|
Mat 19:3-9 (And Pharisees
came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to
divorce one's wife for any cause?" He answered, "Have you not
read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and
female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined 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 put asunder."
They
said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a
certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" He said to them,
"For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your
wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you:
whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries
another, commits adultery." )
Jesus is answering the Pharisees. Jesus answer serves two
purposes
-
By quoting Old Testament scripture, he is reaffirming its
validity. Time does not change the meaning or intent of
what is written in the Bible.
-
Jesus
restates God original plan. God intended for there to be
relationships between one man and one woman.
Heb 13:4 (Let marriage be
held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled;
for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. )
God's way is always the right way. God's purpose was for a man
to marry a woman and remain faithful to her for a lifetime. By
calling out fornication and adultery as sin (1
Cor 6:9-10) it is clear that His intent is that even
before marriage as well as during marriage that men and women
are to remain faithful to each other.
-
For singles this means to remain sexually pure while you
wait to marry.
-
For those
who are married, this means to remain faithful to the one
you are married to.
Jer 31:3 (the LORD
appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting
love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.)
We are to follow God's example to us. To love with an
everlasting love. A love that is only possible when we have the
Love of God in us.
1 Cor 13: 4-8 (Love is
patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not
arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not
irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but
rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends;
as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they
will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. )
Love is not a feeling and it is not passion (although love
stimulates this in us.) As this verse states Love is selfless
putting others before yourself. Love takes commitment and
conscious effort.
Mal 2:15 (Has not the one
God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does
he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let
none be faithless to the wife of his youth. )
God is always faithful to us! He in turn expects (and commands)
us to be faithful to Him and to each other.
Selfishness and self-interest are not outside ideas that
humanity has adopted. These are natural and normal attributes
of everyone. If it were not so, then how many live out God's
definition of love as stated in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8? Do the
attributes of love come naturally to anyone? Only Jesus fully
and completely lived out a life of love toward others.
Today more than any other time the worldly attitude toward love
has been completely perverted.
Love for most people to ultimately is a word used for
self-gratification and self-interest.
So selfishness and self-interest are natural and Love in
unnatural. God is calling us to reject the natural (selfishness
and self-interest) and embrace the unnatural (love).
Psalm 119:106 (I have
sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe thy righteous
ordinances. )
We are to keep God's laws.
You do this by committing yourself to God's way.
By reading the Bible to learn about God and how He desires us to
live.
1 Peter 2:11 (Beloved, I
beseech you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of
the flesh that wage war against your soul.)
To live according to God's desires, we most reject the world's
definition of love and embrace God's definition of Love.
The passions of the flesh are more than sexual, they also are
self-love, selfishness and self-interest. These passions are
not just physical, they affect us down to our soul.
1 John 3:3 (And every one
who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. )
Titus 2:11-14 (For the
grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men,
training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to
live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting
our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God
and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us
from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own
who are zealous for good deeds. )
Only God can save us and Jesus is the only way to God.
God will give us the ability to follow Him and to obey Him.
1 Thes 4:3-5 (For this is
the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from
unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for
himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like
heathen who do not know God;)
1 Thes 5:23 (May the God
of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and
soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ.)
1 Cor 6:18-20 (Shun
immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the
body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within
you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were
bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. )
You are made for God (not for yourself).
God is not keeping sex
from you, He is keeping sex
for you.
|
