These passages challenge me. For divorced I am: and the way it is written is intersting. That the wife is bound to the husband. Paul was aware of the tendency to go full EPL, and destroy marriages as they seek holiness.
Consider the role of the young woman: she is to soeek to be be holy in body and spirit, to remain pure. There is a resaosn that Yoga classes and gyms are full of women . They are seeking purity in one form or another: they are told that their bodies do not matter, for ideology says that one should merely seek pleasure and power. That our youth is eternal and that one can delay commitment, children, or choosing celibacy.
And choosing celibacy is a high and righteous calling. The man who considers that his calling is to serve and please the LORD and not to wed can have less fear.
But now we tell young people that it is OK to live togehter, that waiting for a ring is foolish, and that singleness has not duties but partying. We teach that marriage is fungible, an estension of singleness, and not a high and doble calling.
ANd we are left with broken marriages and wreckage as surely as there is litter on top of Mt Cargill.
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
THese issues need to be considered seriously. The Romans would teach that one should not divorce, but separate and return to that man or woman to whom you have bound their troth. Regardless. That has the virtue of clarity. The Reformed used to teach that the only reasons for divorce were abandonment and adultery, and one should add no other. Then the abuse was added.
And abuse is one of those things that is slippery. I’ve seen battered men, and battered women. I have also seen the state tell women that they must leave that man or lose their kids, and given that choice many will choose to blow up their marriage.
So, do we teach that we should return to our spouses? The Westminster confession says that the divorced must account their spouses as dead: that returning is again, a sin. I am not sure. God can work in our broken state, and bring healing. But it is painful. Better not divorce, better not to marry in risk when one could divorce.
For the times are serious. It is not merely our marriages that are being attacked, bhut our lives: the resurgence of Islam and the increased number of martyrs speaks to this.
Around us we can readily see the marginalization underway. Obamacare’s mandates–that employers must subsidize abortions and abortifacients (euphemistically known as “family planning”)–threaten Catholic and other religious-based organizations with fines or discorporation. A Christian business in Colorado faces penalties and jail time for refusing to bake a cake for a homogamous couple. Some within the US military regard Christians, Catholics, and Mormons on par with Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, and even went as far as to recruit anti-Christian gadfly Mikey Weinstein to help write “religious tolerance” policy for the Defense Department. This is but merely the most recent in a long-standing series of attacks on the faithful; Long ago, private property owners lost the right to refuse to rent their property to the immoral or engage in commerce with those whose values they find offensive. If it doesn’t mesh with the official state religion, your Ashera poles have got to go.
None of this should surprise, however. For Jesus came not to unite but to divide, and all over the Bible, Believers are instructed that persecution is not merely possible but should be expected. It is a historical anomaly that Catholics and Christians have had accommodating governments and favorable environments; as a matter of history, the opposite is true. Gird up your loins, for hardship lays ahead in these Romans 1 times.
This all requires prayer. For those who have a marriage Do not blow it up. God hates divorce, and I do as well: even more now that I have one. To those who have never married, Pursue holiness . Your money should be going to missions and training (both spiritual and physical) not the local nightclub. God called you, young man, to be a man of God, and no pickup artist.
If you are blessed with celibacy, rejoice, for most of us burn.
And for the broken, recall that God can heal. If marriage can occur — then both of you need to pray for each other and for guidance. It must be in the LORD. On this I know but one thing: when children are involved, you must, must not damage them, and if that means that your desire is unrequited, so be it: stepfathers can do damage, but serial boyfriends do far more.
The times are serious. We are under pressure from the Western elite, who want us silent, and the Islamic invaders, who want us converted or dead. We need to recall our priority, which must be to please God, then provide for our families.