1st Corinthians ā Wayne Barber/Part 48
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©1998 |
We need to understand the marriage contract between two individuals, though made in the state of unbelief, does not become void when one gets saved. You see, you canāt get saved and say, āOh, therefore any man in Christ is a brand new creature so, therefore, I can divorce my husband or divorce my wife, find me another believer and we can go right on.ā No, it does not work that way. |
1 Corinthians 7:10-14
Contents
Should I Stay Married? ā Part 1
In verse 10 Paul changes gears. He moves from the single question, of whether they should marry, to people who are married. The title is, āShould I Stay Married?ā The answer covers verses 10-18. Before entering into Paulās answer, we must again remember the culture of these people. I think sometimes we forget this. We donāt realize what the pagan culture was like in Corinth.
Remember, if you were in some other place in Greece and you were acting perversely and immorally, they said that you were acting like a Corinthian. Thatās how bad it was there. It was one of the most wicked and immoral cities in the world at that time. You can go there now and thereās a room with artifacts in a museum which they will not let you into because theyāre so embarrassing to the public. They wonāt even let you see whatās there, all the venereal disease, etc., that went on in Corinth that time.
But these people have been saved out of that kind of culture. They live amongst these other people every single day. As we said earlier, there were four types of marriages that were permitted, according to historians, during that day. One was that of slaves. When a slave wanted to marry another slave, it was a matter of love to them but it wasnāt a matter of that to their owner. The owner could do whatever he wanted to do. It was a very inhuman, very subhuman type of thing. He could end the relationship, switch partners, do anything he wanted to do because he owned them. Some of them had come out of that kind of background, for sure, because it was going on during that day.
Two, there was a form of common law marriage that if you live together for a year, the law recognized you as husband and wife. Three, was a special kind of arranged marriage when a father would sell his daughter to a perspective husband. Four was for the nobility, much more elevated. As a matter of fact, this was adopted right into the Roman Catholic church, went over to Protestantism, and itās the kind of ceremony you go to every time you have a friend who gets married. Almost step by stepāthe maid of honor, the best man, the whole thing, the ring on the third fingerāall of that took place right here. It was a part of the custom for that day. That was the nobility of Corinth in that time.
Well, the early church had members who had been saved who had come out of all four kinds of those marriages, for sure. Divorce was common. Any time that you would stand in the pulpit in the church at Corinth, there would be many, many people who had multiple marriages and multiple divorces. So there were a lot of questions. Youāve got to realize this. These were honest questions, questions of people who say, āWe want to do it right, but what is right? What does God have to say to us?ā They didnāt have all the Scriptures put together as we have. They did have the apostles, and the apostles were penning that Scripture even as they spoke. But they wanted to know, what is the answer to the dilemma that we now find ourselves in?
Now, there are two things in out text that weāve got to nail down. One is, he is dealing with married people, not people living in any kind of illicit relationship, common law, or whatever. They are by law seen as married. It says there in verse 10, āBut to the married I give instructions,ā so this is who it is written to, people who have been married or are married.
Secondly, we need to understand the marriage contract between two individuals, though made in the state of unbelief, does not become void when one gets saved. You see, you canāt get saved and say, āOh, therefore any man in Christ is a brand new creature so, therefore, I can divorce my husband or divorce my wife, find me another believer and we can go right on.ā No, it does not work that way. Well, we shall see what weāll learn.
Do you see what happens? When you get saved, it doesnāt change your circumstances. It changes you internally and eternally, and as a result of that, gives you a new perspective towards your circumstances, whatever relationships you have. They then become affected by your new life in Christ. It doesnāt necessarily change the external circumstances around you. So, these two things need to be kept in mind as we approach what Paul is about to say.
First of all, we want to look at the authority of the apostle. Do you know what you call a man who can step out in front of thirty Mack trucks on a three-lane superhighway, hold his hand up and every one of them stop? What do you call that man? You call him a policeman. All he has to do is hold up a badge. Now, that badge is a signal of his authority that has been given to him by somebody else, not only his authority, the orders that come with it. Heās doing what heās told to do and he has the authority to back him up. So he has a badge. Thatās what you call that man. He is relaying to you what somebody else has commanded him to do. And because of the badge, he has that authority.
