Quote:
Originally Posted by TK Burk
This is why Jesus said we must count the cost.... Evidently he did and it was too high.
Tough choices had to be made by those in the First Century also. If you were a Jew, you forfeited everything to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. Even today, Muslim converts often convert knowing it may cost them horrendous persecution or even their lives. But regardless of the cost, if it's right, it's right! (See Mark 8:34-38; 1Peter 4:13-16) |
See, here's what bothers me about your conceptualization. You'd be happy that the man divorced his second wife and reduced her to prostitution or being a sex slave for the sake of your religious convictions on the issue. You'd pat the man on the back while he proudly smiled about his new found "faith". You'd shrug your shoulders and say, "Well, yep, my brother, we have to pay a price to follow Jesus." See you're thinking about sex and his loss of a second partner. He's thinking about personal advancement in the new church he's apart of. Frankly, he didn't pay a price at all....the second wife who can't find work because she's regarded as discarded trash....she's paying the price. She's the one who will be forced to desperate measures to feed herself and her kids. She's the one who will be brutalized by men who want to abuse her. She's the one who will be forced into the slave trade, transfered out of the country, and her children stolen and made to fight in some African revolutionary army as child soldiers. She paid a dear price to accommodate your convictions.
Here's my position....
Let them remain married.
Consider Christ's words...
Matthew 19:9
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
This second wife is a legal wife and cannot be divorced unless she commits sexual infidelity. So divorce of any kind is out of the picture.
I'd explain to him that there is a cost to serving Christ. Paul explained that Bishops and Deacons may only have one wife and how that precludes him from serving in a licensed leadership capacity or on the board. I'd explain to him that the church would not conduct marriage ceremonies for him to marry more wives. I would explain that his children will never be permitted to marry more than one woman for as long as they remain a part of the church. The polygamy would stop with his generation. Also I'd suggest that if at all possible the second wife and her children live separately from him and his first wife and her children. I would advise him that he is
still responsible for providing the care, needs, and all provision of both women and all children.
I feel that would be the best possible resolution of a complex situation. No women are forced into degradation, no children are abandoned and left to the whiles of an exploitive world, yet monogamy is assailed and Paul's literal commands are enforced in the church.
Jesus said something to the Pharisees that I think is relevant...
Matthew 23:23
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
The Pharisees were keeping the "letter of the law" meticulously. However, they had neglected justice, mercy, and faith. In my example of above, in respects to the second wife's wellbeing and her children's wellbeing, I'm trying to act in favor of justice, mercy, and faith. Because it will be this second wife and her precious children that pay the price....not this man.
Threaded Mode
