The other night I was visiting with friend and it came up what I was preaching on the next day. I said, “I’m preaching on divorce tomorrow”. My whole intent was to see the reaction, which I received one! “Zoinks” was the response. I just laughed and responded that I was preaching through Matthew and this was just part of the journey.
It seems that oftentimes the subject of divorce comes with so much stigma. Whether it is in the religious circle or society itself. Granted, it isn’t something that people should be bragging about. But it has such a bad stigma that judgment usually follows the news of someone who did get or is getting a divorce.
Sunday, we looked at Matthew 5:31-32 as Jesus was addressing the disciples on the subject of divorce. Jesus builds his argument by referring to a black and white thought which had come from Deuteronomy 24:1-4 (click to read). In this text Moses visits the topic of writing a certificate of divorce and the woman who is impacted. Jesus then turns to a thought without the smooth edges to talk about how the Jewish mindset had abused Deuteronomy 24.
The Jews (who had two main schools of thought on this – Shammai, Hillel) had given just about any reason as an OK reason to write a certificate of divorce. Partly because of the hard hearts of the people at that time. Now, in Jesus’ day, they were still used to that way of thinking. Jesus was wanting them to understand that “any reason” was not a good reason. The “good” reason for getting a divorce was “unfaithfulness”. This didn’t address “unfaithfulness” as the only reason that was accepted, but Jesus wanted them to stop abusing women/wives by abusing the option of divorce. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week…
- Permanency of Marriage ~ Marriage is a unique relationship. It starts out by an incredible, heightened interest that is predominantly about attraction. Marriage is about openness, honesty, and trust. Once that relationship matures to the point of sharing your lives, then the test comes. It would be wrong to say that the “attraction” wears off or the smoke clears, but something happens to cause us to finally see the person for who they are. Sometimes we may not like that person very much. That is partly what makes marriage unique. If you are viewing your marriage as “not permanent”, refocus that line of thought to consider how you can return back to the way of thinking you used to have when you did view it as permanent.
- Who Did You Marry? ~ The person you married is going to be named various names, but that isn’t what the question is about. I am addressing that those who are Christians have a marriage-type relationship with Him. In Ephesians 5, Paul addresses how Jesus is “married” to His church (the bride). Jesus has done a lot for us, as a “husband”. He is not going to divorce us and we should not divorce Him!
- Stay Married ~ During marriage we go through our fair share of ups and downs. The downs may seem like it is impossible to keep going. However, I encourage you to do just that. KEEP GOING!!! ***A super, awesome, amazing marriage book is called Love and Respect, by Emerson Eggerichs
Marriage should never be broken up “just because”. It is a relationship that is expected to keep going and going and going, until “death do you part”. Jesus is trying to get them/us to understand that marriage should not be broken up “just because”.
Whether you are “married” in your relationship with Him and/or you are married to a spouse…stay that way!
As this is a “hot” topic, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at ichthus_man (at) hotmail.com
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