DeaconDean
γέγονα χαλκὸς, κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον
- Jul 19, 2005
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In every instance in the gospels where Jesus introduces His teaching with the words, I say to you, He is introducing a teaching that goes beyond or modifies the teaching of the Old Testament, giving us a more strict teaching. We find over fifty examples in the Gospel According to Matthew alone. Here are some examples from the Beatitudes:
Matt. 5:22. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, You good-for-nothing, shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, You fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
26. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.
27. You have heard that it was said, YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY
28. but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
29. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
30. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
31. It was said, WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE;
32. but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33. Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.
34. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
38. You have heard that it was said, AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.
39. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
40. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
41. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
42. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
43. You have heard that it was said, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.
44. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Christians have been blessed with the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, and consequently God demands much more of us than he did of the Jews.
Matt. 19:8. He *said to them, Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
Ezek. 36:26. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh
After the fall of man in the garden, God, because of the hardness of the heart of man, permitted divorce and remarriage and even polygamy. But for the Christian, with a new heart and a new spirit, God has reinstituted His teaching that,
Gen. 2:23. The man said, This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.
24. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Matt. 19:4. And He answered and said, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,
5. 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?
6. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.
(All quotation of Scripture are from the NASB, 1995)
All that still does not negate the fact that if a woman commits adultry, then according to Jesus (Mt. 5:31-32) and according to Deut. 24:1-4) a divorce is the exception to the rule.
- The Old Testament (OT) regulation of divorce. Scripture: Deut.24:1-4.
- The potential events in a marital relationship are: marriage, divorce, and remarriage.
- This passage shows what God allowed, regulated, and prohibited in OT times.
- In vss.1-3 we have a protasis: a five-fold IF situation, followed by the apodosis statement of resultant action in vs.4.
- In other words, IF the things of vs.1-3 happen, THEN the principle of vs.4 must be applied.
- The five-fold IF.
- Marriage: when a man marries a woman, from the divine viewpoint he is assuming the responsibility of headship, authority, and leadership in her life; he is not to be a bully.
- Sexual Indecency: she proved to be sexually undesirable because of "some indecency"; not including adultery, since death was the prescribed punishment.
- Divorce: his unwillingness to forgive has driven him to secure this document, acceptable in the courts of Israel, formalizing the termination of the marriage. In practice, the legal document had its positive points: first, it protected her from a charge of adultery if she remarried; secondly, the necessity of obtaining the legal document before the divorce was final served to preclude hasty and rash divorces. God Himself is pictured as having given the Northern Kingdom a certificate of divorce when He sent them into exile, Jer.3:8; Isa.50:1. Under the law, divorce was permitted because of hardness of heart.
- Remarriage: in vs.2 she leaves and remarries, indicating the first marriage is terminated. According to Mt.19:7-9 and Mk.10:4,5, divorce was only a part of God's permissive will, because of the hardness of man's heart, to avoid the continuation of unbearable and unnecessary suffering.
- Divorce #2: in vs.3, if the woman is divorced by husband #2, she is not free to remarry husband #1.
- The apodosis forbids remarriage under any circumstances to the first husband, vs.4. She is unclean in respect to her first husband, so that she is forever off limits to him. The second marriage terminated the first in God's eyes. Bringing "sin on the land" is the multiplication of the sins of a nation until the fifth cycle of discipline is administered.
- Once someone has gone as far as divorce and remarriage there is to be no looking back. No regrets, past bridges are to be burned.
- To remarry the former mate is a thing of disgust in God's eyes.
- Such a sin brings cursing to the nation.
- A woman was free to marry a third husband.
- Conclusions.
- Divorce is neither mandatory nor encouraged, even for sexual indecency.
- The Old Testament does not institute divorce, but rather tolerates and regulates it to protect against greater wrong.
- No one has a right, independent of Biblical reasons, to divorce his or her partner.
- Divorce should never be considered an option until every attempt at reconciliation has failed.
- The relatively liberal permission of divorce under the Mosaic Law was simply a stopgap measure. Christ nullified this measure.
