Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9:1-17.
Many today have a casual attitude toward the institution of marriage. As a result, there are many divorces in our society. These divorced persons often end up marrying someone else. This is seen by many as normal and acceptable. Yet John the Baptist opposed such unlawful remarriages even though it ended up costing him his life.
“For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so” (Mark 6:17-19).
Though many today recognize the tragedy of divorce, once the initial damage is done, they believe that the slate is wiped clean and the divorced person – regardless of the cause of the divorce – is free to remarry whomever he/she chooses. Yet this is not what the Scriptures teach.
John acknowledged that Herodias was married to Herod. Yet this was “not lawful.” Though she was married to Herod, she was still “the wife of…Philip.” How could John say this was unlawful? He was not accusing Herod of breaking a human law and committing a crime. Instead, this was unlawful because it was a violation of God’s law regarding marriage.
God intended marriage to be a lifelong relationship between a man and a woman (Matthew 19:4-6). Once a couple is joined by God in marriage (Matthew 19:6), any sexual relationship that would follow by one of the partners with another was considered adultery unless one’s spouse had died (Romans 7:2-3) or one had put away his spouse for fornication (Matthew 19:9).
Though the laws of man permit one to marry someone who is bound to someone else (as in the case of Herod marrying Herodias who was still bound to Philip), God’s law does not permit such. We need to conform to God’s rules rather than society’s norms (Romans 12:2).
Tomorrow’s reading: John 6
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
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