to break what God has joined.
The Desire That Drives Misinterpretation
For most people, the discussion of the exception clause has nothing to do with devotion to God. It has everything to do with the human heart. The argument is driven by feelings, not Scripture. The aim is self justification, not obedience.
Jesus’ teaching remains clear. Marriage is permanent. Adultery does not dissolve covenant. Remarriage after divorce is adultery. The only unions that must be ended are those God never joined.
If this unsettles the reader, it is because Jesus’ words still carry weight. They cut through the excuses and force the question. Will you obey Christ, or will you cling to a loophole that He did not grant?
The Covenant Demand
The words of Christ do not leave room for the modern debate. He restored marriage to the permanence God declared in the beginning. He removed the excuses that hardened hearts had invented. He confronted the search for loopholes and called His people to covenant fidelity.
Many appeal to the exception clause because they hope it will justify what God has forbidden. Jesus does not ease God’s standard but makes its full force unmistakable. And even if someone insisted on a different reading of His words, it would not grant what they desire. Scripture only permits remarriage when death has ended the covenant bond. No other release exists.
The call of Christ is clear. Repent of attempts to escape His Word. Submit your heart to what He has spoken. Receive the mercy that restores sinners and the strength that upholds those who fear Him. Marriage is a covenant established by God Himself, and no man can dissolve what He has joined.
Stand before the Lord with a whole heart. Yield every desire to His command. Walk in the obedience that accords with His truth.