Part 3 - Matthew 19:1-12; 1 Corinthians 7 - What if or what about? chapter
A 12 mile hike last week with Stephanie up to Little Yellowstone Canyon in the Rocky Mountain National Park. It might be our last together until we don the snowshoes. Stephanie lets me take her places she wouldn't usually go like this next picture to sheer drop offs looking down into the canyon at the Colorado River. She told me, "No grandkids up here with Grandpa, no kids either!"
The snow is flying in the air today in Grand Lake, Colorado. We have seen it on the mountain tops but now it has made it down to 8400 ft. We also have made it through the third sermon on Matthew 19:1-12 and 1 Corinthians 7. I am always thankful to give as clear as an answer from God's word because it is a missing element in our world and even some of our churches today. We so many times disregard what God has said. It is mimicking what Jesus did by asking to the religious leaders of the day, "Have you not read" and taking them back to the beginning to find the answer to their question. They were looking for the easy way out but Jesus was looking truly for the solution.
The passage ended with Jesus addressing the subject of singleness before we headed off to what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 7. I didn't realize how connected these two passages are. Jesus raises the bar about singleness that it is a calling from God to live this way for the kingdom of heaven and Paul is holding up his "Stay Single" sign almost every other verse. The disciples' response to Jesus going back to the beginning about how God created them male and female and that a man should leave his father and mother and join to his wife and the one exception for marital unfaithfulness and thinking being single would be so much easier. Jesus deems it not easier but as much of a calling of God as being married.
Sometimes we say things too quickly or say it as a flippant saying rather than knowing the weight of what has been said. I think this is what is happening to the disciples in this passage. They just go to the extreme because they are flabbergasted at what Jesus has said and Jesus corrects them. I saw this on a video last week. A young man was questioning an older man who was giving answers from a Biblical view and the young man was not hearing what he wanted to hear. Finally the young man just said "Jesus Christ" along with another statement in rebuttal. The older man held up his hand and said back to him, "Our conversation is over." The young man had profaned the name of Jesus. I don't believe he used Jesus' name as a name but rather a popular phrase to say when you are frustrated with someone else or some situation. But I also believe the young man had any idea what he just said.
Jesus' name literally means "God saves" and Christ literally means "anointed, sent Messiah." So what the young man said was that God saves and how does He save? He saves by sending an anointed One, a Messiah. The young man gave the solution to his questions in the phrase he used when frustrated with the older man's answers. He took the Lord's name in vain but at the same time proclaimed our God who saves by sending His Son, the Messiah. I wish I could have been there to explain to that young man just like Jesus explained to His disciples the fuller picture of what they and he had just said. I I may not have gotten anywhere but it might have been an answer he had not heard before. Even said in an evil way, God's solution was proclaimed for those to hear it.
1 Corinthians 7 is a challenging chapter. Paul walks through the 4 groups of married, unmarried, widows/widowers, and virgins. He addresses those who are married of the same faith or find themselves married to one who is not of the faith. He addresses those who have been married but not married now because of a divorce either Biblically legit or not. He addresses those who are now single because of the death of their spouse. He also addresses those who have never been married, the virgins. His first response is if you find yourself in a single state, stay single and join him in the effort to spread the good news of the kingdom of heaven. His second response is to stay married and fulfill the responsibilities of your position in that marriage. His third response is the reinforcement from the Old Testament that if you do marry or marry again to marry someone who is "in the Lord."
I would "Amen" this last response. There should be no question in your mind that the person you are courting is a Christian. They were a Christian before they met you. They are challenging you in your Christian walk. You experience them leading out in prayer. You see them opening the Bible and referring to God's words for guidance. You see them consistently attending a church and interacting with a local church family. You have experienced them displaying the fruit of the Spirit in the hard times of life. The conversation about Jesus is not hard but an easy one to bring up and sustain. I believe the wheels have come off the bus on this point when we have looked at the marriage union even within the church. We have allow attraction to win the day over the one requirement that we need to marry within the faith. I have said that our attraction for one another needs to be stronger in the area that they are living out their faith than what they might look like physically. A person who is truly a Christian and allowing Christ to be lived out through their words and deeds becomes a very attractive person.
How do we get this across to our single church body who is just so enamored that someone has shown some attention to them and this could be the one without first asking the question that could very well end the relationship for now? How do we communicate that it is not an acceptable position to say that you think they might be saved or that they know about God or that you will convert them with your witness but communicate rather that they need to already be saved before moving forward? I've not performed some weddings because of this issue. I've made some enemies because they wanted me to follow the ways of men rather than the words of God. Jesus said, "Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder." (Matthew 19:6b) God, the Creator of biological sex and marriage has the final say on this matter and I separate when I go against what He has created and said. Peter and John said, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot help but declare what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19b-20) The 3 Hebrew boys said in the face of a fiery furnace, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:16b-18) And our Lord said to Pilate after Pilate declared he had the power to release Him or have Him crucified, "You would have no power at all over Me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who handed Me over to you has the greater sin." (John 19:11)
There are other examples in the Bible where God's chosen stood on His words and ways no matter the cost and I believe that is what needs to happen when it comes to this issue. Let us not disregard what has been written from Him to us out of His supreme love for us.
Adam
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