This is series of
articles designed to help professing Christians to turn from their wicked ways
and get back to following New Testament ethics.
Compromise is increasing in the church.
Popular opinion among churchgoers is often in stark contrast to the very
words of Jesus on many issues.
Christians need to know the word of God and get back to using it as a
reference book when they are faced with important decisions.
14 Yet ye say, Wherefore?
Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth,
against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion,
and the wife of thy covenant. 15 And did not he make one?
Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a
godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth. 16 For the LORD, the God of
Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD
of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Malachi 2:14-16 (KJV)(to put away = to divorce)
Wherefore they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder.
Matthew 19:6 (KJV)
There are a lot of reasons why things keep getting worse and
worse. We talk a lot about the abortion,
socialism, and homosexuality on this blog.
These are all important issues, but we don’t write many articles about
divorce on this blog, despite the fact that it is one of the main reasons why
things have gotten so bad. Don’t get me
wrong, I know that homosexuality is a grievous sin, but it seems like
Christians are overemphasizing the idea that marriage is being ruined by those
who would “legalize” gay marriage.
Marriage is an institution that is crumbling in this country, but if you
got a divorce, most likely it was not caused by homosexuality. It is much more likely that it was your own
damn fault. When marriages fall apart,
families fall apart. When families fall
apart, nations fall apart.
I heard Dave Ramsey say on his show that money is the number
one reason for divorces. That is a dumb
reason to get divorced. If you can’t
agree on how your money should be spent, then you should compromise and give
the money to a good Christian charity instead.
Problem solved. People should
learn to the secret of being content in the good times and bad. (Philippians 4:11) That is why we say “for better or for worse,
for richer or for poorer, etc.” If the
preacher says these things and “until death due you part” or anything like this
and if you say “I do”, but you don’t really believe it, then you are a liar.
The government encourages divorce in many ways. With all the high taxes it is harder to make
a living without both spouses working.
But with the mother working, the raising of the children suffers. The government offers us a free babysitting
service which we call public schools to make us not so angry about that. The states get tax breaks from the federal government
for how much child support they collect.
This gives the states incentive to cause more divorces or to do nothing
to prevent them.
Our first scripture passage above mentions violence and the
implication is that this is talking about the violence of a man against his
wife. This is a big reason for
divorce. And alcoholism is a big reason
for physical abuse. I would consider
this to be one of the few legitimate reasons for divorce. Under the law of the Moses, if a master
inflicted a serious injury on his slave, the slave was automatically set
free. (Exodus 21:26, 27) This being true, then it surely should also be
true that if a husband does this to his wife, she should not be bound to
obligations of the marriage.
Another reason is the one I talked about last week:
Christians marrying non-Christians.
Sometimes true Christians will marry fake Christians. Christians need to put aside their feelings
and put their potential spouses to test before proceeding with courting them.
There is yet another important reason for divorces which,
Lord willing, I will talk about in my post next week.
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