Key Verses: 3, 9, 11, 15, 22, 27, 45,
Command V Permit. The battle to define the
edges of morality continues today. In Jesus’ day human excuses put down in
their guiding principles allowed them to divorce their wives for very small
meaningless infractions, like burning the toast. In Muslim countries today,
divorce and even honor killings take place under a similar type of system. Talk
about a violation of the character of God. We who are made in His image are
supposed to reflect Him in our lives. Every area should reflect His character,
not just areas that are convenient for us today.
Jesus answers a question with a question in
order to get at this edge as they defined it. Notice that they don’t answer His
question. He asks about command and they answer about permit. They want to
expand the exception without enforcing the rule. Jesus wants to uphold the
rule.
We hear this expanding of the exception in
the abortion debate in our country. Over a million abortions take place in this
country every year. From the argument for abortion we must allow them all in
order to protect those women who get pregnant as a result of rape or incest.
Let me state clearly, rape and incest are never justified. They are always an
affront to the individual, the society and to God. But protecting these women
(but not the babies) gives justification to killing the millions of other
babies. How many abortions really are because of rape and incest? The edge gets
expanded to justify sin. Jesus will have none of this type of argument.
I have even heard people justify divorce by
saying that their marriage was not one that God joined together. Edge thinking.
Divorce is not the unforgivable sin. But it is sin none the less, sin that
needs to be confessed and forgiven. And forgiveness is available for it, and
for all our sins, individual and collective. All of us need God’s grace and
forgiveness.
Kids don’t deal in edge thinking, most of
the time. They usually ignore the exceptions, and try to apply the rule
everywhere. Those exceptions are often hard to get. Wealth is not evil in and
of itself. What we do with our wealth matters. Are we hording or generous. The
percentage of income given to charity by each of the presidential candidates
gave me an insight into their attitude about money. Both are millionaires. One
expects others to help the less fortunate, and the other actually does. How do
we stand with our wealth, small or great? Are we hording for ourselves, or
generous toward others?
Even impossible things, like entering God’s
presence, are possible in Jesus. We have to be willing to drop it all, to give
it all up, to value eternity more than our stuff. God might call us to actually
leave it all. But there is an inconvenient promise for those who advocate
poverty: one hundred times as much in this present age. I am not saying that we
will get rich if we give it all way, but that once we let go of our stuff, God
is able to bless us in multiple ways. There might even be material blessings.
True leadership is service. Leaders who are
in it for themselves are not leaders. They are leaches and parasites, certainly
not leaders. Leaders should serve for the advantage of those they lead. Leaders
bear the burden and responsibility of those they lead. Jesus became the ransom.
He served. He led.