With that thought in mind, look at verse 10. Paul says, āBut to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.ā Now, in verse 1 of chapter 1, we saw that Paul was an apostle by the will of God. What is an apostle? The word apo, away from stolos, means to send, to send away from with a message, like an ambassador. But in the sense of the apostle Paul and the apostle James and the apostle John, through which we get the penned New Testament, what we have here is much more of an office, much more of an official sense of authority. They had the badge of authority that Christ Himself had given to them.
The only way we have apostles today is in a more generic sense. Iāve been misunderstood, I think, by some of the things I have said. When I say there are no more apostles, there are no more prophets, what I mean is not in the sense of the apostle Paul, not in the sense of the apostle John, not in the sense of the apostle James, no sir. Because we have the Word of God. And itās through these men that have been given the badge of authority by Christ Himself through which we get the Word of God. But in a more generic sense certainly there are apostles, those sent forth, certainly there are prophets in that sense of the word but not in the official sense, not with the badge, not like these guys. They represented the One who had commanded them and were simply relaying what He had ordered them to relay. So thatās where I stand on that. What Iām talking about is, in the official sense that they had, we donāt have apostles like that.
Nobody can say put something in Godās Word, although there are those who are doing it, because it is sealed. It is there. It is written. God has spoken it. We have the Word of God. There are no people carrying a badge who can add to it in these days. But the apostle Paul was in the office of an apostle. He had the badge of authority given to him by Christ Himself.
Well, in verse 10 it says, āBut to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.ā Now, the word āinstructionsā is important. Itās the word paraggello. It means to pass on an announcement, to give the word to somebody nearby, to advance an order. An order that has been given, you take and advance. To give a charge or a command. The word is used in the military of a chain of command, how a commander gives the order and takes it to his staff sergeant. He takes it and relays it to the troops. But the order came from back here.
So what Paul is saying here is, āIām saying this to you not me. Itās not my opinion. This comes from God. Iām simply an apostle. Iām relaying it to you.ā I know Iām camping out here for a minute, but I want you to see the picture. Donāt look at the apostle Paul and pat him on the back. Look at the One who commanded him and Whose orders heās relaying to the people.
I went to a military school after I finished high school. Hargrave Military Academy. It sounded good to me. Weād get to wear these uniforms, cute little things with a stripe down the side. I thought that was going to be fun. Fun? Are you kidding? Man, you had an imaginary line drawn at the edge of your bed. You had to put your shoes a certain way and had to set them a certain way. Your clothes had to be hung one inch apart from the other. They measured them in inspection. They took a quarter and flipped it on your bed and made it bounce. If it didnāt bounce, they gave you what they called these work chores. They called them gigs. The first time they ever gave them out I got forty instead of one. Each one of them was an hour of work or running. I was in the best shape Iāve ever been in my life when I was in military school. The cadets knew me, not because they had been introduced to me in any way, but they had seen me running the circle. Theyāre marching and Iām running with my rifle over my head. I spent all the time in the world doing that.
On Saturday morning at about 10:00 they had an official inspection. You had to be in full uniform, standing by your bed at attention at 10:00. Theyād come in, call you to attention, and go through and check everything that you had and make sure it was done according to the manual.
One Saturday I had gotten into a water fight with the two lieutenants who were over our barracks. I was in a special barracks. They had hand-picked people to be in that barracks. How I got in, I donāt know. I think they read somebody elseās resume and thought it was mine or whatever, but I was in there. I mean, you canāt take this stuff too seriously. You take it too seriously, youād go nuts. So I had to come up with something light-humored all the time. I got into a water fight with the two lieutenants. They didnāt have to stand inspection. I did. I forgot what time it was. We started about 8:00. We were just throwing water and brooms. I had a pair of gym shorts on and thatās it. I was bare-footed. Thatās all they had but they didnāt have to stand inspection. We were supposed to be in full uniform at 10:00. I forgot what time it was. I got the fire extinguisher off the wall and was spraying them. I used all the pressure in that thing. I had foam all over me and all over them.
I was outside just having the best time and all of a sudden I heard somebody inside the house say, āRoom, attention!ā Iām thinking, āOh, no! Iām supposed to be at my bed at attention.ā I walked in the room.
