Love Society

By: Matthew Robert Payne

The first scripture passage is

Malachi 2:13-16 (NKJV)
13 And this is the second thing you do:

You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,

With weeping and crying;

So He does not regard the offering any more,

Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.

14 Yet you say, “For what reason?”

Because the LORD has been witness

Between you and the wife of your youth,

With whom you have dealt treacherously;

Yet she is your companion

And your wife by covenant.

15 But did He not make them one,

Having a remnant of the Spirit?

And why one?

He seeks godly offspring.

Therefore take heed to your spirit,

And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

16 “ For the LORD God of Israel says

That He hates divorce,

For it covers one’s garment with violence,”

Says the LORD of hosts.

“ Therefore take heed to your spirit,

That you do not deal treacherously.”

Folks, no matter what has been done between husband and wife, the LORD God of Israel, the Christian God says here in prophecy that HE HATES DIVORCE!

There is no way around this verse. It is printed here in plain English and the Holy Spirit not only wanted it in this document, He wanted this passage as number one in the document.

Every marriage is a covenant between God and the couple, and also a covenant between man and wife. God pushes this point home in verse 15 when he says: But did He not make them one. The italics on the word “them” means the couple were made one by the LORD himself, so what right do mortals have to go to a human court of law and seek a divorce when God hates it?

God says that divorce covers a person’s garment with violence. He says therefore take heed to your spirit. In other words, God says, get a hold of yourself and do not go down this path of divorce.

Oh it’s hard to hear for many of you. “But my partner has done this and my partner has done that,” you cry.

Divorce is saying to God that He cannot fix your marriage. Divorce is saying to God, I don’t want to be like You and forgive, I want out and I want it now!

The second verse the Holy Spirit has placed upon my heart is
Psalm 146:3-5

3 Do not put your trust in princes,

Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;

In that very day his plans perish.

5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,

Whose hope is in the LORD his God,

When we take things into our own hands, give up on marriage and go to divorce we are putting our trust in man because in divorcing we are doing something that God hates. Verse 5 says a person who instead has the God of Jacob for his help is not sad, but happy.

The law courts are not filled with experts and they are not filled with justice. They are full of the sons of men granting divorces to the masses when they should not be doing that at all.

Pastors in churches all around the world are marrying people in second marriages when Jesus and Paul had very clear words against it. This practice of divorcing one partner is really only popular these days because it opens up the opportunity to

re-marry and try again. Yet Paul and Jesus clearly state that second marriages are adultery.

The third verse is what Paul said in Romans.

Romans 7:2-3
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

Only in death does a person find the covenant of marriage broken. A person is able to divorce for sexual immorality but this does not free them to re-marry, it is just allowing them to no longer live with that partner. They should remain single from that point on, or rather forgive their spouse and stay married.
I like to look at it this way.

If Jesus was like the modern world of married couples we would all be in trouble. As the bride of Christ we often take on other lovers, other desires, things of the world are our idols and we sin and sin and sin. We all commit spiritual adultery and break Jesus’ heart over and over again. He certainly has grounds for divorcing us, and yet He is full of mercy and grace and forgives us every time we sin. Over time this grace has such a powerful effect on us that we actually cease certain sins because Jesus has proven He loves us so much.

Bill Clinton could have been kicked out of his home, his wife’s bed, and divorced in front of the whole world by his wife Hillary, but no, his wife and daughter chose to forgive him and they set an example for the whole world.

We as sinners should be divorced by Jesus every single week for what we do and how we willingly transgress the Holy Commandments yet He forgives us in order to set an example as to how we should love others.

We too should set an example and forgive our partners and not divorce them but pray for them. We should not so easily go the way of the sons of men and go to the courts for a piece of paper that says we don’t have to forgive and go on with our marriage. Jesus said the same thing as Paul in the following verse.

The fourth verse is
Mark 10:11-12
11 So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Now if you are reading this, there will only be about one of you in fifty that will allow the Holy Spirit to minister the truth of this verse to you. The problem with the modern Christian is that they have been taught a lie. It all seemed to start when one king couldn’t re-marry to find a wife that could give him a son and so he started his own church so he didn’t have to obey the teachings that the Bible had on divorce and re-marriage. It’s been quite okay from that day to this day to divorce and re-marry but it has not been okay with God.

