The Challenging Truth

Mark 10:2-16:

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”  In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.  He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

Blog:

The Good News is infallible; meaning, God’s Word is 100% Truth.  While many in the modern world and throughout His-story will try to distort what the Bible says (either by sowing a lie within the Truth or by focusing on a single verse in Scripture without its overall context with respect to itself and to the overall Bible), Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Per Jesus’ Teachings in the Gospels, Divorce is wrong.  Scripture is also crystal-clear that Marriage was only ever meant to be between a man and a woman.  While Jesus does say that divorce is allowed in cases of infidelity, according to the American Psychological Association, in America, infidelity only causes 20-40% of all divorces.  So, if roughly 50% of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce, of the 2.2M people who got married in 2019 (per the U.S. Census), 1.1M of those marriages will end in divorce; with between 220,000 and 440,000 due to infidelity.  That leaves 700,000 to 900,000 marriages that will end in divorce from 2019 for reasons other than infidelity.  While critics will argue that some were due to abuse, incarceration, and other vile sins, none are approved reasons from Jesus Christ.  And, to top things off, if those people who got divorced for anything other than infidelity marry another person, they are sinning even further by committing adultery.  The Gospel tends to lend us some very sobering perspectives; including here in Mark 10, where Jesus goes on to share, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”  It’s just that simple – we are to act with child-like Faith and to Listen to Him, Trust in Him, and, most importantly, Obey Him.  Little Children will do this with most adults of authority in their lives and Jesus isn’t asking anything more from any one of us than He asks all of His Children.  But, per the world’s standards, Scripture provides all of us some very hard challenges at times.  So, let’s be sure to remember Who’s really in charge here and to stay focused on Him – after all, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.