Today’s passage: Matthew 5:31-37
Helpful thoughts:
- Parents, if you are using these thoughts and questions for family devotions, please read through the content first before you begin…use discretion appropriate to your child’s level of maturity.
- In this passage again, marriage is defined as a union between one man, and one woman, for life.
- Jesus specifically is emphasizing the permanence of the relationship.
- The reason it is adultery to marry another man’s wife is because she is supposed to be another man’s wife.
- The same thing is true the other way around.
- Only sexual immorality is given by Jesus as a warranted reason to end the union. Since the act of sexual immorality itself unites a person to another…the union has already been severed.
- Remember, sin is at the heart level. Pornography IS cheating.
- Also note, this is a reason why divorce would be warranted, but it is not a command. A marriage that has experienced the pain and rejection that sexual immorality causes can be healed by the grace of God!
- See 1 Corinthians 7 for more helpful principles during difficult situations in the marriage union.
- Oaths had become commonplace in the culture Jesus was speaking directly into.
- They were made for minuscule obligations.
- They were made to impress people.
- They were made in order to lie and manipulate.
- It is better to just do what you say than to impress people in the way you speak.
Questions to consider:
- Why is it so important to honor your word?
- What things do people vow at their wedding?
- How could yesterday’s passage (Radical amputation) help you win victory with the struggles that could pertain to today’s passage?
- Compare and contrast the view of marriage and sex found in these passages with the world’s view today.
- What would be the benefit(s) of viewing marriage and sex the way God does? (Would it be acceptable to have a different view than God?)
- Why is there hope for people who have sinned in the areas of marriage and/or sex? Are these unpardonable sins?
- Can you think of some examples of people in Scripture whom God used in a great way after they had fallen into sin in these areas?