When I walked in the door with that fire extinguisher with foam all over me and a pair of shorts on and everybodyās standing there at attention, I could hear one of my dear friends, Gene Ould, laughing but he was trying to hide it. But with a low voice he couldnāt hide it. I walked over and pulled myself up right where I was supposed to be. I sat the fire extinguisher down and snapped to attention. That particular day the guy who was doing the inspection was the commander, the big top guy. I mean, the one who orders it all. I played football with him and on the football field we were equal, but not when it came to this. Flip was his nickname. Flip was standing there looking at me trying his best to stay serious and he could not do it. His lip was quivering. He would turn to the staff sergeant, relay to him what to tell me. The staff sergeant would then speak it to me. But he couldnāt say anything to the staff sergeant. He just started laughing. Well, everybody in the room started laughing. The whole staff which was with him started laughing. He finally turned around and said, āAw, forget it!ā and walked out the door. Everybody was much appreciative of my humor on that particular day.
But, you see, somebody starts the order. Itās relayed through somebody else and then relayed to others. Thatās the idea of an apostle. Itās Godās command. Itās not Paulās command. Itās Godās command. He, as an apostle, holds his badge up and says, āYouāve got a question? Iāve got an answer, but it didnāt come from me. I represent the One who it comes from.ā Paul is simply relaying what our Lord Jesus had already taught in Matthew 19. Folks, this is where youāve got to understand something. When you come to the Word of God, it has authority in your life. And until youāre willing to bow up under it, youāre not going to realize the benefits of what faith will bring you.
Matthew 19:6 is a very significant passage. āConsequently [speaking of a married couple], they are no longer two, but one flesh. [Just like Genesis said.] What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.ā I want to tell you something. The law of the state of Tennessee did not legally make your marriage lawful. It did not do it. Yes, it did. But what youāve got to think about is, itās not the state of Tennessee; itās God Who makes marriages lawful. Youāre not a Christian? So be it. God is the One Who makes it lawful. Thatās the thing that youāve got to remember. When you shift gears and you want to get out of that marriage or whatever, youāve got to come back and reckon with what God has to say. Once He seals it as law, itās sealed and thatās what youāve got to see. Paul is saying, āHey, Iāve got an answer to that, but it comes straight from God. I hold my badge up and here it is. She should not leave her husband.ā
Then next verse reads, āHe should not send his wife away.ā Thatās it. Thatās God speaking. Now, I know that the culture doesnāt like that. But thatās what God said, you see. They have become one. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. āBut to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband.ā Verse 11 says that the husband should not send his wife away. This came from the highest authority. This came from the highest command, you see. It came from God Himself, passed on and relayed by the apostle Paul. So if you see the authority of these apostles. Buddy, when they spoke, they spoke under the influence of the Spirit of God.
The absolute will of the Lord
Secondly, I want you to see the absolute will of the Lord that comes out in this verse. He says in verse 10, āBut to the married I give instructions; not I, but the Lord [here it is], that the wife should not leave her husband.ā There are two words for ānot.ā In English we have one word and thatās our problem. Iām not trying to change anything. Iām just trying to show you that when you take another language and put it into our language, itās going to change. Itās not going to always be clear. The word ou is the word that means absolutely not, in any way, shape, or form, forget the circumstances. You may find a place or two but thatās the understanding of the word. Basically itās an absolute word for not. Then thereās the little word men. Itās a relative ānot.ā In other words, itās not as absolute as the other one is.
The word that is used here is the word men, not the word ou. The relative use of the word is found here in this text, that the wife should not leave her husband. Now, that very fact leaves it sort of iffy in a sense. Thereās a contextual understanding here. Itās interesting that the very fact a wife might leave her husband comes up in the next verse.
Verse 11, ābut if she does leave.ā Do you see the relativeness of what heās saying here? Now, we all know, or I hope you do, that our Lord gave an exception clause when it comes to marriage. It was never a command. It was a permission that our Lord Jesus gave. Look over in Matthew 19:9. Letās just read it right out of what He said. I want to make sure you understand. I did not write this. This came from the commander. He did give an exception to the fact that the two shall always be one. There shall never be a departing of either the two. Matthew 19:9 says, āAnd I say to you, whoever divorces his wife [context clear], except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.ā Nothing could be any clearer to me. I donāt know. There are some people I know who take that verse and do everything you can think of to make it say what they want it to say. The Scripture is like a prisoner of war. You persecute it long enough and it will say whatever you want it to say. So you hang around long enough and you can make it into a cookbook if you want to.
