Matthew 19:1 - 12

Jesus is asked a question about divorce, by not just anyone, but by the Pharisees.

The Pharisees are religious Jews who applied the Torah in minute detail. 

They poured exorbitant energy into interpreting the Law, often looking for loopholes. If they could define exactly what was inbounds and what was out-of-bounds, they felt they could then live perfectly.

I was a bit like that. I remember one day asking my dad why the church’s teachings were so hard to attain. I remember him saying that the church taught what perfection looked like so we would strive for it.

When you ask what fulfilling the Law looks like, it looks like perfection. That is brutal news for anyone who is living under the Law. 

I was.

Every time I failed to achieve the perfect standard that was being held up to me, I felt God was disappointed in me.

Before I go into the flawed theology in that belief, can I make an observation? If you ever played on a sports team, or sang in choir, or performed on stage, or studied in school, or…Then you were involved in an enterprise where your coach, director, teacher, etc. held up high standards. There were games, concerts, performances, and tests along the way. Even if you won the game, or nailed the singing and acting, or even scored 100% on the exam—you could always improve, learn more, and develop new skills and techniques.

Somehow, we live many aspects of our lives in an imperfect manner, and simply keep trying. When it comes to religion, we seem to freeze up.

Turning now to Scripture, there is one key point I had to learn.

I needed to learn the difference between living in open rebellion against God versus seeking to live for him, and stumbling. If you are trying to follow Jesus, you will sin. You will not be perfect. You (and I) need to repent of our sin, ask his forgiveness and receive His grace. We then need to keep pressing on without thinking God does not love us.

If this stumbling is in a recurring area (the fancy phrase is a “besetting sin”) then you need to seriously address it, perhaps with your pastor.

Following Jesus, and sinning means you know you are sinning. You are sorry you are sinning. You should be seriously trying not to sin. BUT you should not implode when you ultimately fail. You should turn to God.

Living this way is completely different then living in rebellion against God. Rebelling against God means you do not care if you sin. You are not sorry. You do not want to try and change. You are in essence shaking your fist at God.

When you are in open rebellion, God’s grace is not present for you.

The situation we read of today is less about divorce, and more about people trying to trap Jesus. 

It does however bring up the situation of divorce. I write about it here, under the title: Divorce: Can We Talk About It?

Divorce is serious and I pray the linked blog post might help you, but when Jesus is asked if it is Lawful, he is being asked about God’s perfect Law. 

Which is why we need to strive to align our lives to God and God’s Law, not living in rebellion, but living as followers of Jesus. We need to expect we will fall short, and when we do, we need to run to Jesus for his forgiveness, and receiving his grace.