SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/1/2020 8:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Teaching of Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:31-32
Message of the verses: “31 "Furthermore
it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce.’ 32 "But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any
reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever
marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”
We
begin today a section that will take us many days to go through as we look at
verses 31-32 of Matthew chapter five and talk about what Jesus is teaching
about divorce and remarriage.
Jesus
is teaching and affirming exactly what Moses taught in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, a
section we have already looked at, and Moses wrote that unjustified divorce inevitably
leads to adultery. To those in the crowd
who were the legalistic, self-righteous scribes and Pharisees Jesus was really
saying to them “You consider yourselves to be great teachers and keepers of the
law, however by allowing no-fault divorce you have caused a great disfigurement
of adultery to contaminate the people of God.
You have lowered God’s standards in order to meet your own, and you have
led many people into sin and into judgment.”
What
the Pharisees were doing was interpreting Moses’ instructions to mean something
like “if you find something distasteful about your wife, then just divorce.” We have learned that all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God, so that means that every person born of a woman,
fathered by a man is a sinner and because we are all sinners we all sin and
because we sin from time to time we do things distasteful to others including
our spouses.
John
MacArthur writes “The error in their thinking is highlighted in 5:27-30.” “27 "You
have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28
"But I say to you that whoever looks
at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. 29 "If your right eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable
for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast
into hell. 30 "And if your right
hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more
profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to
be cast into hell.” “They prided
themselves on the fact that they did not commit adultery. But Jesus said, ‘I say to you, that everyone
who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in
his heart” (v. 28). In verses 29-30 He
showed them that no sacrifice is too great to maintain moral purity. Then in these present verses (31-32), He
again indicts them for adultery because they were committing it by putting away
their wives. The ease of divorce made it
possible to avoid open adultery. Only a
little paperwork was required to legalize their lust.”
So
we can see that Jesus confronted them with a proper interpretation of God’s law
as He said that every time a man without proper cause turned his wife loose to
remarry, that he was forcing her into adultery, which made him as guilty as
her. In addition, the man who married
the former wife and also the woman who married the former husband were likewise
guilty of adultery, so the result was multiplied adultery! Jesus’ whole point is that divorce leads to
adultery.
We now move onto the third part in the
booklet we have been looking at entitled “The Battle of the Ages,” and begin to
look at:
“The Third Battle is the
Battle of the Promised Seed”
“It
was not long before the prophesied enmity between the seed of the serpent and
the seed of the woman became manifest.
The promise to the woman of a conquering seed to bruise the serpent’s
head was understood of course by Satan, and from that hour all his diabolic
energy was directed upon the breaking of the promise. Unless he can prevent the rise of the
conquering seed, his own destruction is certain. There are, accordingly, five definite
attempts prior to the Incarnation of Christ, to break the promise of His
coming.” We will begin to look at these
five in our next SD, Lord willing.
9/1/2020 8:59 AM
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