It is because I am a believer in the WORD of God made flesh whose name is JESUS, that I am also a believer in the Word of God that we know as the Bible. But I must qualify that by saying that I believe not only everything the New Testament says, but I also believe everything that the Old Testament says. Thus, I believe the entire Bible and I believe that every bit of it is of benefit to us if we receive it as benefit rather than harm.
I love the words that Jesus spoke and when time is limited, I turn to the red-letter portions of my Bible just to be infused once more with the instructions Jesus gave to whoever was gathered around him at the time, as I know those instructions will guide my life just as they were guided.
But I do not neglect the entire Bible in preference for only the words of Jesus, and so I am often in the Old Testament equally as much as the New Testament.
And thus the foundation for this study of marriage and remarriage is set: the entire Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament passages regarding marriage and remarriage will be considered, none will be neglected, with he Lord's help.
The Old Testament shows us the HOLINESS of God, with instruction provided so that we can be holy as He is holy. ["I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy." Lev. 11:45] It isn't that the Old Testament doesn't show God's love and goodness towards us as well, but the focus, in my view, is of HIS Holiness.
The New Testament shows the LOVE of God towards us, with instructions provided that teach us how to love God in return by our obedience to Him. ["We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Whoever says, 'I know Him,' but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys His Word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did." 1 John 2:3-6]; only after we have done that are we then able to properly and scripturally love one another. Here again, it isn't that the holiness of God is not demonstrated in the New Testament, for God does not change [Malachi 3:6: "I the LORD do not change."]; but the focus is on His loving-kindness and goodness towards us being revealed to us so that we will choose to love Him in return.
The LOVE of God towards us, however, never has and never will override the HOLINESS of God and His expectations for us to be holy as He is holy.
And therein lies the "catch" for many of us Christians. And here begins the preface to the study which we must consider before we dig into God's Word or there will be no transformation in those areas of our lives that need to be transformed by God's Word; and there will be no power in the church.
The "catch" is that we attempt to focus on loving the Lord and loving one another, while spending little time attending to personal holiness which is, put another way, OBEDIENCE to the Lord. The former should be done while not neglecting the latter. In fact, how can we say that we LOVE the Lord when we know we have prevailing sin, sin that shows up over and over and over again? Sin that shows we have not died to ourselves as we have been instructed to do.
And if we don't love the Lord according to His instructions on how we are to love Him, then how can we truly and biblically be loving one another?
And if we are not loving one another, then, when it comes to our being the church, perhaps we are only "playing" church. And we will never be the light in the darkness that God ordained the church to be..
Love without personal obedience to the Lord (for only individual obedience can lead to corporate obedience in the church body - you cannot put the cart before the horse on this one) is love that is defined by the worldview rather than the biblical view. The world's view of love will cause us to dance around on politically-correct eggshells regarding each other's sin and our own, except for those blatantly external ones that must be dealt with quickly - such as drugs, alcohol, even cigarettes. Sometimes we have a little talk with those who are living together in an unmarried state and our quick solution to that sin is to make sure they get married...no matter that they might be unequally yoked. (In this case, two wrongs don't make anything right!)
In other words, we are no different than the Pharisees [Matthew 23:27 - "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."] We are OFTEN overly-concerned with the exterior sins that can be seen, and neglect to focus on the interior sins that are visible only to those closest to us....such as pride, self-centeredness, neglect of God in our personal lives when no one is watching, being impatient, unloving, unforgiving, overbearing and harsh with one another in private (all the things that affect elationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and brothers and sisters in the church), all the while being careful to portray only unity and peace when in the presence of others. And I am not advocating that we act as hatefully towards each other in public as we do in private for the sake of simply being honest. (Again, TWO wrongs do not make anything right!) It is these inward sins that can be the most devastating to relationships; and thus to churches.
We know our personal inward sins, but we do not confess these sins to one another in the body of Christ even though we are commanded to ["Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." James 5:16]. We manage somehow to neglect that little command, especially if we are leaders in that body and sometimes even if we are not, simply because we are still playing the game of "dressing up for church on Sunday" rather than carrying a fear of the Lord that leads us to rush to get help from our brothers and sisters, at any cost, against these prevailing sins in our lives. We do not want to be held accountable to one another. We want only to be accountable to our God who is not physically present with us, and with whom we have become hard of hearing because of our unconfessed sin. We don't want to change. We just want others around us to change!
