Chastity before marriage, fidelity after marriage, and a lifelong commitment of one married partner to the other with no thought of divorce! What a high standard that is! No wonder the disciples reacted with the cynical comment: “If such is the case of a man and his wife, it is better not to marry” (Mt.19.10). We hear something very much like that today, especially from people who often say, “I have never known a happily married couple; therefore, I am not going to get married.”
Category: Heads Up (Page 5 of 36)
Articles written by Pastor Steve for the White Mountain Independent newspaper
The Pharisees seemed to anticipate Jesus’ answer to their question about divorce (Matthew 9.3,7). They were ready with a follow-up question. “Why then, did Moses command one to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” They were talking about Deuteronomy 24.1–4, of course, and they were suggesting that Jesus must be wrong in His interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2, since later in the law, in Deuteronomy, Moses “commanded” divorce.
Jesus went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea. Large crowds followed Him. The Pharisees asked, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast 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 not man separate.”
In conclusion to Peter’s question, “Lord, how often should I forgive?” Jesus said: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18.35). It seems to imply a “works” salvation – if you forgive others (a work), you will be forgiven.
When Jesus told Peter, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Mt.18.22), He did not mean that we do not need to forgive the seventy-eighth time, of course. It was a way of saying that we should never stop forgiving. Then Jesus told this story:
The way we develop character and master godly conduct is one step at a time, and the disciples were learning it – not very fast perhaps but surely. They had asked about being great in Christ’s kingdom and had been taught that greatness begins with humility, like that of a child. They had been taught to avoid sin and were warned about causing another person to sin, especially a new or weak believer. But what if the other person sins against you? The answer to that question was Jesus’ next important lesson.