The King Legislates Marriage

The recording stopped just over halfway through the sermon, at the conclusion of the first point. The second and third points are as follows:

2. Because God’s will for marriage is committed faithfulness, divorce is only permitted when your spouse is unfaithful (19:7-9). The only permission for divorce is in cases of sexual immorality--of sex outside God’s good design. God designed sex to be enjoyed only between a married man and woman. No exceptions. King Jesus is saying that you are permitted to divorce your spouse when he or she has committed sexual sin. Most clearly sexual sin involves adultery. This second point applies to believers in two most basic ways: (a) followers of Jesus, there must be no sex outside of marriage; (b) followers of Jesus must stay married. If there is no unfaithfulness, divorce is not an option. (And, woe to you, if you're subtly manipulating circumstances to encourage your spouse to be unfaithful.) Believers, stay married. Be "all in." Don't throw in the towel. Work through your problems. Marriage involves hard work over the long haul.

3. Because God’s will for marriage is committed faithfulness, singleness may be your calling (19:10-12). Jesus doesn’t value single disciples over married disciples, but neither does he devalue them. Jesus values singleness as a way of life for his disciples as much as he values marriage. Notice that Jesus doesn’t give a third option--it’s either living with the challenges of singleness before God or living with the challenges of marriage before God. In these final verses (19:10-12) Jesus decrees that both marriage and singleness are hard but good callings from God, and that single disciples are valued.