We do have an advocate with the Father through Jesus and so we are to take our sins to Him, which is proper and right according to God's Word. We are to go to Him immediately with any recognized sin in our lives. But we are also to submit to one another and to encourage and exhort one another; for others can see in us what we cannot. They are not deceived by our sin, as we are, And if we do not allow such encouragement and exhortation...if we keep each other at arm's length for sake of pride...or if we become immediately defensive with those who try to exhort us...then we are not walking in either humility or obedience, have not repented (and are liars) according to John: we do not know Jesus!
The fact of the matter is that far too often we Christians will pick and choose which commandments are convenient to us to follow. Or we pick those commandments that tend to fit in with the worldview which we have allowed to compromise our belief system. But, we cannot continue to do so if we really desire to be a powerful light in the darkness...if we hope to see the lost saved....if we hope to walk in peace and unity with one another. It is only the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man" that avails much (also James 5:16).
Cheap grace is when we stop short after claiming Christ's righteousness for our own, deciding that the covering of His righteousness is all that we needed to be saved and sanctified, and so we are pretty well free to carry on in sin; neglecting to use the power Christ has given us through the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and actually become holy, not by our will or our power, but by the power of God. Christ's righteousness IS our own, but only when we utilize what He has given us to become righteous in imitation of Himself. John says if we are not being obedient it doesn't matter what we think we know about Christ, or whether we have said the sinner's prayer. or whether we "claim" the blood of Jesus over our lives. They are just words if we are not walking in obedience. We are liars and we don't know Jesus Christ at all!
Without Jesus, there would be no access to the Father, no pardon for our sins, no hope of life abundant and everlasting. Jesus lived to show us the way to live and bring glory to the Father, He died to take our punishment for sin, He rose from the dead by the power of God to become the first of us to receive the promise of life everlasting, and He left the Comforter to give us power to overcome sin and thereby prove that we DO know Him!
These are all things to keep in mind as we go forward in this study. There will be difficult truths to face, but we must face them and we must choose to be obedient to them. If we are not obedient personally, it will show up in our families and loved ones, and then in the church, and then in our communities, and then in our state, and then in our country.
In fact, it already has.
We must begin with Christ in us, leading us by the power of the Holy Spirit of God into obedience to the Father's commands; and thus into the proper way of loving God...and others.
I love the words that Jesus spoke and when time is limited, I turn to the red-letter portions of my Bible just to be infused once more with the instructions Jesus gave to whoever was gathered around him at the time, as I know those instructions will guide my life just as they were guided.
But I do not neglect the entire Bible in preference for only the words of Jesus, and so I am often in the Old Testament equally as much as the New Testament.
And thus the foundation for this study of marriage and remarriage is set: the entire Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament passages regarding marriage and remarriage will be considered, none will be neglected, with he Lord's help.
The Old Testament shows us the HOLINESS of God, with instruction provided so that we can be holy as He is holy. ["I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy." Lev. 11:45] It isn't that the Old Testament doesn't show God's love and goodness towards us as well, but the focus, in my view, is of HIS Holiness.
The New Testament shows the LOVE of God towards us, with instructions provided that teach us how to love God in return by our obedience to Him. ["We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Whoever says, 'I know Him,' but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys His Word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did." 1 John 2:3-6]; only after we have done that are we then able to properly and scripturally love one another. Here again, it isn't that the holiness of God is not demonstrated in the New Testament, for God does not change [Malachi 3:6: "I the LORD do not change."]; but the focus is on His loving-kindness and goodness towards us being revealed to us so that we will choose to love Him in return.
The LOVE of God towards us, however, never has and never will override the HOLINESS of God and His expectations for us to be holy as He is holy.
And therein lies the "catch" for many of us Christians. And here begins the preface to the study which we must consider before we dig into God's Word or there will be no transformation in those areas of our lives that need to be transformed by God's Word; and there will be no power in the church.
The "catch" is that we attempt to focus on loving the Lord and loving one another, while spending little time attending to personal holiness which is, put another way, OBEDIENCE to the Lord. The former should be done while not neglecting the latter. In fact, how can we say that we LOVE the Lord when we know we have prevailing sin, sin that shows up over and over and over again? Sin that shows we have not died to ourselves as we have been instructed to do.
And if we don't love the Lord according to His instructions on how we are to love Him, then how can we truly and biblically be loving one another?
And if we are not loving one another, then, when it comes to our being the church, perhaps we are only "playing" church. And we will never be the light in the darkness that God ordained the church to be..