What did He say? āExcept for immorality.ā The word āexceptā in the Greek means except. Itās not written in by a translator. Itās actually there. Except, except. Now, listen. To ignore that is to make a serious mistake in your understanding of what God is teaching in His Word. Itās permitted, but itās not commanded. That was the whole issue. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 19, the Pharisees came to Him and said that Moses commanded them to get a writ of divorcement. Jesus said, āI beg your pardon. He permits you out of the hardness of your heart.ā You see, when adultery or immorality occurred, the penalty of the Old Testament Levitical law was to be stoned to death. Itās only by Godās grace that thereās a permission here. By the way, if that wife was divorced and had not committed adultery, she had to be given a writ of divorcement to prove to people that she had not been unfaithful to her husband. Otherwise she had nothing to defend herself. So itās a very tricky thing that weāre dealing with here. There is an exception.
Paul does not mention this at all. Perhaps he felt they already understood that. I donāt know. But he doesnāt mention it at all. He says in verse 10, āBut to the married I give instructions.ā Now, the term āmarriedā there seems to refer to true believers. You say, āHow do you know that?ā Look in verse 12 and youāll see. Verse 12 says, āBut to the rest I say.ā Everything he says in verse 12 has to do with a believer and an unbeliever living together. So, evidently, when theyāre in a category by themselves, what heās talking about in verse 10 here has to do with two believers who are married.
The word used for āleaveā is the word chorizo, which means to sever something. Sheās taking the action on herself in verse 10. Itās in a passive voice, but itās in the middle understanding. Middle voice means she of herself is severing her relationship with her husband. āDivorce, if you please.ā Sheās leaving him, divorcing him. Paul says, āIām telling you this from the Commander. Donāt leave your husband. You should not leave your husband.ā
To this situation, Paul says in verse 10 that a wife should not leave her husband. Crystal clear. In verse 10, Paul indicates it is the woman and not the man who is the initiator of the divorce. She is leaving him. But in the last of verse 11 the man is the initiator. It says in verse 11, āand that the husband should not send his wife away.ā
There are two verbs that are used here. Chorizo means to sever a relationship, but the word used in verse 11, aphiemi, is a different word. It means to send somebody away. Itās a word that is used in other contexts even of forgiveness of sins, when you put the guilt upon that scapegoat and send it away never to return.
So in verse 11, we have the situation of a man sending his wife away. Thatās interesting. The wife leaves either way. In verse 10 she walks away. In verse 11 sheās sent away. Thatās just like a man, isnāt it? Heās too lazy to leave, so the wife either leaves or he sends her away. But in both cases she leaves. Neither reason, the womanās severing her ties with her husband or the husband sending her away, is biblical, because adultery is never mentioned.
So, in other words, here are two believers. One decides one day, āIām sick of you. You burned the toast and Iām tired of it. Youāre never on time and besides that, Iāve been living with you for a while and I found one that looks better than you. Therefore, you get out of here.ā He sends her away. Or in the other situation the woman says, āYou donāt make enough money. Youāre not popular enough. Iām leaving you.ā No biblical grounds whatsoever. So, therefore, we have a sinful situation here and Paul is trying to correct it and set the people back right. Thereās only one biblical way in which divorce is even allowed and that is immorality, which includes adultery, homosexuality, and incest. It is a sexual relationship you have with somebody other than your wife or your husband outside of marriage. Now, itās not commanded. Itās permitted. Reconciliation is always the bottom line of what God says. But in this situation Jesus did say, āExcept for immorality.ā
Iāll tell you what happens. We try to jump in and play the role of the Holy Spirit of God because we donāt want to see anybody divorced. Neither does God. Thatās His standard. We try to help Him out. Folks, just let God do His own work and letās just say what Jesus said. Jesus said, āExcept for immorality.ā
Now, the problem in Corinth, like it is today, was many wives had wrongly left their husband. What do you do? You know, itās interesting to me. Divorce doesnāt become the real issue. Do you know what the real issue is? Remarriage, not divorce. People can come here and say, āWhat do you think?ā We can tell them, and they can walk out and slam the door and spit in our face. Theyāll find another church, and theyāll tell them exactly what they want to hear. Then theyāll go right on and do what theyāre going to do. But the Word of God is what weāve got to keep coming back to, spoken by the Commander, related through His apostle. What does God have to say?
