ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE DAY
Until Death Do Us Part?
Romans 7:2-3
For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
A woman is concerned that her husband is cheating on her so she visits a fortune teller. Before she can express her fear, the fortune teller says: "Prepare yourself, this year your husband will die a violent and horrible death." The woman pauses for a moment, takes a few deep breaths, and then asks: "Will I be acquitted?"
All joking aside, some people read our passage today and insist that divorce and remarriage is not permitted under any circumstances -- except death. Before we agree with that line of thought, let's thoroughly look at both the context and background of Paul's comments. Under Mosaic Law, what would be the penalty for a man or woman who was unfaithful to their spouse in marriage? For example, if a man was caught cheating on his wife, what would happen to him? Answer: he would be stoned to death. Think about it -- if a woman's unfaithful husband was lying dead under a pile of stones, then clearly she would be free to marry another.
In our present society, we consider it barbaric to stone to death an unfaithful marriage partner -- therefore Paul is not giving us marriage, divorce, and remarriage instructions. He will do that elsewhere. Rather, Paul is saying: "If a woman's husband is dead, she is no longer his wife, and therefore she is free to marry again." He is using marriage to illustrate principles which we will look at more deeply over the next several days.
All joking aside, some people read our passage today and insist that divorce and remarriage is not permitted under any circumstances -- except death. Before we agree with that line of thought, let's thoroughly look at both the context and background of Paul's comments. Under Mosaic Law, what would be the penalty for a man or woman who was unfaithful to their spouse in marriage? For example, if a man was caught cheating on his wife, what would happen to him? Answer: he would be stoned to death. Think about it -- if a woman's unfaithful husband was lying dead under a pile of stones, then clearly she would be free to marry another.
In our present society, we consider it barbaric to stone to death an unfaithful marriage partner -- therefore Paul is not giving us marriage, divorce, and remarriage instructions. He will do that elsewhere. Rather, Paul is saying: "If a woman's husband is dead, she is no longer his wife, and therefore she is free to marry again." He is using marriage to illustrate principles which we will look at more deeply over the next several days.
In our day and age there is no doubt that even Christians take far too casually the marriage vow of: "Until death do us part." Think for a moment about your own attitude toward marriage -- has it been influenced more by Biblical or social values? If a friend came to you with a marriage in trouble, how would you respond? Do you know God's position on marriage?
Labels: blogging, careers, dating, dreams, faith, goals, health, hopes, jobs, life, life relationships, plans, poetry, relationships, religion, romance, sermons, travel, work, writing
posted by Unknown at 3:30 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home