[It continues to be a challenging time for our students. The protesters are out in full force, parliament failed to gather enough votes to oust the current administration, and many are disillusioned. The foreign press are skewing the facts, it is rumored that as many as 10 protesters might have been killed and their bodies confiscated, and tensions are high. Please pray for our students and for a just and peaceful resolution.
Worship is a form of protest. When we worship, we protest the values of this world. We show that although we have different political ideas, our God is one and we can come together to God. When we worship, we show where our priorities are - and that our priorities are higher than the world's.We will continue to have worship throughout the revolution. Life continues, and worship is much too important to ignore.]
Matthew 5:27-37
Sex, Lies, and Love
Arranged marriages are still common in some cultures. In India, the newspapers are filled with classified - but instead of people writing for themselves, their parents write for them. For us this is strange, perhaps, but your parents almost always want what is best for you.
In the days of the Old Testament, marriages were generally arranged. Marriage was big business. It becomes hard to read parts of the Old Testament, when you understand that the rules and restrictions about women and their behaviour were written to keep women valuable.
You earned money so that your sons would inherit large fortunes and land, but women didn't (generally) inherit these things. Other things gave a woman value - her beauty, her virginity, and her social connections. So as families arraigned marriages, it would make sense that everyone would try and marry a step up in the world. If you are rich, you want your sons to marry beautiful and virtuous women. If you are poor, you hope that your daughter will be a valuable commodity.
Marriage was a business contract between families.
Love is part of it. Throughout the Old Testament, as we read the stories of great Biblical couples, we see that they loved each other. But, when you see the way that couples came together - it becomes strange. When a woman was procured for her husband, it was common for her to be brought to him with a veil covering her face - and for them to marry on the first meeting. This is what happened with Isaac and Rebekah.
In the book of Ruth, we see the story of a crafty mother-in-law helping her daughter-in-law marry up a station or two than she deserved.
Jacob loved Rachel - and his uncle was the one who would give her away in marriage. His uncle Laban knew that he had leverage. Jacob loved Rachel and would do anything to be with her. Laban made Jacob work for seven years to earn Rachel ... and on the wedding night, he tricked a drunk Jacob into marrying a veiled woman who was actually Rachel's sister Leah. So Jacob worked another seven years to earn Rachel.
Marriage was a business contract.
And so divorce was serious business. Divorce meant more than a couple splitting up - it was the tearing apart of a family. It was business, and it could be a disaster.
The Old Testament laws dictated the value of a woman in this business deal, but they also stipulated how a divorce should work and under what circumstances.
And it is easy for us to read these few short lines about divorce and understand that God is against divorce and move on.
But we have to stop and think about how radical Jesus' words were.
Jesus radically redefined marriage.
Because all of this is about moving away from the law and into love and grace.
And so, under the old system - if you divorced you had broken the law.
Under the new system, you have broken love.
If you have broken the law there are penalties and financial problems - but to break love, it destroys the people involved. Jesus is against divorce not because of the financial implications - he's against it because love is primary. Love is above all of our possessions.
In these verses, we move from covenant to relationship. This is vital.
A covenant is a promise. It is a contract.
If you have a marriage covenant - you promise to stay together. You have a contract that outlines the financial obligations.
But a relationship is so much more than that, right? If you have a contract - there is obligation. In a relationship, it is a choice.
If you get married, every day you will make the choice to stay in love with your spouse. Every day. Some days you will hate him or her and you will be disgusted by him or her. Every day you must choose to love them.
In the Old Testament, people lived by the covenant. There were rules, and they tried to live within those rules so that they didn't break covenant. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, now we live in Relationship with God. This is huge and we can't miss this.
---
When Jesus talks about lust, he draws the lines between living within the rule of "you shall not commit adultery" and living within relationship. Because, if the rule says not to commit adultery ... well, what does that mean? Does that just mean that "If I'm married, I can't have sex with someone else? It isn't cheating if it's just a kiss. Oral sex doesn't count as real sex. Is it really cheating if our eyes are closed?"
It's easy to justify our sin.
Sinning is fun.
Let me say that again, because it's probably not something you hear your pastor say very often. Sinning is fun. The Bible tells us this, Proverbs 9:17 says, "Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is delicious."
If sinning wasn't fun, we wouldn't do it.
Sinning is fun, but ... it's not more fun than relationship with God.
In these verses, Jesus clearly outlines that we cannot live within the contract and earn our way into heaven. It's not good enough to try and keep just inside of the lines. If the Bible says not to commit adultery, and we try and push it just as far as we can without it being a sin - we have already sinned.
If you want to earn your salvation, you better be willing to cut off your hands and pluck out your eyes.
But Jesus offers us relationship instead of covenant. Jesus offers us the chance to live within God's glory in relationship with Christ.
And relationship is a daily choice. Every day we must choose to love God. We must choose to walk in our own way or to walk in the way of God. Every day.
Friends, this is the one thing that I will say specifically about sex before marriage. The Bible teaches us not to do it, but I know that many people today ignore that. If you didn't wait, your sins are forgiven. If you love the person you are with, wait. If your boyfriend/girlfriend is willing to sin against God with you today, he or she might also be willing to sin against God with someone else tomorrow.
A relationship is about love and trust and respect.
But in a true and good relationship, how do you punish your partner when he or she disobeys you?
You don't. That's not a relationship. That's a covenant.
We aren't trying to earn our salvation by being good. We aren't trying to prove our love to God by being good. We are good because we understand that God loves us either way. Wether we sin mightily or feed every orphan in India, God loves us just the same.
There is nothing we can do to change the love that God has for us. You can't be so bad that God will stop loving you, and you can't be so God that God will love you more - because God already loves you completely.
This is the Good News that we have to offer. God loves you. You didn't earn it. You don't deserve it. But God loves you anyway.
I am a sinner. I am ashamed and embarrased of my sins. And some days I choose my sin over my God. Sinning is fun. But every time I make that choice, in the end, I realize that God loves me anyway - and that God's love is so much greater than my sin. Our sins tear us apart and break us down. God's love recreates us and builds us up.
When Jesus talks about oaths, he tears down the idea that we have anything to offer. Everything that we have is Gods. We can't swear by our heads because our heads belong to God. We have one oath to make. And that oath is made daily. It is the oath to be in relationship with Christ. We must make it every day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment