elder's pen

From the Elder's Pen

LAW OR OPINION?

There is a song whose words relate a proverb. The message is “you can’t get over it, you can’t get under it, you can’t go around it, you must come in at the door.” If I may humbly use the comparison, SO IS GOD’S WORD! Man tries to go over, crawl under, or get around it to his own destruction. Why man can not just do what God says is beyond my comprehension.
Under the Mosaic Law the Jews were not to travel but a certain distance from their homes on the Sabbath. To (what they thought) get around this law, they would set up tents (according to history) along the way and travel from tent to tent calling each tent home going wherever they chose.
We have changed little through the years in our disobedience to God as man is still trying to go over, under and around what God says, rather than just simply walking through the door of compliance. It seems to me that one of god’s most abused laws, outside of baptism, is in the area of marriage, divorce, and re-marriage. God’s law on this matter is clear and simple. It takes man to confuse the issue because he wants to put tents up along the way to camouflage his sinful ways.
From the study of God’s word we learn there are only three categories of people who may marry. We have no problem understanding two of them: (1) People who have never been married, and (2) those who have lost their mate in death, may remarry only in the Lord. (I Cor. 7:39) It is the third group that seems to confuse us, those who have divorced. However, God has given ample instruction concerning this matter. The “Book” specifically states if we divorce someone or marry someone who is divorced, except it be for FORNICATION, we commit adultery, which is SIN. (Matt. 5:32 & 19:9) Let us stop trying to promote and cover our sinful desires by attempting to go over, under, or around the “Living Oracles” to support the false scenarios of Satan. Let us quit trying to bend God’s law to fit our lifestyles for GOD’S WORD WILL NOT BEND! Let us, as children of God, walk through the door on the SOLID ‘TRUTHS OF GOD!”

Walter Bishop, Elder