There is no such thing as a “no fault” divorce. From Genesis to Revelation, the Word of God is very clear that divorce is displeasing to God. In fact, according to Matthew 19:8, Jesus taught regarding divorce that “from the beginning it was not so.”

The idea of no-fault divorce arose in Europe in the late 18th century. A 1757 edict in Prussia allowed a marriage to be dissolved without proving the guilt of either spouse. The idea of neither party being at fault in the severing of a marriage slowly took root in other European countries over the next century.

Today, most European nations do not require any fault at all in order to obtain a divorce. The Russians allowed no-fault divorce following the October Revolution in 1917. Spain openly flaunted its defiance of the Lord Jesus and His words about divorce “for every cause” when they called their law divorcio incausado or “divorce without a cause.” Canada passed the Divorce Act in 1968, permitting divorce on wide grounds without assigning fault.

The United States resisted no-fault divorce for many years. Strong Biblical roots and a cultural commitment to marriage and family brought much opposition to the idea that a marriage could be dissolved without the proving of adultery or a felony.

One by one, states began passing no-fault divorce laws. California was the first state to allow it in 1970. Other states followed. For many years, it was so easy to obtain a divorce in Nevada that couples seeking a no-fault divorce could simply move to the state for six weeks, obtain residency, get divorced, and then return home. The city of Reno, Nevada, shamelessly flaunted itself as the “divorce capital of the world.”

This ease of obtaining a divorce caused divorce rates to skyrocket nationwide. A study published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy found the divorce rate rose sixfold in just two years!

By contrast to today’s easily obtainable divorce, there was a time in this country when it was very difficult to obtain a divorce ruling. In Alabama, for example, a couple seeking a divorce in the early 1800s needed not only a ruling by the court of chancery but also the consent of two-thirds of both houses of the state legislature!

Today, there is a growing movement in the United States to return to some sort of check upon the rampant divorce rates caused by no-fault divorce. The conservative state of Oklahoma passed a bill in 2024 that modifies the grounds for divorce. Statesmen such as Vice President J. D. Vance and current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also have publicly advocated that access to an easy, no-fault divorce needs to be restricted.

Our Lord Jesus clearly set limits upon divorce in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery” (Matthew 5:31–32).

A good deal of controversy exists today, even among conservative Christians, over what exactly is meant by the “exception clause” expressed by our Lord with His words “saving for the cause of fornication.” By God’s grace, we will consider that question in the coming weeks. But no matter how we handle that difficult phrase, it is very clear from the words of Jesus that no-fault divorce has no legitimate place in a society that honors God’s Word.