Tag: Divorce

In the Beginning…

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This past Sunday we kicked off a brand new teaching series called, Marriage Myths.  The idea is that when we survey the picture of marriage offered up by our culture, what we end up with is a pile of myths that leave couple disillusioned and, sometimes, divorced.  Over the next few weeks we’re going to talk about what some of these myths are and why the truth is so much better.  In this first part we begin by laying a foundation of what marriage is and what its purpose is.  Keep reading for more…

 

In the Beginning…

We live in a day in which marriage is on the wane.  That’s actually kind of funny if you think about it.  Not all that long ago it seemed like marriage was the only thing we could talk about as a nation.  The storm of who gets to define what marriage is in the first place along with who is able to be married to whom was intense.  In fact, we are still feeling its after effects.  The Obergefell decision from the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage may be behind us, but we are still only at the beginning of figuring out exactly what it will mean for our society.  The Masterpiece Cake Shop case coming up this term will have a major impact on that question.  The irony in this is that some of the most vocal supporters for marriage equality have now come out and revealed that they never really cared about getting married themselves, they just wanted to wreck the thing because they don’t believe it should exist as it does.  But, before you jump to hoot and holler at such a person, a few minutes of reflection can fairly quickly bring someone to the conclusion that while you may not agree with them, you can’t blame them all that much for harboring such hatred for marriage. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 7:6-11

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“Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)‬‬

Singleness, marriage, and divorce are tough issues to talk about.  They are emotional ones.  Singleness is a difficult journey in and of itself.   Cultural pressures to be sexually active regardless of marital status combined with pressures from the current culture of the church for everyone to be married and which suggest that singleness is a kind of second-class status make it even more difficult.  Marriage opens us up to a level of intimacy that is often a lot scary and hard to maintain.  Its “til-death-do-us-part” mantra is daunting, especially when you start it young.  And, once again, culture puts all kinds of pressure on us to make it something entirely less sacred and permanent that it was designed to be.   And, because of the intimacy of marriage, divorce is always messy.  If the Scriptures are right in that the married couple becomes one flesh, a divorce for any reason is akin to amputating a part of our body, and not something small like a toe.  It’s more like taking off an entire leg or arm.  In other words, these are big issues.   Read the rest…