“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 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.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?’ He said to them, ‘Because of 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 sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.’” (Matthew 19:3-9 ESV)
Laying the Trap
Have you ever noticed before that some people who are guilty of living in deliberate and habitual sin, but who profess faith in God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit – will use trickery as a means to try to justify their own unlawful actions? And this trickery may be aimed at those who are telling the truth which they don’t want to hear. For they figure if they can get the truth teller in a trap, they can justify their own sinful choices.
The Pharisees, who appeared righteous on the outside, but inwardly were filled up with all sorts of evil, were continuously after Jesus Christ to try to find a way to trip him up with his words in order to accuse him of wrongdoing, and probably also as a way to justify or to coverup their own evil deeds. But Jesus was too wise for them and he always knew when they were trying to lay a trap for him, and so he would answer accordingly.
And he sets the example for us in being wise and discerning to see when other people are trying to lay traps for us to fall into so that they will have cause, they believe, to accuse us of wrong but also to justify their own evil deeds. The phrase describing this maneuver is they will try to “bait you” into a discussion where they feel that they can gain the upper ground. And so if we are wise we will recognize this maneuver and we won’t be trapped.
The Topic
The topic of discussion that the Pharisees wanted Jesus to engage in with them was that of marriage and divorce. Now, these were men who were grounded in the Scriptures, so they knew and taught the Scriptures. But they didn’t know Jesus, in reality, and so they thought they could test him, not knowing that he was the author of the Scriptures. But since he knew them well, they were not able to trap him as they had hoped.
Now, whether or not it was their intention just to try to trap Jesus with his words or whether they had other motivations such as wanting to divorce their wives, I don’t believe this tells us. But God does not approve of divorce except in the case of divorcing a marital partner because of adultery. That God permits. Now the Scriptures do not teach that we must divorce in the case of adultery, but that we are free to divorce under those circumstances.
But God’s design for marriage was that when the man and the woman unite in marriage that they should become one flesh, and that they should remain as such. The man was to leave his parents and now cleave (like glue) to his wife. And so the husband and wife are to treat one another as though they are one body, and there should be a mutual love, honor, and respect between them as two who have become one, to stay united forever.
Sadly, not too many people approach marriage that way, or even if they did in the beginning, it doesn’t last long before one or the other or both untie the knot that bound them together as man and wife and they wander off in other directions and soon the marriage begins to fall apart. And so some people will claim that they just “fell out of love” with the other, which would mean that the love they had was based in the flesh and so it didn’t last.
And so there is a very high divorce rate, even among “Christian” couples and their marriages, because one or both decided that they didn’t love the other enough to stay, and so one or both of them decided to leave, perhaps because that person already had someone else or just wanted to be single again. But as Christians we should try to work through our difficulties and work together to grow together in Christ. Sadly, that doesn’t always work.
For it takes two people to make a marriage work, and if one is not willing to try to make it work, then it will fail. But many, because of their hardness of hearts and their fleshly desires to do what they want to do despite how it injures spouse and children, will choose divorce. And some end up in a divorce because of the choice of their marital partner and not by their own choosing. But divorce is not to be the “go to” when things get bad.
For we are to love even our enemies. And no matter how badly we are treated by others we are to forgive those who do evil against us, and we are to pray for them and do good to them and speak truth to them for their good, in love. So, if your marriage is not going well, pray to the Lord to show you what you can do to make things better. And pray for your spouse, and show love to him/her, and let the Lord lead you in what to do.
Teach Them
An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
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