Tuesday, September 6, 2011
What Jesus Said about Being Good Enough - Anger, Lust, Marriage, Divorce, Part 27 of 34
TEXT: "Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 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" (Matthew 5:31-32).
IDEA: As Christians, we cannot avoid the fact of living in a fallen world.
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that in a fallen world, no one gets it all right.
Who were the ascetics? What did they want to accomplish?
Have you ever thought about being an ascetic?
I. One reality every Christian must face is that we as fallen people live in a fallen world.
What do we mean by a "fallen" world?
We also believe in "total depravity." What does that mean?
The ascetics tried to deal with that by withdrawing from their society.
II. While we are called to carry out God's ideals, we discover that we cannot do it on the strength of determination alone.
God's ideal for marriage often runs into the reality of the fall and depravity.
Yet there are indications that the biblical writers recognized that the ideal might not be possible because of our human condition. There are exceptions to the ideal.
One exception appears in Matthew 5:31-32 concerning porneia or "fornication." Jesus inserts this as an exception to the ideal given in Genesis. He recognizes a world in which a marriage might end in a way other than by death.
Paul says that Christians in a mixed marriage have an obligation to work toward the ideal, but if the unbeliever departs, the Christian is not "bound" in such a situation (1 Corinthians 7:15).
Do you think that there might be other situations in a marriage where the "hardness of heart" would not allow the ideal to be realized?
III. There are situations in which the ideal cannot be kept without doing great harm.
Suppose a couple divorces and each marries another person and have children in the second marriage. Then they realize that they should not have divorced, but how can they go back to their original partner without harming the children of the new marriages?
How does this apply to men and women who have been divorced before they became Christians?