- Christ's first teaching on divorce.
- Scripture: Mt.5:31,32.
- Jesus, fully aware of the stopgap measure, teaches the original intent of God's design for marriage, cp. Mt.5:17. Usually the man initiates the divorce, but Mk.10:12 envisages a wife taking the initiative, as in 1Cor.7:11 with regard to separation.
- Jesus clarifies exactly when one has grounds for a divorce. The emphasis is to maintain the marriage, even if one partner is unfaithful. This is NOT a command to go out and get a divorce, but rather the only basis for a legitimate divorce.
- The words "except for immorality" define the only bona fide basis for divorce in God's eyes.
- But divorce is still not commanded; the couple should forgive and try to keep the marriage together, even if sexual unfaithfulness is involved.
- Christ presents legal divorce as the exception, not the norm.
- Christ teaches that anyone who gets a divorce and remarries under any other circumstances commits adultery.
- Marriages arising from non-biblical divorces are to be regarded as legitimate, even though an act of adultery was committed initially.
- Christ's second teaching on divorce.
- Scripture: Mt.19:1-12.
- The background to His teaching is vs.1-3. They hope to put Jesus on the spot, knowing His position and knowing the popular viewpoint. They hope to discredit Him before the people. These Pharisees (school of Hillel) held to a liberal interpretation of Deut.24:1-4, which emphasized the "out" of marriage.
- Christ's response to the question emphasizes the permanence of the marriage union, vs.4-6; vs.5 "leave behind":
- It refers to dying. Application: when two people marry, they die to parental authority; they are no longer obligated by the plan of God to be obedient to parents.
- The word is used of going away to a far country. The couple is to physically separate from their parents and establish their own independent home.
- The word is used for "forsaking and abandoning" something. The application is that the new couple abandons all previous family goals and ambitions and takes on new goals.
- The word is used of leaving one in a certain state of affairs; that is, when two people leave home to marry, their parents are still their parents and are to be respected. Obedience has ceased, but honor remains.
- The Pharisees' response indicates confusion between the permissive and directive will of God, vs.7. After Jesus had taken their thinking back to the main issue of God's design for marriage (i.e. permanence being God's directive will), the same question crossed their minds and they blurted out this second question in unison. Since they were leaning so heavily on a super liberal interpretation of Deut.24, they were all on the same mental wavelength.
- Because the Jews were negative to doctrine, it meant that they were inevitably negative to right man/right woman. Therefore, they rejected doctrine through their volition, thus developing scar tissue on the soul. This caused rejection of the Lord's directive will. In the face of such insubordination and negative volition to the plan of God, and because of the suffering, heartache, and even greater abuse to the plan of God, Moses permitted it. Christ corrects them, cp. vs.7. Immorality gives a bona fide legal basis for divorce in Gods eyes, but is not commanded. When a mate divorces for a non-biblical reason and remarries, that individual has committed adultery and the other is free to remarry without sin.
- The disciples' response to Christ's teaching, vs.10.
- The disciples make an unbiblical statement which contradicts Gen.2:18 "The Lord said, 'It is not good for a man to be alone.'"
- Their thinking is fuzzy and they do not immediately adjust to the Lords doctrine.
- So they make a false conclusion that celibacy should be the norm if a man cannot get an easy divorce.
- They say "it is better not to marry" if adultery is the only loophole.
- The Lord points out that they do not understand what they have said.
- Christ's teaching on the disciples' response, vs.11,12.
- The disciples' statement had limited application, since very few do not marry.
- "Can accept" means to make room for someone as a guest, and here refers to accepting celibacy into one's thinking.
- Single status is not the norm but the exception. (Idiots make the exception the norm.)
- The disciple's seek to make the exception the norm as the Pharisees did with the stopgap provision.
- For those who accept the exception, God has some very special blessings.
- Jesus says "not so fast" with your conclusions, since every man does not have the capacity to live happily single.
- Vs.12 lists those to whom it has been given.
Plain and simple.
God Bless
Till all are one.
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