The cause of marrige problems
July 9, 2009
The life of Jesus. Read Today: Parable explained in private; Matthew 15:12-20; Mark 7:17-23
Matthew 15:19-20 CEV
(19) Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, vulgar deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others.
(20) These are what make you unclean. Eating without washing your hands will not make you unfit to worship God.
My church has been doing a series on the family while our pastor was out with surgery. Many of the other people in the church, who with the knowledge they have could easily have been pastors at other churches, have stepped in and focused on things from their specialties. You would think with about 10 different people hitting the topic of families and marriages that they would have exhausted all the scriptures on them. Maybe because I was so aware of the topic because of this, but in reading today's verses I saw something I never saw before. One of those 'when did God put that in the Bible' moments. Did you see the family related part of the verse?
Unfaithfulness in marriage, it comes from the heart. The King James calls it fornication and adultery, let's call it what it is. It would never have been done if there was faithfulness in the marriage. That unfaithfulness comes from you and me, not the other people in our relationship. When the husband wishes that his wife would respect him more, or strays to look at other woman, that gives him no reason to cross the line. Likewise, the woman who thinks that life should be one big romantic story like she sees in the movies and TV, and wonders why her husband can not be like that and starts to look elsewhere, she has in her heart crossed the line.
We are not to seek our completion in our mate, we are to seek it in Jesus. It does not matter what the mate says or does, it is most important for us to keep our hearts pure and not cross that line. God puts that up there with murder, and we know how bad that is. Next time you think about getting out of a relationship, look at your heart to see where it is coming from.
Read for tomorrow: Gentile woman's faith; Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30
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