Tag Archives: one flesh

MARK’S GOSPEL…DIVORCE – 23

Bible Study, ,

Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭2‬-‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” “What did Moses command you?” he replied. They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.””

‭

Divorce! A very current and thorny topic! Divorce is so easy these days that couples can spouses like changing their clothes!

It was almost like this in Jesus’ day, not because God made divorce easy but because “Moses” did, according to the interpretation of the religious leaders. 

There were two mains schools of thought, led by two respected rabbis, Hillel and Shammai. 

Google says…

“Rabbi Hillel permitted divorce for “any cause,” even for trivial reasons such as a husband finding his wife’s cooking unsatisfactory, whereas Rabbi Shammai only allowed divorce for adultery. Hillel’s view was that the term “any cause” in Deuteronomy 24:1 allowed for divorce over any issue the husband disliked, a perspective that became the dominant view in Jewish law (Halakha), though more pious individuals still favored Shammai’s stricter approach.”

The Pharisees tried to draw Jesus into the debate, testing His opinion against those of these two most respected rabbis “with authority”.

Jesus refused to be caught in their trap. As He always did, He referred them back to the source of the instruction…God’s command “at the beginning of creation”. Marriage was a creation ordinance not to be tampered with by foolish humans. 

Jesus not only took them back to the source and initiator of marriage, but He also diagnosed the cause of their deviations!

“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,”

Hardness of heart! How true it was then and equally true now! What was and is missing in many marriage relationships that undermines the meaning and purpose of marriage?

““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you get that? Justice! Mercy! Faithfulness! Jesus came down hard on the Pharisees for two main reasons. One…they were hypocrites, play acting in the game of life. They wore the mask of “righteousness”, always doing the right thing in public, but rotten to the core with greed and wickedness inside. Two, they had no mercy for offenders who did not do what they demanded. 

So, if the wife “offended” them, they gave her a “bill of divorce” and sent her away without hope, while they calmly married the woman they had set their sights on… a convenient way of handling 

their unfaithfulness. 

Jesus also highlighted the purpose for marriage that most people don’t understand, ignore, or forget. 

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Marriage is not primarily because two people are “in love”, or for companionship, or legalised sex. Marriage is about two people becoming one to reflect on earth the unity “echad” between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Godhead. Sexual union is the physical symbol of this unity between one man and one woman for life. 

How far, then, has corruption in the human heart degraded marriage in all its perverse practices to what humans have made it today. The only cure for human depravity is to go back to the beginning, as Jesus did, and apply God’s Word, with hearts renewed by God’s grace to faith and obedience. 

It takes God’s grace, His strength for our weakness, to overcome the inborn selfishness of our hearts, to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”, growing in unity as an expression of our love and obedience to Jesus as Lord. 

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

Bible Study, ,

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for his body just as Christ does the church – for we are members of His body. ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband (Eph. 5:29-33).

There we have it again! Back to the beginning.

Man always looks for loopholes to skirt God’s plan. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus about legitimate reasons for divorce, quoting Moses as their source and rabbis Hillel and Shammai as the recognised authoritative interpreters of God’s Law, Jesus took them back to God’s original intention for marriage.

Humans have introduced their own ideas about marriage and its purpose. Some believe that the union between a man and a woman is purely for the procreation of children. Once the family is complete, sexual union slows down and eventually stops and the relationship slowly deteriorates into nothing more than two people living under the same roof but going their separate ways.

Others treat marriage as a one-stop shop to get everything they need. If the spouse does not supply on demand, he or she shops elsewhere for what they want. Some even practise what they call “open marriage”, both marriage partners committing adultery with the other spouse’s permission, sometimes even together in the same room or in the same house.

Still others elevate their idea of marriage somewhat by seeing it as a union for companionship. The “best friend” concept is a lofty one but it still does not measure up to God’s intention for marriage.

Paul had an insight into this most sacred of unions which matched the explanation of Jesus by taking its elevated purpose in Christ to its highest level. Marriage presents a profound picture of the union between Christ and His church. Just as God intended Israel to be espoused to Him as His bride in the Old Testament, so Jesus proposed to His disciples to be His bride when the church was born on the Day of Pentecost. The church was to live in the most intimate of spiritual unions with their unseen Bridegroom and to await His return when their union would be consummated and complete.

However, this unity with Jesus in the Spirit should never be degraded into some mystical physical union. This is a union of heart, mind and purpose. The physical union of a man and a woman in a monogamous marriage is the picture of the oneness God desires to have with His people.

