Apparently today is the final day of the Paris olympics. It began with the worship of false gods and has progressed with the worship of sports. In the midst of tragedies that are taking place in England and Israel and Ukraine, and elsewhere, the world needs distractions like the olympics.
Godly people do not need distractions. Godly people have a hope both now and for all eternity. That hope is not in bringing home a gold medal, but rather in knowing the true God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
Brotherly love is such an important gift that God gives to His children. It is not something we are born with. We tend to be very competitive and even unreasonable. Brothers and sisters tend to compete with one another and sometimes are nasty to one another. Without the Lord, adults as well will be nasty to one another. Jealousy is often expressed toward others.
True saints need to let brotherly love rise to the top. We need to let it continue. The saints are blessed in receiving God’s love at salvation. Now, that love needs to be allowed to grow and permeate the true saint’s life. The saints being addressed in this letter had already been practicing brotherly love. They needed to be sure to let it continue.
As we follow through this chapter we will see what that means. In verse 2 we see the need to be careful to entertain strangers. Everyone of us will come across strangers many times in our lives. We need to be careful to demonstrate brotherly love toward them. We need to care for their souls.
We will not know the stranger, but God does. He sees how we treat others. His children need to seek to help others to come to know His peace in their hearts. That is what counts.
We also need to pray for those who are in bonds. In the first century it was not uncommon for God-fearing individuals to be imprisoned for their faith. The apostle Paul faced that several times. Peter and John also ended up in prison. The saints at that time prayed for their brethren. God directed the writer to remind us that even if we are not personally in prison, if we are saved, we should be supportive of those who are taken to prison for being faithful to the Lord.
There will also be those who suffer adversity. That can take many forms. It can be persecution or it can be some other challenge. God knows what He is doing. He does not treat every saint the same. Some face challenges that others never will. However, in spirit, all saints need to be mindful of the sufferings of other saints. We need to remember them and that includes praying for one another.
In verse 4 we are reminded of the importance of marriage. Marriage should always come first and then intimacy. Secular society is not teaching this. Just moving in together with someone is never right. A couple does not need to sin against God in order to get to know one another. Prayer is the key to knowing who the Lord would want you to marry. God would never want a Christian to marry a non-Christian. When the text speaks of marriage being honourable in all, it is within the context of the rest of Scripture. God hates “putting away”, which is divorce. He forbids remarriage in such a case. He calls that adultery. It does not matter that our society and indeed most churches have rejected that fact and have inserted their own ideas into this matter.
Jesus addressed the hard-heartedness of the Pharisees in Matthew 19. They tried to justify divorce by looking to Moses. Jesus pointed out that Moses had “suffered” them to divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. Jesus also stated that from the beginning it was not so.
We should not build a doctrine on the failures of man. We should build a doctrine on the truthfulness of God. According to our text, God honours marriage even among the ungodly. Marriage is still right and it is His plan. He would want people to be saved first, but sometimes they get saved later in life. Sadly, many never get saved.
God refers to those who want to be promiscuous and not get married as whoremongers. There are too many people who just choose to live together and not get married. God will judge them. He never accepts that. Some have argued that in Bible times they did not make a big deal of marriage as we do now. That was true in some cases. A wedding does not need to be an extravagant event. It can be simple. It still should be a wedding.
An adulterer is a married person who is intimate with another person outside of marriage. In looking at God’s Word, we see that marriage is between one man and one woman for life. Society may accept divorce and remarriage as legitimate, but God does not. Many churches accept divorce and remarriage but that still does not make it right. Man does not have the right to sanctify what God condemns. In the end, you will not stand before society. You will stand before God. The foolish person looks to society for direction. The wise person looks to God’s Word for direction.
This matter of marriage is again why it is so important to have God’s Word. If you take the perversions, they will twist what Jesus taught in Matthew 19 and they will thus make allowances where God does not. Those who change God’s Word are in trouble with Him already. Don’t take their word on anything. God’s Word is truth and He shows us the way to know His peace and blessing.
As we see in the end of verse 4, God is the judge. He will judge those who choose to defy Him. He tells us what He requires in His Word. We are required to live by His Word. Don’t make up your own judgment on anything. Seek God’s direction and follow His direction. God’s Word is not complicated. It is offensive to those who do not want to know the truth. To the humble person, it is a blessing.
Go to a good church today where you can be taught the truth. Don’t settle for some charade. You will be held accountable for what you believe. You can know the truth. God has been good to give us the truth. It is up to us to believe the truth.
Pastor Bartel