Honor Marriage

“He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."” (Matthew 19:4-6 ESV).

As we consider the command to honor marriage, we must consider what God says about who is to marry who. We begin with what seems very clear, that God created male and female, which is determined by physical characteristics, not by what you think you are or want to be. For example, if a person, a male by birth, who has fathered children, walks around dresses as a woman and thinks he is a woman, is not a woman, but one who is deceived and dishonors God.

This male and female that God created, who have the proper physical parts to come together to create children, are to marry. It is to be one male to one female, not some other combination that some promote. Any marriage combination other than one male and one female and for life, dishonors God and is sin. Remember, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Hebrews 13:4 ESV).

Prayer

Father, even many Christians have deviated from this command. We are not willing to take a stand against the immoral behavior that is becoming a more normal way of life and as a result the family unit Is rapidly breaking down, resulting in social distress in our culture. Looking at the cross, we see love as a sacrifice, but today love has become more of a feeling. Love as a sacrifice looks out for the benefit of the other while love as a feeling looks out for the benefit of self. Father, we need to bring honor and sacrifice back into marriage.

See "The Commands of Jesus" Index to view other commands.

Honor God's Law

“Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19 ESV). This command to honor God’s Law is found in a section where Jesus is explaining that he came to fulfill the Law. Stating it's important, Jesus then points out the importance for us to understand the need to obey the commands and emphasize their importance to others. How effective we are in accomplishing this will determine our position in kingdom of heaven.

As I think about this I realize how relaxed we have come in obedience to the word. Our relationship to the word is like our eating habits. We select what we like and eat all we want without too much concern about how it will impact our health. We pick and choose what we like; for example, things like the verse of the day, or a devotional verse, or those that make us feel good, but anything that would cost us something, take our time, or limit us in fulfilling our desires, we tend to shun. As a result, our knowledge and experience with God is limited and we are not growing in spiritual maturity as we should. We need to be more intentional in our faithfulness to the word of God.

Prayer

Father, we need to embrace Galatians 2:20 (ESV): “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We need to clearly understand that “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21 ESV). Lord, we need to be broken before you so that you can use us to accomplish great things. We also need to understand that a rich meaningful life comes when we pour ourselves out in giving ourselves in serving others, to make room to receive more. If you fill your cup and leave it full it will soon become undesirable, but if we continue to pour out some we make room to receive more, which is new and refreshing.

See "The Commands of Jesus" Index to view other commands.

Hear God's Voice

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15 ESV). At first this sentence seems out of place with little connection to what Jesus is saying. But realizing this to be a proverbial expression, frequently used by Jesus to draw attention to that which is important and which may require extra effort to understand, it then fits here as in many other places in Scripture. For example, see Matthew 13:9, Mark 4:23 and the end of each of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation.

When the reader encounters this expression, the command is too backup and read again what was written because it probably includes something of importance, which will require special attention to truly understand what is being said. In this current context, Jesus is saying that John the Baptist is the greatest of all, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater yet. Looking at verses 12 – 14, raises some interesting questions. How has the kingdom of heaven suffered violence since the days of John the Baptist? What have the prophets, of which John is the last, prophesied? How is John, Elijah who is to come? These are not easy questions to answer and may require extra study to understand. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” is a speed bump to draw your attention too slow down and think about what you just read or heard.

Prayer

Father, so often, when we read the Bible, we just read over the surface, like we were snorkeling, but we need to slow down and do some scuba diving to experience some of the beauty found at greater depths. It seems to me that this command is asking us to do more scuba reading to learn more about the mature things of God. Father, the past two years of Bible study have been so rich as to cause the things of the world to become simply shadows of what is truly real.

See "The Commands of Jesus" Index to view other commands.