...and will
continue to lose until something radically changes.
Recently, Ellen
and I were at a support group we attend, and were glad to see a
member we hadn't seen for a couple of years. However, we were
surprised to see him with a woman we didn't know, who he introduced
as his bride. The last time he'd attended the group, it had been with
his wife – who was another woman. We'd both had some hints that
something had changed in their relationship, but were not expecting
to see him show up claiming a different woman as his wife.
To make things
worse, this support group is based out of a Christian church.
Even worse, the
group's purpose is to support and strengthen Christian marriage.
Even worse, the
man in question was a pastor.
Think about this
for a minute.
Even knowing
nothing about the circumstances behind the couple's separation (which
we don't), having no idea whose “fault” things were (even if that
made any difference), we have a man who claims to not only know the
Word of God but to teach it to others acting as if Jesus never spoke
these words:
“Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.” (Matt 19:4-9)
Even if we
charitably assume that the pastor's marriage had enough difficulties
to make it intolerable, that still does not explain the “remarriage”.
The couple could have separated for the sake of peace, but still
respected Jesus' words by not “remarrying”. I don't know what's
going on with the wife, but the husband should have known better,
especially if he was taking Jesus' words seriously.
Sadly, this
situation is all to common in our culture, and puts us all in a place
of perplexitas, to use
Aquinas' term: a situation with no easy, charitable solution. How
should one handle a couple in a “second marriage”, especially
under these circumstances? Ask them not to attend out of respect for
the integrity of God's word, thus cutting them off from a possible
channel of grace? (Not to mention risk being accused of what is to
our culture a mortal sin, i.e. being “judgmental”?) Or tolerate
their presence at the risk of eroding the authority of God's word?
And what will be the long-term effect of this life decision on that
man's own integrity and authority? How clearly and firmly is he going
to preach on the matter of the Biblical view of marriage with his
“second wife” sitting right there in the pew?
When
the ancient Israelites started straying into idolatry, they didn't
jettison Yahweh – they just let other practices and beliefs creep
in to sit alongside their practice of Torah.
In fact, I've heard that the warning portion of the First Commandment
(“You shall have no other gods before me”) carries the inflection
of “in my presence” - or, to use the modern idiom, “in my
face”. The meaning is that to honor other gods in Yahweh's presence
is to flaunt them before Him. One gets the impression that this
double-worship, this state of divided heart, is more detestable to
the Lord than outright
rejection. This is certainly the sense of Elijah's rebuke: “And
Elijah came near to all the people, and said, 'How long will you go
limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him;
but if Baal, then follow him.'” (1 Kings 18:21) Yet this is
precisely what we have come to accommodate in the Church today, even
from leaders: lip service to the Word of God and its authority, yet
appealing to the gods of the world when God's Word is too stringent
or demanding.
That very week, a
group of pastors in the area protested strongly against amending our
state's anti-discrimination statute to include “discrimination”
against LGBT parties.)
Sympathetic as I am to the ideal, it's a rearguard action. We've
long since ceded the critical grounds of the battle, with
mealy-mouthed accommodation of divorce and remarriage, fornication,
abortion, and contraception. Now we have our backs to the gate,
fighting to hold the final corner from being taken. Ultimately it's a
losing battle, unless and until we obey Jesus' commands in a way that
costs us. As long as we pay lip service to obeying Jesus but take
short-cuts by way of the paths of other gods when obedience becomes
too costly, we will be driven back.
We shouldn't have
our backs to the wall. We should be routing the enemy from the field,
not just to vindicate our Lord but for the sake of all those poor
victims out there who are being deceived into thinking that they can
find happiness outside of God's plan for all humanity. They're the
ones who are suffering most for our disobedience. Only when we obey
all of Jesus' words will we
be victorious, and be able to witness with our own lives that even
costly obedience is worth every ounce of sacrifice, because
it is the only path to freedom and true happiness.
Until
then, we will lose.
