The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery”.
Comment: I’m sure that this is a precis. I would love to have the verbatim report of this! Maybe I can ask for a copy of it in heaven!
The Pharisees, money lovers, somehow overheard Jesus talking to His disciples as we discussed yesterday. They would never have accepted their workers just bringing 50-80% as full payment from their debtors – a bit like the mafia of these days – pay up today or we take you and yours as payment. ‘Your worldly standards stink in the nostrils of God. Your ways are not God’s ways’, Jesus replied – His words translated to my words, but I think you get the meaning!
Until He had come the Jews had the law. Jesus, the King, had brought the message of the Kingdom. But that did not alter the standard of holiness which God wanted kept “not even the dot above of an ‘i’ of God’s standards has altered but the King brought forgiveness and acceptance by God if they listened to Him.
I don’t know why He chose divorce as the example, but He did. God’s marriage standards aren’t altered to fit the will or practice of people.
Prayer: Thank you that you accept me in my failures but please strengthen me to live Your kind of life, which You described as ‘abundant’. A word that thrills my soul.
As I read it! 