God is one. Each person in the Godhead submits to and participates in a perfect union of being and function. The Father planned, the Son executed and the Holy Spirit administers both creation and the “new creation”. They function in perfect harmony, both in who they are and what they do, without confusion or competition.

As the Godhead is one, so God desires that marriage should represent that oneness and that the family should uphold and protect unity in their relationship with one another through mutual submission. Jesus is God but He is also the Son. He came to earth to reveal the true nature of the Father and to model a real son. He lived in union with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit during His sojourn on earth by perfectly obeying, submitting to and depending on the Father and the Holy Spirit.

It is the role of the church, as the bride of Christ, to submit to and obey Him as Lord. In the same way, it is the role of the wife to submit to and obey her husband as her bridegroom as she is his bride, calling him “Lord” in the sense that he is the head. His role is to serve and take responsibility for her health and well-being, both spiritually and physically. Their mutual dependence will be harmonious when they each fulfil their own role without one trying to dominate or usurp the role of the other.

Love is the only environment in which a husband and wife will ever become one. When a husband focuses on the best interests of his wife in selfless love, she will be glad and willing to submit to his leadership because she knows that he will always do the best for her and the family.

This kind of love is neither humiliating nor degrading. It is the echo of the love the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share in their relationship with one another. It is the love into which the Godhead invites human beings as they participate in His life through faith in Christ. Enjoying and sharing the love of God is the essence of salvation.

How sad that salvation has been reduced to “going to heaven when we die” as though everything God did for us in Christ provides nothing more than an escape route from hell! How can we credit this God who is, in the enormity and mystery of His being incomprehensible love, with so beggarly a motive for sacrificing His Son? Come on, church!

Jesus came to give us back the life God breathed into man at the beginning – His life in all its fullness and beauty. He reiterated that purpose when He invaded planet earth to restore what God created at the beginning.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10b).

And this is the testimony; God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11-12).

When a husband and wife put themselves and self-interest aside to foster this unity through the power of the Holy Spirit, they will begin to grasp and experience the intensity of God’s love in ever-increasing measure just as He intended from the beginning.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

Back To The Beginning

Bible Study, , , ,

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for his body just as Christ does the church – for we are members of His body. ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband (Eph. 5:29-33).

There we have it again! Back to the beginning.

Man always looks for loopholes to skirt God’s plan. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus about legitimate reasons for divorce, quoting Moses as their source and rabbis Hillel and Shammai as the recognised authoritative interpreters of God’s Law, Jesus took them back to God’s original intention for marriage.

Humans have introduced their own ideas about marriage and its purpose. Some believe that the union between a man and a woman is purely for the procreation of children. Once the family is complete, sexual union slows down and eventually stops and the relationship slowly deteriorates into nothing more than two people living under the same roof but going their separate ways.

Others treat marriage as a one-stop shop to get everything they need. If the spouse does not supply on demand, he or she shops elsewhere for what they want. Some even practise what they call “open marriage”, both marriage partners committing adultery with the other spouse’s permission, sometimes even together in the same room or in the same house.

Still others elevate their idea of marriage somewhat by seeing it as a union for companionship. The “best friend” concept is a lofty one but it still does not measure up to God’s intention for marriage.

Paul had an insight into this most sacred of unions which matched the explanation of Jesus by taking its elevated purpose in Christ to its highest level. Marriage presents a profound picture of the union between Christ and His church. Just as God intended Israel to be espoused to Him as His bride in the Old Testament, so Jesus proposed to His disciples to be His bride when the church was born on the Day of Pentecost. The church was to live in the most intimate of spiritual unions with their unseen Bridegroom and to await His return when their union would be consummated and complete.

However, this unity with Jesus in the Spirit should never be degraded into some mystical physical union. This is a union of heart, mind and purpose. The physical union of a man and a woman in a monogamous marriage is the picture of the oneness God desires to have with His people.

God is one. Each person in the Godhead submits to and participates in a perfect union of being and function. The Father planned, the Son executed and the Holy Spirit administers both creation and the “new creation”. They function in perfect harmony, both in who they are and what they do, without confusion or competition.

As the Godhead is one, so God desires that marriage should represent that oneness and that the family should uphold and protect unity in their relationship with one another through mutual submission. Jesus is God but He is also the Son. He came to earth to reveal the true nature of the Father and to model a real son. He lived in union with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit during His sojourn on earth by perfectly obeying, submitting to and depending on the Father and the Holy Spirit.