Love without personal obedience to the Lord (for only individual obedience can lead to corporate obedience in the church body - you cannot put the cart before the horse on this one) is love that is defined by the worldview rather than the biblical view. The world's view of love will cause us to dance around on politically-correct eggshells regarding each other's sin and our own, except for those blatantly external ones that must be dealt with quickly - such as drugs, alcohol, even cigarettes. Sometimes we have a little talk with those who are living together in an unmarried state and our quick solution to that sin is to make sure they get married...no matter that they might be unequally yoked. (In this case, two wrongs don't make anything right!)
In other words, we are no different than the Pharisees [Matthew 23:27 - "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."] We are OFTEN overly-concerned with the exterior sins that can be seen, and neglect to focus on the interior sins that are visible only to those closest to us....such as pride, self-centeredness, neglect of God in our personal lives when no one is watching, being impatient, unloving, unforgiving, overbearing and harsh with one another in private (all the things that affect elationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and brothers and sisters in the church), all the while being careful to portray only unity and peace when in the presence of others. And I am not advocating that we act as hatefully towards each other in public as we do in private for the sake of simply being honest. (Again, TWO wrongs do not make anything right!) It is these inward sins that can be the most devastating to relationships; and thus to churches.
We know our personal inward sins, but we do not confess these sins to one another in the body of Christ even though we are commanded to ["Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." James 5:16]. We manage somehow to neglect that little command, especially if we are leaders in that body and sometimes even if we are not, simply because we are still playing the game of "dressing up for church on Sunday" rather than carrying a fear of the Lord that leads us to rush to get help from our brothers and sisters, at any cost, against these prevailing sins in our lives. We do not want to be held accountable to one another. We want only to be accountable to our God who is not physically present with us, and with whom we have become hard of hearing because of our unconfessed sin. We don't want to change. We just want others around us to change!
We do have an advocate with the Father through Jesus and so we are to take our sins to Him, which is proper and right according to God's Word. We are to go to Him immediately with any recognized sin in our lives. But we are also to submit to one another and to encourage and exhort one another; for others can see in us what we cannot. They are not deceived by our sin, as we are, And if we do not allow such encouragement and exhortation...if we keep each other at arm's length for sake of pride...or if we become immediately defensive with those who try to exhort us...then we are not walking in either humility or obedience, have not repented (and are liars) according to John: we do not know Jesus!
The fact of the matter is that far too often we Christians will pick and choose which commandments are convenient to us to follow. Or we pick those commandments that tend to fit in with the worldview which we have allowed to compromise our belief system. But, we cannot continue to do so if we really desire to be a powerful light in the darkness...if we hope to see the lost saved....if we hope to walk in peace and unity with one another. It is only the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man" that avails much (also James 5:16).
Cheap grace is when we stop short after claiming Christ's righteousness for our own, deciding that the covering of His righteousness is all that we needed to be saved and sanctified, and so we are pretty well free to carry on in sin; neglecting to use the power Christ has given us through the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and actually become holy, not by our will or our power, but by the power of God. Christ's righteousness IS our own, but only when we utilize what He has given us to become righteous in imitation of Himself. John says if we are not being obedient it doesn't matter what we think we know about Christ, or whether we have said the sinner's prayer. or whether we "claim" the blood of Jesus over our lives. They are just words if we are not walking in obedience. We are liars and we don't know Jesus Christ at all!
Without Jesus, there would be no access to the Father, no pardon for our sins, no hope of life abundant and everlasting. Jesus lived to show us the way to live and bring glory to the Father, He died to take our punishment for sin, He rose from the dead by the power of God to become the first of us to receive the promise of life everlasting, and He left the Comforter to give us power to overcome sin and thereby prove that we DO know Him!
These are all things to keep in mind as we go forward in this study. There will be difficult truths to face, but we must face them and we must choose to be obedient to them. If we are not obedient personally, it will show up in our families and loved ones, and then in the church, and then in our communities, and then in our state, and then in our country.
In fact, it already has.
We must begin with Christ in us, leading us by the power of the Holy Spirit of God into obedience to the Father's commands; and thus into the proper way of loving God...and others.
2 comments:
wow I have 10 years wondered about this whether I was out of Gods will being disobedient or not I just pray that I will be able to truly repent no matter what the cost
I believe there are very few of us, especially here in America, myself first of all, who isn't in need of repentance when it comes to recognizing how we don't really understand obedience to the Lord, His Way, and how we have used the Word to support our disobedience rather than believe the Word so intensely that we are convicted and transformed by the power of it every time we read it.
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