Divorce (Part 2)

THE DAILY WORD
By Jim Seekamp

Tuesday February 3, 2009

1 Corinthians 7:12,13,15 (NIV)
12. To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother (Christian) has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
15. But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.

Did you ever wonder why Paul addresses unbelievers separately from believers when it comes to divorce?

The reason he does is shown in Ephesians 5:22-30:

Ephesians 5:22-30
22. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it 26. to make it holy, cleansing it by the washing with water through the word,
27. and to present it to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30. for we are members of his body.

The husband is the head of the wife AS Christ is the head of the church-- it is a parallel. No, the church is not the bride of Christ (See previous Daily Words that explain how the church is Christ's BODY, not His bride), but the parallel Paul makes is unmistakable.

Jesus said He would not cast out ANYONE who comes to Him!

John 6:37-39 (NIV) (Jesus speaking)
37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

If you look at these three (above) sets of scriptures together, you will see that the way Jesus looks at the church is how a husband is supposed to look at his wife!

Jesus said He would NEVER DRIVE AWAY whoever comes to Him! The Biblical parallel would be that a husband should not divorce his wife, simply because it does not reflect Christ's treatment of the church. That's why Paul said that if the unbeliever wants to leave, you should let them! It's the same with Christ. When an unbeliever hears the Gospel, he or she has the choice to accept Christ or walk away from Him! A believer can walk away from Christ too, but that is not what God's will is. According to John 6:39 (above), God's will is that Christ "shall lose none of all that he has given me."

As Christians, we are the only "Christ" that many people will ever see!

Yes, we are flawed human beings, and we make mistakes, and yes, God wants us to live together in peace first and foremost. But if we are going to reflect God accurately to the world, the husband should not consider divorcing his wife. He should love and protect his wife as Christ does the church. The wife should submit to her husband because the church should submit to Christ.

The wife should NOT submit to her husband because he's better than her, because we all know that's not true. She should submit to him because it is a parallel of the church's submission to Christ! Everyone is in the same boat; we have all sinned and fallen short of perfection. But God has a perfect order to things, and if we keep that order, we can see God's perfect will for our lives actually develop and happen!

We have free will, and we are free to make our own choices about out lives, but submitting to God's way is the best for us!

Many people have walked out of God's perfact will, and yes, they are still under His grace (if they haven't rejected Him), but they will never get to experience God's best in that area of their lives.

Sometimes divorce seems like the best thing that could have happened, but that's only because the married couple was not perfect like Christ is, and couldn't work around their differences. The parallel of marriage to the church and Christ means that there IS a way to work out a marriage if both spouses are open to it. Many times only one spouse is open to it, and many other times neither spouse is open to it, so the result is divorce. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a solution.

Other times there is violence in the marriage, and since such things directly violate God's will (to love one another) to such a great degree, there is no way except divorce unless the violence is stopped.

Violence in a marriage is as perverse an idea as the church attacking Christ at the rapture would be! Violence in a marriage is as perverse as Christ punching and slapping the woman caught in adultery instead of being kind to her like He was! Violence is never an acceptable condition in marriage, because the husband and wife are a parallel of Christ and the church.

PRAYER
Thank You Father for Your Word, which gives me the power to change my thinking. Help me understand Your Word and change my thinking with it, so I can walk in Your ways.
In Jesus' Name, Amen

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out the Daily Word Archives at:
http://www.jimseekamp.com

To subscribe to the Daily Word, send an email with the subject "SUBSCRIBE" to mailto:dailyword@jimseekamp.com

If you wish to unsubscribe, please send an email with the subject "UNSUBSCRIBE" to mailto:dailyword@jimseekamp.com

To have Jim Seekamp speak at your church or group meeting, email him at: jimseekamp@jimseekamp.com