It is the role of the church, as the bride of Christ, to submit to and obey Him as Lord. In the same way, it is the role of the wife to submit to and obey her husband as her bridegroom as she is his bride, calling him “Lord” in the sense that he is the head. His role is to serve and take responsibility for her health and well-being, both spiritually and physically. Their mutual dependence will be harmonious when they each fulfil their own role without one trying to dominate or usurp the role of the other.

Love is the only environment in which a husband and wife will ever become one. When a husband focuses on the best interests of his wife in selfless love, she will be glad and willing to submit to his leadership because she knows that he will always do the best for her and the family.

This kind of love is neither humiliating nor degrading. It is the echo of the love the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit share in their relationship with one another. It is the love into which the Godhead invites human beings as they participate in His life through faith in Christ. Enjoying and sharing the love of God is the essence of salvation.

How sad that salvation has been reduced to “going to heaven when we die” as though everything God did for us in Christ provides nothing more than an escape route from hell! How can we credit this God who is, in the enormity and mystery of His being incomprehensible love, with so beggarly a motive for sacrificing His Son? Come on, church!

Jesus came to give us back the life God breathed into man at the beginning – His life in all its fullness and beauty. He reiterated that purpose when He invaded planet earth to restore what God created at the beginning.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10b).

And this is the testimony; God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11-12).

When a husband and wife put themselves and self-interest aside to foster this unity through the power of the Holy Spirit, they will begin to grasp and experience the intensity of God’s love in ever-increasing measure just as He intended from the beginning.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

Marriage Is God’s Idea

Bible Study, , ,

 MARRIAGE IS GOD’S IDEA

Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to Him and, as was His custom, He taught them.

Some Pharisees came and tested Him by asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ ‘What did Moses command you?’ He replied. They said, ‘Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.’ ‘It is because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,’ Jesus replied. ‘But at the beginning of creation God “made them male and female.”

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ (Mark 10:1-9).

How sad that arrogant human beings think that we can improve on God’s idea of marriage. You see, God created man in His own image, and then He gave them the institution of marriage to reflect that image.

From the moment a Hebrew baby was born it would hear the Shema – the “creed” of the Hebrew people, repeated over and over again. Every time the baby’s mother would nurse him at her breast, she would whisper the Shema to him while he drank.

Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut. 6: 4-5).

The Lord is one. What does that mean? Our God is one – three persons in perfect unity. Not three Gods. One God, three persons united in essence and in purpose. Jesus could call the Holy Spirit “another Counsellor” because He was exactly like Jesus – the same divine being, the same nature, character, disposition, vision, but not the same function.

The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son and a yet He is perfectly one with the Father and the Son. I know we find this difficult to understand. That’s why God instituted marriage, to give us a visual aid of the unity in the Godhead which is expressed in the whole of creation. He intended creation to function as a perfect, interdependent unit to show forth His oneness.

But what have humans done to the beauty of this visual aid? We think we know better, so we threw out God’s pattern and created our own. We call it freedom, this casual liaison with any and everybody, fragmenting ourselves with every person with whom we have a sexual connection, not realising that we are, in the end, making it impossible to be united to one person because we have left a bit of ourselves with everyone to whom we have been joined.

Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” (1 Cor. 6: 16).

Is it any wonder than that marriage does not work today? How can two people establish a permanent union when they have had casual connections with so many? So what do they do? They throw marriage out instead of returning to God’s original purpose.

Did you notice that Jesus did not approve Moses’ solution for disunity – divorce? He took the Pharisees back to God’s original intention. There were two schools of thought regarding divorce in Jesus’ day. The House of Hillel, the followers of Hillel, who was a liberal rabbi, taught that a man could divorce his wife for any reason. The House of Shammai taught that the only reason for divorce was what Jesus called “marital unfaithfulness”. This referred to any infringement of the marriage contract – the ketubah, which regulated the terms of their marriage relationship – and not just adultery.

There was a reason for the Pharisees’ question. It was their practice to send a wife away for any flimsy reason because they had their eye on someone else. They wanted Jesus’ sanction for their practice, but Jesus would have none of it. He reminded them of God’s original intention for a permanent and monogamous union which reflected the unity of the Godhead. It was their sinful hearts that wanted approval for their behaviour, not the desire to obey the law of God.

How tragic that, in throwing out God’s law in favour of their own, people have doomed themselves never the experience the true joy of a permanent union that reflects and experiences the very heart of God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com