Do you really want to understand and obey God’s Word?

We know that God, through inspired Scripture, has written some things ”hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). But there are other matters that are easier to comprehend (2 Corinthians 1:13) and we definitely are subject to these things. We assume that you do have an honest and good heart (Luke 8:15) and want to understand Scripture. You want to believe and obey this (Acts 8:30).

Since this is so, we are often amazed that people seem to either refuse to understand and obey or have no desire in understanding God’s Word. There are millions of religious people “out there” who (for one reason or another) seem to not be interested in really doing God’s will. With eyes that are opened to the truth, they go ahead and follow their own path regardless of what is right or wrong.

I can think of many men and women (shall I call them brothers and sisters?) who seem to have little or no interest in submitting to the plain will of God. Take marriage as one example.

We know that Christ Jesus made it clear that a man is to leave his parents and be joined to a woman to be a wife—a life-long companion, This is plain. It is clear. There is no room for misunderstanding. Wouldn’t you say so?

Would you say that this teaching is clear enough for all of those who really want to understand and obey it to obey? Yet we know that there are literally millions of people in America and additional millions around the world who plainly violate these passages—and have no interest in believing and obeying this passage of Scripture. Isn’t this right?

What is wrong with this situation? Why does it ever exist? If Jesus, the very Son of God, says that a man and a woman are to marry and not divorce, and if they marry again without a justifiable cause for divorce, what is so hard about these instructions? If our Lord makes it clear that a man who divorces his wife, apart from her adultery or fornication, and then marries another party, is it so difficult to understand that God considers this adultery? And is it so difficult to understand that God considers this remarriage to be adulterous? It is plainly stated this way, isn’t it?

The next step is just as plain. The Lord Jesus says that one who divorces his wife, apart from the reason of adultery, and marries again (Matthew 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18), that person commits adultery. The wife also commits adultery. Both enter a state of adultery. Further, the person who commits adultery (apart from the Biblical reasons), clearly commits adultery. What is the result of unrepentant and persistent adultery? Jesus says that such a person commits sin and also adultery.

We realize that sexual sin such as this is quite commonplace in our world. This is the very point we are making. Many people (millions?) commit this sin and do not repent (or refuse to repent). They sin deliberately and refuse to change their thinking. I don’t know about you, but this is scary—absolutely scary. They commit this sexual sin (even if it is the result of a “bad marriage”) and live in the sin and refuse to repent of the sin. Obviously, this is to commit a dreadful offence against God.

We wonder about the implications and how common this sin is.  When a man or woman sins in this way, do they not know that sinning deliberately and violating the teachings of Scripture is selfish and that deliberate and continual sin has no forgiveness? We know that a person can be forgiven if he or she renounces the sin and begins to live purely. But how often does this happen? How frequently does someone “come to his senses “ and begin to live a holy life after she or he has renounced the adultery? We think the answer must be very seldom.

Won’t you be different? Maybe there is time for you to do differently. We realize that there are massive problems associated with a difficult marriage—especially if you are a child of God who want to live for Jesus and serve Him. To do anything different from this can be extremely difficult. But it must be done and can be done. Otherwise God would not have given us this sort of command.