The problem was many of the wives just wouldnāt listen, for whatever reason, and had wrongly left their husbands. To these he says in verse 11, ā(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not send his wife away.ā It is clear, as far as we can see in this passage, that neither party is free to marry someone else if they divorce because of anything other than adultery. Remarriage is the issue and thatās the thing youāve got to face.
You say, āWell, what if Iāve gone on and remarried somebody? What do I do now?ā Listen. Donāt even get into that in this passage. Thatās not what heās addressing. Heās simply trying to answer the questions that have been asked of him. There are other Scriptures where God can turn a light on for you concerning that question. Thereās grace and thereās mercy. There are other things to factor in. So donāt bail out on what heās saying here, because it doesnāt exactly fit your situation. Just listen to what heās saying.
Paul answers the question, ā(but if she does leave, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband).ā Itās pretty clear. The word āreconciledā is an important word. I can hear somebody say, āYeah, right. You donāt know my husband.ā Well, if youāre saying that, you donāt know the definition of reconciliation. It would help you to hear the whole thing out before you throw a grenade at me. Listen to what the word āreconciliationā is. The word is katallasso. Kata is an intensive; allasso means to change. The idea is if that man begins to change and thereās reason now that you feel like there can be a reconciliation, go for it. But if he wonāt, then stay unmarried. Thatās what Paul says. No ifās; no andās; no butās. Paul just simply says, āYou asked me, so I told you.ā
Have you ever asked somebody a question and you didnāt like what you heard? I called a dear friend of mine one day. I told him I was down. I was broken. I was offended. I was beaten up in my mind. I called him up to tell him my whole dilemma. I told him as fast as I can tell him. I could tell he was in a hurry. He was probably catching a plane or something. He said back to me on the telephone, āWell, I love you, brother, but I guess all I can tell you is just live what you preach.ā Click. āBill, come back here. I didnāt like what you just said.ā
Again, Paulās not answering every question you have. Heās answering specific questions theyāre asking him. So donāt go throw your faith away because you didnāt get ministered to because your circumstance wasnāt brought into this. It wasnāt meant to, evidently, because Paul is dealing with questions that are already asked of him and heās just answering them.
The anxiety of those living in a split family
So, we see the authority of the apostle, the absolute will of God, and then we see the anxiety of the believer in the split family. What about the anxiety of people who live in split families? By that I mean oneās a believer and oneās an unbeliever. In verse 12 he picks that up. āBut to the rest I say.ā He addresses the anxiety of those living in that split family. He addresses the anxiety of their own purity, anxiety over their children. When Paul says, ānot the Lord,ā heās simply saying that Jesus never addressed the situation when He was here on earth. Now, Iām relaying with my badge what His Spirit is leading me to tell you. Itās not as if heās expressing his opinion, as if this is some letter and only parts of it is inspired. This is the inspired word of God. The way I see that, Paul is saying, āHe didnāt deal with it, but now Heās given me the authority to deal with it, and Iām going to deal with it.ā Paul is under the inspiration of God; therefore, this is Godās word. You can trust what it says. You say, āThis is his opinion.ā Well, itās a sanctified opinion then, because the Holy Spirit of God is the One breathing this book through him.
There are two interesting scenarios here. Youāve got a split family; okay, put the believer over here. But on the unbelieverās side youāve got two situations. One, they want to leave. āI didnāt marry a Christian. You sorry rat. I didnāt marry a Christian and Iām leaving. Do you hear me?ā Blam! And he walks out. But on the other hand, youāve got an unbeliever who says, āYou know, I know youāre saved. I donāt know if I want to be saved or not, but I sure do love you and I want to live with you.ā So how do you live with those two situations? Paul deals with them in verse 12. āBut to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever [thatās interesting. Usually itās the other way around. But itās not here. ], and she consents to live with him, let him not send her away.ā What are believers to do with unbelieving spouses? Well, if theyāll live with you, live with them. Donāt send them away. Were they free to divorce them because theyāre unequally yoked? No. Paul says, āLive with them.ā Why? What is the situation here? These are honest questions.
