God’s Will for Marriage
Pastor Rong
Translated by Allan Liang
Mark 10:1-12
In this place where many people gathered, Jesus publicly refuted the fashionable views of the Pharisees on divorce, and moreover, enlarged the issue, turning to God’s fundamental will for marriage; the ethics of marriage of the heavenly kingdom cannot be compromised. (Mark 10:1-2) How did the Lord Jesus explain Moses’ command relating to divorce? It was to return to the beginning of creation, what the will of God for marriage was. The institution of marriage was established by God, making marriage holy and sanctified, and regardless of whether the persons involved in the marriage were or were not Christians, the truth that God established marriage is not affected. Therefore, the two parties in marriage must accept and obey the law established by God, that marriage is between husband and wife, between one man and one woman, not one man and many women, or one woman and many men, neither is it between two men or two women. (Genesis 2:18-25) But coming back to real life, divorce appears to be a strong current that ravages modern society. Not only non-Christians view divorce very openly and liberally, even church-attending Christians appear to keep the matter of divorce close to their lips. When married couples argue, the matter of divorce is often raised. If the mention of divorce was used only as a threat, then the matter would not be as severe, but in reality, there are people who carry their words to action. Actually, we ought to know, whenever we have such thoughts, or even flashes of such thoughts, we should be conscious that their destructive nature is sin to God, and immediately reject and remove them from our hearts. We must always guard our hearts, and the light of the Holy Spirit will render sin unable to gain any footing in us. But the present age is wicked, even the leader of our country participates in homosexual activities and parades, revealing the full extent of the matter. Due to the ethical corruption of society, all kinds of poisonous and harmful trends have emerged: trial marriage, cohabitation, extramarital relationships, and so forth. These negative influences will certainly have an impact on our children and descendants as they become accustomed with such trends and gradually relax their self-control, resulting in an impaired morality and an inability to obey all the words of God. Under such circumstances, one mis-step, and problems will arise, casting one into dangerous snares. Consequently, let us engrave the words of Scripture in our hearts: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (Peter 5:8-9) Thanks be to our God, our church has a month set apart every year as the marriage and family month, with Sunday sermons covering such topics. Let us in our everyday lives, carry up the responsibilities of nurturing and teaching our next generation, and also of great importance, set our lives as an example, and bring forth prayers and petitions for our next generation! Brothers and sisters, at the mention of marriage, we naturally think of our children and the next generation; we must pass on biblical values of marriage to our children and the many generations to follow, getting on our knees to pray for our next generation and the church’s next generation. Please ponder: What is your burden in this area of prayer? Are you willing to pray for this in the long term? May God bless all those who listen to His Word and all God-fearing generations to come!