The sad truth is that most people these days trust the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures to mere men and the knowledge that they have of most verses they know come from the teachings of men. Psalm 146 above says not to put your trust in the sons of Kings (princes) or put your trust in the sons of men, but to put your trust in God alone.

No human taught me that re-marriage was against what God wanted for my life. My wife had divorced me and it was some years later that I was reading Matthew 5:31-32 when I began to cry. Wondering what was happening I asked the Holy Spirit was what I thought the verse was saying to me really saying what I thought. Jesus answered me and asked me what I thought the verse was saying. I replied that I thought it was saying that I could not re-marry and Jesus said, “Yes that is correct Matthew.”

Since that day I have taken many years to come to grips with being single for the rest of my life. Today I am quite content as I have some nice friends that are girls and I am looking forward to entering the ministry full time in the future which will involve a lot of travel and a wife would really miss me.

No one had preached to me what this verse I was reading meant. It was the Holy Spirit that made me cry and Jesus Himself that confirmed my question that taught me. Much scripture is taught to me direct like that, and this is a point the Holy Spirit wants me to make with the following scripture.

The fifth verse

1 John 2:27

27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

God is true to His Word. If you pray enough and spend enough time in the presence of God and live a righteous life, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and the Bible will come alive. The same Holy Spirit that woke me up an hour ago and is giving me the verses to quote and things to say, will teach you also. The reason we rely so much on books and CD’s and sermons for our Christian growth is essentially because we are lazy.

No one can ever convince me to marry, no one can ever convince me that I am wrong, simply because the Holy Spirit does not lie as the verse above simply states. The trick is to be able to “hear” the Holy Spirit speak to you in your Christian walk.

Now I don’t write this article to make you sad and depressed. When I sat down to type I needed a strong coffee to convince me to stay up. I had no idea that the Holy Spirit was going to address this divorce and re-marriage issue. I hate this topic because every time the Holy Spirit makes me address someone in this situation it ends in a relationship being lost. But I can see the wisdom in this article because a few of you might re-consider your divorce if your really believe you can’t re-marry and you might work to save your marriage in prayer and fasting, and with forgiveness. Which brings us to the next scripture.

The sixth verse

1 John 2:9-10
9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.

10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

Divorce according to God is violence and dealing treacherously with your partner. This cannot really be done in love as violence is not something that should be done to a person that we love. It’s often times a brewing hate in the heart of a partner that causes them to go through the motions and the expense and the hassles of divorce against their partner. And when this occurs, John says we are in darkness.

However, John says if we love our brother/spouse then we are in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in us. You see love is the answer, not a court of law, but more love. Divorcing your spouse is only a result of not loving them anymore, and how can you say you love God when you don’t love the person you married?

The seventh verse

1 John 3:10

10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
When God says, I hate divorce and take heed of your spirit and you instead in your heart harbour unforgiveness, hate and malice and go ahead and divorce because of the hardness of your heart, are you really doing what God wants, or playing into the hands of the evil one?

Even Jesus said that the only reason divorce came into being was because of the hardness of the peoples hearts. He said quite clearly that in the beginning that this was not so. Man was only granted grounds for divorce for sexual immorality because they were brute beasts and stubborn and rebellious against the heart of God. If God really was on the side of people divorcing for immorality then the prophet Hosea would never have been asked to marry a prostitute and endure her unfaithfulness.

Divorce is essentially saying to God, “I don’t love my spouse anymore, and I don’t really care what You think about it anymore God. I am going to do something that you hate.”

Matthew shares his faith on the streets of Sydney through conventional evangelism and prophetic evangelism, he preaches sometimes at the churches he attends, and is part of an online prayer website where he prays for people online at http://www.online-prayer.net

He writes articles here each week when he gets the time and would love to hear from you if you have a question for him.

The further reading on divorce and re- marriage that he mentions in this article can be found at http://www.marriagedivorce.com/mdebook.htm

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