Marriage and Divorce, God's View

It's good to be back! For those who have faithfully followed Truth Is... I apologize for the long wait.

I was talking to a special friend the other day and they asked a question about a very sensitive and sadly quite common subject: Adultry. This prompted the emergence from my hiatus, and after prayerful consideration the following is what has been given to me to share with you...

To put things into perspective, I 'll tell you that I not only am speaking from the written Word, but my own experience; Truth Is...

When contemplating marriage, it is essential to understand that this is not something that should be taken lightly or done out of rash compulsion. Of course, anyone who has been married or considered it has heard this before. But due to our "human-ness" or imperfection, we often push aside the depth of the wisdom in this counsel and go forward into something we later regret and often end up abusing the sanctity of something that is highly regarded by our creater.

Understand this: it was God who actually invented the institution of marriage. Throughout his Word he emphasises his point of view about it and the way that we treat this arrangement can substantially effect our relationship with God! In early Jewish culture under God, He established just how serious the marriage bond should be taken. Read Leviticus 20:10...here it says that BOTH participants in an adulterous relationship should be "put to death without fail...". Pretty deep huh? 1Corinthians 6:9 goes on to say that adulterers are among those who :"will not inherit God's kingdom...". That being said, isn't it a wonderful thing that we have the loving kindness and understanding of our Lord who knows just how messed up we really are at this point in mankind's existence where He will work with us to return us to his favor; and Thank God for Jesus and his unselfishness in providing the basis for such help from his Father!

Now this opportunity for forgiveness is not a "free pass" as it were to commit sin(s) with the expectation of having it/them absolved. To think so and act in such a light would be taking God's benevolence for granted, and in truth rolling the dice as they say with your salvation. As God knows the heart, if there be treachery within accompanied with disrespect for God's arrangement(s) both for marriage and forgiveness, your forgiveness nor salvation are assured. Now there are those who believe that "Once saved always saved" and that one cannot lose their salvation. But of course God has something to say about that when He had Paul write that "I browbeat my body and lead it as a slave that somehow I do not become disapproved...". Now who of us has God ordained to write several books of his Word and to perform acts and deeds such as Paul did? Yet here is paul saying that he was not assured of salvation until as he said he ran the race until the end where he would receive the prize. If Paul could lose his election, be assured that you can too!

As I said, I speak from experience; so let me share a bit of that: I at one time had been involved deeply in the ministry. I needed (or felt so anyway) a wife. Given the Truth about my nature, I probably did need one. My highschool sweetheart had absolutly NO interest in marriage to someone involved in the ministry. It conflicted greatly with her chosen lifestyle. Subsequently, to quench my own primal needs and other base interests I quckly married a most beautiful woman that I had conviced myself I was deeply in love with. She was gorgeous! and a very sweet person too; but I didn't allow time to learn her or allow the relationship to grow before jumping into marriage. True, in time my love for her became quite real, but by that time I had stepped away from the marriage and committed adultry. Wracked with guilt and shame as well as Godly fear, I told on myself and stepped down from my ministerial position. I do not believe in playing with God and would never take the position of headship/leadership over his sheep when I was totally unworthy. What does God have to do with that which is unclean?

Anyway, the person I cheated on my lovely wife with was none other than my highschool sweetheart! The very one who disdained marriage to me because of my ministry, I allowed to lure me away from it!. Shamed and dejected; full of self loathing, I tried to "fix it", by actually marrying the woman I cheated with. I truly did love her and was sure God would understand and hopefully forgive.Well, as the years passed, our relationship went from bad to worse and great hardships befell us, particularly me. My spirituality suffered the most, and in effect I denied God an instrument He had chosen for his work. I'm sure you know this had no good ending. My descent continued and the negative results from that adulterous relationship affect me and my loved ones to this very day. This is 29 years ago ok?

Let me put this into perspective for you: God DOES forgive. But the CONSEQUENCES of our actions can and will be there. These consquences effect not only us, but our families, friends, and in many cases such as mine, our fellow believers. Just as many within the congregation were hurt by my fall from grace, you never know how many people around you look your way for inspiration and uplifting. That is why the bible counsels us to "watch how we walk". As Christians, that should be the biggest motivation to stay within God's arrangement(s) next to not wanting to displease God himself; that we don't cause a stumbling to our fellow christians. Read Matthew 18:6 for more inspiriation on that note.

What I am saying here, and there will be follow-up articles on this subject; is that we have to remember the part of the ritual that says" What God has put together, let no man put assunder...". That includes women too! Marriage is a pact between you, your mate and GOD! It's a contract that can only be broken by an act of adultry, and we know how God feels about the adulterer!(see above). Sadly it's not always your fault that you're unhappy in a relationship. Several types of abuse can come into play including one rarely spoken of: when your mate ceases to be the person they presented to you and / or ceases to work at the relationship. That is abusive and surely someone out there understands what I am saying.

I particularly feel for the lady who wrote a comment to one of my previous articles that had suffered through a terrible marriage. But she did not forsake the marriage bond out of Godly fear, how commendable! Hebrews 6:10 says that God is not unrighteous so as to forget the suffering(s) you experience for his sake. Truly this woman's faith shall be remembered and deeply rewarded by our heavenly father! Yet it is saddening to think of all that she went through. But is not our entire life a series of tests, trials, tribulations, and true rewards for faithfulness?!

If you are in an adulterous relationship, I encourage to to write to me here at hubpages. I invite you to an open forum where you can remain anonymous, yet receive counsel and exchange information. As I said, there shall be follow-up articles to this one and your questions are not only welcome, but encouraged. in the meantime the one thing that I suggest to each of you is to pray...Pray without ceasing. Prayer brings God into even closer proximity to you, and often prevents you from straying or continuing to stray into dangerous areas of life, it also is the only true way to get to RIGHT answers...TRUTH IS...