Most of modern Christianity has maligned the Word and character of God through their lies against His Word.
One of the most devastating lies that has ruined families is the notion that marriage can be dissolved by man. It has left America in a mess with children being tossed from home to home without a sense of safety. The children do not have two homes, in their minds they have no home at all. They don't know where their home is and they are confused about who their parents are.
Children often hate the new spouse who is not their birth parent. They refuse to identify with them as an authority. Many children from divorce and remarriage are angry, depressed and violent. There are more problems in the homes of divorced and remarried people than there are in two-parent homes with bio parents.
Sadly the Christian church has taught for years that there is an exception clause. Also, many have been taught second marriages after divorce are legitimate marriages. When God makes two people one in marriage no one can undo that spiritual glue that binds two people into one. When people divorce by the law of the land they are defying God but remaining one with that first spouse. Second marriages after divorce are adultery.
Luke 16:18 "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." Every time we attend a second marriage after a divorce they are endorsing adultery.
The "exception clause" is not an exception at all. In Matthew God was speaking to the Jews who had a custom of divorcing from the engagement, called "betrothal." If someone in the Jewish community who was engaged was found to be unfaithful the innocent fiance could divorce from the betrothal to marry someone else. This has nothing to do with marriage.
In the other gospels, there is no exception clause because those were written to Gentiles who had no such custom of divorcing from engagements. Most marriages that divorce today are not because of adultery. However, if it were an exception then even so much as lusting in your heart after another person would be grounds for divorce since Christ said it is the same as committing adultery if you so much as lust after someone other than your spouse.
The betrothal of the Jews was nearly as binding as marriage except in the case of adultery or if the woman chose not to marry the man. Parents arranged for marriages in this culture but the woman still had the option of choosing not to marry the man her parents chose for her. Just as God never forces anyone, neither does God.
Marriage is a picture between Christ and His Church. Once we have been born again we cannot undo that union with Christ. God did not lie when He said; "if you divorce and remarry you are committing adultery. That second marriage is never legitimate, it remains adultery.
This is also why God said; "if you divorce you are to remain single or be reconciled. There is such a thing as "legal separation" in which the law allows a husband and wife to live separately but all the finances are divided for the sake of the wife to have a way to live, but there is no provision for remarriage.
When there has been ongoing unrepentant unfaithfulness or when there is abuse, then these are grounds for permanent separation, of course with the possibility in the future of reconciliation if the offending party repents authentically.
Marriage is very serious and attempting to end what God did is also very serious. It cannot be done but pretending it can is defying God.