Paul had taught them in 6:15-20 that their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit of God. They were attached to Christ. They were concerned that they were members of Christās body, but they were married to unbelievers. How could this affect the union that they had with God? Some of them even believed, probably, that it made it a union to Satan. Some of them even thought it would defile, not only them, but their children. And many of them just simply desired a Christian partner. Jesus had never directly taught on this, and so Paul, unleashed of the Holy Spirit, is giving them now this direction. Christians were not to worry that they themselves nor their children, nor their marriage would be defiled in any way being married to an unbeliever.
This is the part that just pumps me up. Itās on the contrary. It doesnāt defile you, and it doesnāt defile your children. In fact, itās not them that is the issue; itās you that is the issue. By your being in that marriage, you affect them, they donāt affect you. Both the children and the unbelieving spouse were sanctified through the believing wife or husband.
Look at verse 14. Weāll get there in a second, but I want you to read it first. āFor the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy,ā or set apart. Now, Paul says, āIf she consents to live with you.ā It was not uncommon that they would walk right out on them. Paul is saying that if theyāll stay, donāt divorce them. Stay married to them, because youāre going to have an effect on them youāve never dreamed of.
In verse 13 he reverses the situation. āAnd a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, let her not send her husband away.ā Letās go back to verse 14. What does it mean? Sanctified. The husbandās sanctified by the believing wife. The wife is sanctified by the believing husband. It doesnāt mean theyāre saved. It doesnāt mean that because the wife is saved, automatically the husband is saved. No, every person must respond by faith to the Gospel message as the seed comes to their heart and the Holy Spirit of God is in charge of that process. Thatās not what heās saying. But the root understanding of sanctify is to be set apart and put in a class all by itself. The family becomes immeasurably superior when you have a believer in its midst. When the wife is saved or the husband is saved, the unbelievers are blessed because of the presence of God who lives in that believer who now is in that family. One Christian spouse in the home graces the whole family. Because God dwells in that one believer, all the blessings that come to them will spill out on the people around them.
In addition, even though the believerās faith cannot save the others around them, it often becomes the means of other family members getting saved. You have probably heard testimonies of a believing grandmother who stood by the Word when she had a husband who was pagan and cursed like a sailor. She may have had children the same way, but those grandchildren began to receive that seed and for generation after generation after generation there were Christians in that family. Why? Because one believer stayed and didnāt bail out and became a powerful influence for the kingdom for all of eternity. Itās amazing to me the power of the life of the believer. Folks, we donāt think about that.
Every time I get on a plane Iām thinking, āWell, Lord, if youāre through with me, I guess youāre through with them, too.ā Or the other way around, if that plane lands then, āLord, youāre not through with me, and Iāll bet theyāre glad they are on this plane.ā Itās amazing. People say, āWhy has God not destroyed America?ā And Iāll tell them straight to their face: Because Godās people live in America. People donāt understand the powerful influence of a believer unless they were living like the Corinthians.
Now, thatās a different story. You attach yourself to Jesus Christ and every blessing God puts in your life touches somebody around you. But the mentality of the world, the reasoning of the human mind, says, āI want something better for me.ā God says, āAre you thinking about your present or are you thinking about the eternal future? Stay, stay.ā
Some of you have left and say, āOh, no. Now what do I do?ā Donāt even let that question enter your mind. You canāt unscramble eggs. Letās look and see just what Paul is saying here. Letās do some preventive medicine here. God was going to destroy Sodom. Abraham pleaded with Him to spare the city if he could find fifty believers. Genesis 18:26 says, āSo the Lord said, āIf I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.āā Isnāt that incredible? All those pagans. Homosexuality? They wrote the manual for it! He said, āIāll spare the whole city if we can find fifty.ā That was moved to forty-five. That was moved to forty, to thirty-five, thirty, to twenty-five, to twenty, to fifteen, to ten. The indictment of that whole passage was they couldnāt find ten. But God would have spared a whole city full of nothing but outright pagans for ten. Thatās the powerful influence of a believer among unbelievers. What an impact we have and we donāt even know it.
Well, in our context it shows that God sees the family as a unit. Even if only one believer is in it, God blesses the entire family because of that one believer. If the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay, the believer is not to seek any kind of divorce whatsoever. Now, that unbelieving spouse may not be willing to stay. Thatās another message. This protects the children. Verse 14 reads, āFor the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.ā Theyāre not saved, they are holy, set apart in a class all by themselves. So the blessing, the spiritual blessings can flow right over on them. They reap that and over time God can use that to even bring them to knowing Him personally.
Children can see clearly the contrast between the life of an unbelieving parent and a believing one. They are able to see the difference of the mama whoās saved and the father whoās unsaved. They watch the two of them as they live. It doesnāt take them long to realize, āOh, thatās what a Christian is. Oh, thatās what a pagan is. I think Iād rather be a Christian.ā God uses that as a means of witness in their lives.
You know, we need to stick to the word of God. If we ever have any debate, itās on what it says, never a will we do it. Remember Iām not the authority; the Word of God is the authority.
Iāve got an illustration for you that Iāll think will help you. It helps me. This past week I was in a tree stand hunting deer. They had these big ladder stands. Theyāre heavy. Most ladder stands have sort of a v in the back of them so when you put them up against a tree it fits up against that tree with that v. Then they hook them and chain them around that tree so that youāre pretty secure to that tree. This one didnāt. It was a straight back and just leaned up against the tree. Obviously, it was wobbly if the tree was too small. They would use a chain to wrap around the tree to kind of hold it to the tree which, I want to testify, does not work. I was in this type of stand.
Now these tree stands, ladder stands is what theyāre called, are sixteen feet high. You say, āThatās not very high.ā Now wait a minute. Thatās two feet above the backboard, for anybody whoās ever played basketball. You know how far up that is. Thatās how far youāre up. Itās a chair youāre sitting in. Itās very comfortable. They tell us something that I need to start listening to. They tell you to put a safety belt on. I do every time Iām in a climber stand. If you donāt know what that is, itās alright. But in a climber stand I always use it. But in a ladder stand, no, man, itās comfortable. I can move around. I donāt need that thing. This thing is secure. Wrong. I didnāt have my safety belt on.
I was sitting there just enjoying myself. Itās just amazing the peace of mind that you have. The wind picked up and it kind of felt good because it was a little warm and that wind was just cold in my face. Oh, man, I was just sitting there thinking about how beautiful it is and how much fun Iām having when in a moment, in a twinkling of an eyeāGod continues to teach me what that means. It was so fast I couldnāt even thinkāthe tree moved with the wind. Itās a small tree, and that stand just spun around. I canāt even begin to explain it to you. I was sitting in a chair and it rolled on me. When it stopped rolling, I should have been on the ground, I promise you, but somehow the Lord gave me the thought, āGrab a limb.ā I grabbed a limb and nearly pulled my arm out of its socket. Iām hanging there. The standās trying to roll around and I said out loud, āLord, we have a problem here.ā I said it out loud. āLord, we do have a problem.ā I had my gun in this hand and Iām thinking do I drop it? What do I do with it? Iām not going to drop it. It cost too much. So I put it on my shoulder. Iām going to figure this out myself. Donāt take me to task with that. Thatās probably not the wisest thing to do.
Iām hanging around there and finally I ease with it and I let the stand go all the way around. By this time Iām hanging on to the tree but Iām looking straight down. Iām thinking, āWhat am I going to do?ā Iāve got my rifle in one hand. It was awful.
Finally, I think I can climb around this thing. I finally got my balance enough. Iām sixteen feet up. The thingās upside down. Iām standing around back of it. I put my leg around on the back of it and somehow got around and somehow, by the grace of God, was able to climb down the back of it without breaking my neck. I got down to the bottom and had a prayer time. I picked up the stand and was going to try to put it back like it was supposed to be. When I did, I moved it just a little bit and the chain broke. It was just by the grace of God that I didnāt hit the ground face first from sixteen feet up.
I tell you that to tell you this. Our safety belt in the Christian walk is our obedience to the tree of Godās Word. I know you donāt like some of the things weāre saying. I also know it doesnāt relate to some of your circumstances, and I canāt say Iām sorry, because this is 1 Corinthians 7. You have to go someplace else to find your answer. But I want to tell you something, folks. If youāll make a commitment and I mean by that commitment, determine Iām going to obey what God says, Iām going to promise you when the tree stand of your life bails out on you so quickly you didnāt even expect it coming, itāll hold you up even in a catastrophe that could otherwise have been devastating. Listen to what the apostle has to say. Heās simply relaying to us and to them what the Commander in Chief has ordered.