And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’”

-Matthew 19:5, NLT

When my first marriage was falling apart, I remember someone bringing up the idea of “starter marriages.”

The idea is one where the first marriage is simply like your first house. You learn a lot from that first relationship that you take into your serious marriage, the second one.

What an incredibly pagan and ungodly idea!

God did not design marriage to be disposable like a house. It was intended to be a life-long relationship. This idea sounds like another way cheaters excuse their behavior.

I am, obviously, opposed to such worldly thinking.

Can God redeem a first marriage that ended via a cheater’s sins? Yes.

That does not make it a “starter marriage.” It makes it a marriage that ended by serious sin–namely, marital infidelity and/or abandonment (see Mt 19:9, I Cor 7:15).