In a similar way, Jesus settled the question of divorce by an appeal to the original marriage ordinance. Since husband and wife were made one by the Creator's [God's] decree, The Lord Jesus Christ pointed out, divorce was an attempt to undo the work of God. If the law later allowed for divorce in certain situations, that was a concession to human being's inability to keep God's commandment.

The Lord Jesus Christ actually injected 'New Life' into the ethical principals of the Law of Moses. But He did NOT impose a new set of laws that could be enforced by external sanctions. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ prescribed a 'Way of Life' for His faithful, believers and followers. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, and in the Old Testament:

God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.'
                                      God created man in the image of Himself
                                      in the image of God He created him,
                                      male and female He created them. - Gen. 1:26-27 -

Yahweh God built the rib He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
                                      'This as last is bone from my bones,
                                      and flesh from my flesh!
                                      This is to be called woman,
                                      for this was taken from man.'

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body. - Gen. 2:22-24 -

The Question About Divorce In The New Testament

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test Him they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on pretext whatever?' Jesus Christ answered, 'Have you not read that the Creator's [God's] from the beginning made them male and female and that He said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.' - Matt. 19:3-6 -

They [Pharisees] said to Him, 'Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?' - Deut. 24:1-4 - 'It is because you were so unteachable' He said 'that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife - I am not speaking of fornication - and marries another, is guilty of adultery.' - Matt. 19:7-9 -

'The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.' - Mark 10:1-12 -

Now for the questions about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman; but since sex is always a danger, let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband must give his wife what she has the right to expect, and so too the wife to the husband.The wife has no rights over her own body; it is the husband who has them. In the same way, the husband has no rights over his body; the wife has them.

Do not refuse each other except by mutual consent, and then only for an agreed time, to leave yourselves free for prayer; then come together again in case Satan [creature] should take advantage of your weakness to tempt you. This is a suggestion, not a rule: I should like everyone to be like me, but everybody has his own particular gifts from God, one with a gift for one thing and another with a gift for the opposite. - 1 Cor. 7:1-7 -

For the married I have something to say, and this is not from me but from the Lord: a wife must not leave her husband - or if she does leave him, she must either remain unmarried or else make it up with her husband - nor must a husband send his wife away. - 1 Cor. 7:10-11 -

You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ Jesus; do you think I can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Never! As you know, a man who goes with a prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one flesh. But anyone who is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ is one spirit with Him.

Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body; but to fornicate is to sin against your own body. Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received Him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is, why you should use your body for the glory of God. - 1 Cor. 6:15-20 -

The Morals Of The Home

Give way to one another in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as the Lord Jesus Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to the Lord Jesus Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.

Husbands should love their wives just as the Lord Jesus Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for the Church, to make the Church holy. The Lord Jesus Christ made her [Church] clean by washing her [Church] in water with a form of words, so that when He took her to Himself she would be glorious with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.

In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way the Lord Jesus Christ treats the Church, because it is His body - and we are its living parts.

For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body.

This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband. - Eph. 5:21-33 -

Since the Law could punish a person for breaking the 'Ten Commandments'. Jesus Christ was careful to point out that the 'Judgment' is God's, not man's. But Jesus maintained that the act itself was the outcome of a person's internal thought and action.

The title 'Son of Man' was Jesus' favorite way of referring to Himself. Jesus applied this title to Himself in a general way and as the one Who exercised exceptional authority, that is, authority delegated to Him by God. Jesus spoke of His authority as the Son of Man at the end time. He also stated to the high priest and other members of the supreme court of Israel. For instances:

The Coming Of The Son Of Man

But in those days, after that time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too He will send the angels to gather His chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven. - Mark 13:24-27 -

The high priest then stood up before the whole assembly and put this question to Jesus, 'Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?' But Jesus was silent and made no answer at all. The high priest put a second question to Him, 'Are you the Christ' [Messiah or The Anointed One] he said 'the Son of the Blessed One?' "I am" said Jesus 'and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.' - Mark 14:60-62 -

Thus, "Jesus is Lord" is the ultimate Christian creed. A Christian, therefore, is a person who confesses "Jesus is Lord." or "Jesus as Lord."

Now my dear brothers and sisters, I want to clear up a wrong impression about spiritual gifts. You remember that, when you were pagans, whenever you felt irresistibly drawn, it was toward dumb idols? It is for that reason I want you to understand that on the one hand no one can be speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit and say, 'Curse Jesus' and on the other hand, no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" unless he/she is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. - 1Cor. 11:1-3 -

However, after Jesus resurrection and exaltation, Jesus was given the title "Lord" in its full, Christological sense. The title "Lord" in the Christological sense must have be given to Jesus Christ before the Church moved out into the Gentile world. The evidence for this is the invocation "MARAN ATHA"

If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse on him/her. "Maran atha." - 1 Cor. 16:22 -

The Apostle/Saint Paul, writing to a Gentile speaking world, assumed that its faithful, believers, and followers were familiar with this Aramaic phrase. It was an early Christian title for Christ Jesus, which was taken over untranslated. It bears witness to the fact that from the earliest days of the Church, the One who had been exalted as "Lord" was expected to return as "Lord." Amen!

In the Old Testament, the God of Israel denies to any other being the right to receive the worship which belongs to Him alone. But in the New Testament, God readily shares that worship with the humiliated and exalted Jesus, His only begotten Son, born of the Virgin Mary. More than that, God, the Father, shares His own name with Jesus. That is, when human beings honor and worship 'Jesus as Lord,' God is glorified.

The 'name which is above every name' is the title Lord, in the highest sense that it can bear. The words echo prophet Isaiah, where the God of Israel swears:

'By my own self I swear it;
what comes from my mouth is truth,
a word irrevocable:
before me every knee shall bend,
by me every tongue shall swear,
saying, "

"From Yahweh God alone
come victory and strength."
To Him shall come, ashamed,
all who raged against Him.
Victorious and glorious through Yahweh shall be
all the descendants of Israel.' - Isaiah 45:23-25 -

In your minds, you must be the same as Christ Jesus:

His state was divine,
yet He did not cling
to His equality with God
but emptied Himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
He was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.

But God raised Jesus high
and gave Jesus the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. - Phil. 2:5-11 -

Thus, it is not surprising that Jesus Christ occasionally is called God in the New Testament. Apostle/Saint Thomas convinced that the risen Christ Jesus stood before him, abandoned his doubts and human understanding with the confession: "My Lord and my God!"

'Peace be with you' Jesus said. Then Jesus spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here: look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.' Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him:

'You believe because you can see Me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.' - John 20:27-29 -

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -