Matthew 19.1-15
This passage is about a lot more than marriage! It invites us to recognise:
A. the Cosmos as it is - There is a tension between what God desires for us - what was designed and intended - and the way things are. This, before anything else, is vital to see. The world as it is not as God designed it to be, or wants it to be!
People will say, ‘how can there be a God if ......’ And we have to point out that things as they are do not reflect God as He is!
B. The relationship of Law to Christianity - the 10 commandments and all that comes with them - is about dealing with our flawed society. Conformity to the Law is expedience, not excellence. Laws work to compensate for, not solve, human sin. It’s not possible to legislate a Christian society into existence.
C. The Kingdom of Heaven -
not an ‘afterlife’, above the clouds
not a world state, enforced by ‘divine’ Law
The Kingdom of Heaven is met with and found in the process of bringing the presence and the influence of God into this world, in new and significant ways. What matters are the ‘drivers’ in our lives. Drivers that enables power and resources to find expression in purposes and results. The drivers that implement the ‘Jesus way’ in and through our lives.
What are the key drivers?
The present passage is part of a discourse about being ‘childlike’ that goes all the way back to Matthew 18.1. It is not power that defines the Kingdom of God, or is its ‘driver’. The drivers are to be:
18.1-14 Humbling ourselves:
Once we have established this agenda, we can talk about marriage:
1. It is good if we are not compelled by sexual instincts. Singleness is good. Singleness allows a clearer focus on pursuing the purposes of the Kingdom of Heaven. There are good things about being single.
2. Marriage recognises an explicitly sexual and social integration of a man and woman. Marriage exists as a social institution to recognise, embrace and harness instinctive desires for sex, physical intimacy and propagation. The two are to ‘become one’.
3. The invitation to live by the ‘drivers of the Kingdom of Heaven’ is upon the married couple in the same measure as it is upon the single person. There can develop a type of selfishness in marriage, as in singleness. The married Christian ‘unit’ and also the single Christian ‘unit’ are both called to walk the same path of discipleship.
A healthy Christian church will be made up both single and married people. The focus must be on living out together our calling to live by the ‘drivers’ of the Kingdom of Heaven, thereby allowing that Kingdom to touch other people around us here on earth.
This passage is about a lot more than marriage! It invites us to recognise:
A. the Cosmos as it is - There is a tension between what God desires for us - what was designed and intended - and the way things are. This, before anything else, is vital to see. The world as it is not as God designed it to be, or wants it to be!
People will say, ‘how can there be a God if ......’ And we have to point out that things as they are do not reflect God as He is!
B. The relationship of Law to Christianity - the 10 commandments and all that comes with them - is about dealing with our flawed society. Conformity to the Law is expedience, not excellence. Laws work to compensate for, not solve, human sin. It’s not possible to legislate a Christian society into existence.
C. The Kingdom of Heaven -
not an ‘afterlife’, above the clouds
not a world state, enforced by ‘divine’ Law
The Kingdom of Heaven is met with and found in the process of bringing the presence and the influence of God into this world, in new and significant ways. What matters are the ‘drivers’ in our lives. Drivers that enables power and resources to find expression in purposes and results. The drivers that implement the ‘Jesus way’ in and through our lives.
What are the key drivers?
The present passage is part of a discourse about being ‘childlike’ that goes all the way back to Matthew 18.1. It is not power that defines the Kingdom of God, or is its ‘driver’. The drivers are to be:
18.1-14 Humbling ourselves:
recognising the ‘other’
doing the will of God
18.15-35 Forgiving & reconciling
Once we have established this agenda, we can talk about marriage:
1. It is good if we are not compelled by sexual instincts. Singleness is good. Singleness allows a clearer focus on pursuing the purposes of the Kingdom of Heaven. There are good things about being single.
2. Marriage recognises an explicitly sexual and social integration of a man and woman. Marriage exists as a social institution to recognise, embrace and harness instinctive desires for sex, physical intimacy and propagation. The two are to ‘become one’.
3. The invitation to live by the ‘drivers of the Kingdom of Heaven’ is upon the married couple in the same measure as it is upon the single person. There can develop a type of selfishness in marriage, as in singleness. The married Christian ‘unit’ and also the single Christian ‘unit’ are both called to walk the same path of discipleship.
A healthy Christian church will be made up both single and married people. The focus must be on living out together our calling to live by the ‘drivers’ of the Kingdom of Heaven, thereby allowing that Kingdom to touch other people around us here on earth.
