Male and female
Day 297, Wednesday, June 4
Mark Chapter 10
One of the truths that often gets lost in the swirling controversies over Christian teaching about sexuality and marriage is that Jesus himself affirmed the basic ideas that God created two sexes and envisioned marriage as a partnership between them. While there are a lot of things Jesus doesn’t address specifically, what he does address leaves no room for doubt that he, too, believed and taught that.
When Jesus was asked about divorce, he went all the way back to Genesis for a response.
“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 is 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.”
Elsewhere Jesus says there are those who remain unmarried and affirms that, too, as an acceptable, even positive, way of living.
The fact is that Jesus made a point of speaking of these two approaches to marriage as being good and holy…the implication is that he intended to affirm what he affirmed, and did not intend to affirm what he did not affirm.
But what about divorce or the seemingly infinite variations that society has created for relationships?
There are those, even within the Christian community, who take the position that anything not specifically prohibited by Jesus is acceptable, but that overlooks the fact that Jesus does speaks in support of the law in most instances. In the Sermon on the Mount he in fact challenges his followers to go beyond following the letter of the law to following the full spirit of the law: a higher, not lower, standard.
In today’s reading he acknowledges that the law of Moses allows divorce.
In our time we have come to accept that, while divorce is never a good option, it is sometimes the best available option (something that even Paul also acknowledged in the case of an unbelieving spouse or infidelity).
But what about people who, while professing to live a Christian life, take marriage casually or engage in unaffirmed kinds of relationships?
For those of us committed to treating the Bible as the definitive word of God, it is difficult to impossible to support such actions.
It is possible, though, and the appropriate Christian response to continue to love people and pray for their salvation. After all, we too can only depend on the grace of God for our own salvation.
Wednesday meditation
Proverbs 29:18-21
Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.
Servants cannot be corrected by mere words; though they understand, they will not respond.
Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them.
A servant pampered from youth will turn out to be insolent.
Prayer focus
Lord, thank you for creating us as men and women, and bless all of the faithful couples who live according to your intent. Forgive and embrace those for whom this ideal is not attained.
-Rev. Mark Fleming