Posted on 09/22/2009 7:29:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Well the new versions of the Bible came out so as to make it easy for people to study the Bible.
I have read that in Biblical times women were expected to be virgins. If the new husband discovered his bride to be used property on their wedding night he could accuse her of fornication, and if proven, she would be stoned to death. If the husband slept with her he could no longer use that as an excuse. Deuteronomy 22:13
In all of these the desire is to be “unselfish”.
Socialism - This is born of the desire to have your wants and needs provided by others. Selfish.
Marxism - Primarily driven by a desire to control others. Selfish.
Wife swapping, public tolerance and even celebration of immorality - Covetous, to begin with. Furthermore, sins of this nature are driven by the ones desire to "do things my way by my rules" while rejecting God's law. Those who push for public tolerance and/or celebration of perversion and immorality are doing so because of their own perversion and immorality. They're the same who want to shut down conservative talk radio because "it's offensive." Selfish.
Some Pharisees came to him . They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
“Haven't you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Mark 10:5 has this added note...
"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied.
(Emphasis mine)
peace
Exactly. God knows the hardness of the human heart. Remember, the Law is perfect.
When you discuss marriage between 2 believers, it is different. But when one is not a Christian, and is bent on destroying the other, allowances are made - see 1 Cor 7.
Also, note that Jesus DID allow for divorce for adultery - once the bond is severed, divorce is allowed.
I’m not praising divorce, but it isn’t quite a “no divorce” situation.
Sorry, but the tolerance for socialism, marxism, and wife-swapping arises in the great majority out of a desire to be selfless, and out of a impaired sense of self.
For some — the bullies of life — it is selfish, sure. But for the majority who get caught in them, it is a lack of strong sense of self that allows them to become trapped by the trappers of men.
“I believe no one should get married. People change over the course of a lifetime and you will not be married to the same person you married 10 years before.”
__________________
Real Love is a more of a decision, less of a warm-fuzzy emotion.
People have a lot of friendships that go back more than 10 years. Why not a friendship with your spouse?
My husband is older than when I met him, and snores more, and has gained weight. But he is still a good man with strong hands and a strong mind. I am fatter than when I met him, but I can still make him proud, put a certain twinkle in his eye, keep him company, and ease his life’s load. We have been married since 1996.
Also, people are really short-sighted about marriage, I think. Years from now, when you are old or sick and unable to care for yourself, it is these old, deep ties of loyalty and belonging that will help your loved ones help you. I think loyalty and faithfulness are a couple of the most undervalued virtues of our time, and they take years to bear fruit.
I would encourage anyone who is ready to dare to know and accept someone as they truly are to go ahead and get married. I would warmly wish the contentment and friendship of a committed, mature marriage upon everyone who is brave enough to give it a go.
bump
I think you are confusing selfishness with strength of will.
They are separate things.
There is only one sin that is not forgivable and divorce ain't it.
Thanks for posting. Dr. Laura talks about 3 exceptions to staying in a marriage, the AAA (”triple A”). Abuse, adultery, and addiction.
While my little ones were playing in the bathtub, I managed to read the beginning of St. Catherine of Siena’s “Dialogues”. She talks of suffering being of no merit unless it is united with Christ’s love. Here is a paragraph:
Then, the Eternal Truth seized and drew more strongly to Himself her desire, doing as He did in the Old Testament, for when the sacrifice was offered to God, a fire descended and drew to Him the sacrifice that was acceptable to Him; so did the sweet Truth to that soul, in sending down the fire of the clemency of the Holy Spirit, seizing the sacrifice of desire that she made of herself, saying: “Do you not know, dear daughter, that all the sufferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in this life, are insufficient to punish one smallest fault, because the offense, being done to Me, who am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfaction? However, I wish that you should know, that not all the pains that are given to men in this life are given as punishments, but as corrections, in order to chastise a son when he offends; though it is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be expiated by the desire of the soul, that is, by true contrition, not through the finite pain endured, but through the infinite desire; because God, who is infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite grief. Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me. Of such as these, inasmuch as they have infinite desire, that is, are joined to Me by an affection of love, and therefore grieve when they offend Me, or see Me offended, their every pain, whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for a guilt which deserved an infinite penalty, although their works are finite and done in finite time; but, inasmuch as they possess the virtue of desire, and sustain their suffering with desire, and contrition, and infinite displeasure against their guilt, their pain is held worthy. Paul explained this when he said: If I had the tongues of angels, and if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned, and have not love, it would be worth nothing to me. The glorious Apostle thus shows that finite works are not valid, either as punishment or recompense, without the condiment of the affection of love.”
Then why ask what God wants?
i’m betting she wrote exclusively in lowercase letters and listened obsessively to rush limbaugh/glennbeck/michael savage....
Sorry I shan’t join in re-writing the dictionary.
She liked to call names and report me to the moderator, too.
She was a harridan and a bitch but she’s a good mom to the boys, I’ll give her that.
dang, she’s a freeper? wow.
“I’ve always wondered what married men or women who take scripture seriously should do if their spouse are habitually abusive.”
________
I have read an article about Catholic teaching on this that said, in the case of abuse, you should separate. Emphatically, you do not have to put up with abuse. But you do leave the door open that someday the person may have a change of heart and learn to behave appropriately. The possibility for God’s grace to work to convert his or her heart is still there, but you have your safety and dignity. The abusive spouse may change, God willing, or they may divorce you. But you did not break your commitment.
I have actually seen this play out. My husband’s aunt (evangelical Protestant) was married to an unfaithful, abusive man. She threw him out, and he divorced her, but she never remarried. She considered herself still married in God’s eyes. She raised her kids, taught school, lived her faith, and died at 91, having visited every continent.
God did not save her marriage; her spouse was not open to His Grace. But God did save her. Her life was full of joy and good purpose, friends and adventures. At her funeral, all kinds of people, shared about her goodness, her service to others, her perseverance in the face of difficulties.
The marital bond is between you, your spouse and God. God and Aunt Lois kept their bond, and she had a full life.
What happened at her spouse’s funeral? Who knows.
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