In my Bible reading group, as we read through the Gospel of Matthew, we’ve been looking at the issue of divorce the last two weeks. We will probably discuss it again today.
Many Christians say that divorce is a sin. But this is not true, for God Himself is divorced.
What? Yes, that’s right. In Jeremiah 3:8, God says this:
Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce…
A few things to observe from this, and the passage in Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-12 that we have been discussing.
- Divorce was allowed in the case of marital infidelity.
- In such cases, divorce itself is not sin, but is the consequence of sin.
- However, divorce can lead someone to sin, for when remarriage occurs, God views it as adultery.
- Nevertheless, adultery is a sin like any other–in the same vein as stealing, coveting, and being greedy (Rom 13:9)–and God’s grace covers it.
As we were discussing Matthew 5:31-32, one of the guys in the group, who had never read the Bible before, said, “Wow. If what Jesus says is true, it’s better to not even get married!” I had everyone immediately turn over to Matthew 19:10 where one of Jesus’ disciples says the exact same thing. Getting that sort of response from your readers indicates you are on the right track in understanding these difficult words of Jesus.
Today, I hope to point out that Jesus is not exactly “raising the bar” on the law, or making the law more difficult so that we all see how sinful and evil we are and realize we need God’s grace.
No, in the Sermon on the Mount, I believe Jesus is laying out His vision for humanity. It was like Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. Jesus imagined a world where there was no murder, adultery, and divorce, but only love, charity, and generosity. He is not saying, “This is what you must do to be my true follower.”
Rather, Jesus is saying, “Imagine a world like this. Imagine what your life would look like. Imagine what your marriage would look like. This is the way it was intended to be, and this is the way it one day will be in the eternal Kingdom. But if you want to experience that Kingdom life here and now, start trying to live by these ideals.”
What do you think about God being a divorced person? What do you think about this way of reading the Sermon on the Mount?
Hmmm…I think he was raising the bar on the law, but also at the same time, the things he was saying would also be an ideal yet everyone in the crowd knew they could not or would not do those things 24/7.
I am not actually quite sure what you are saying… so cannot respond.