The principle He's communicating in verse 16-17 is that His preaching of the gospel is not giving any excuse for the present cultural views on divorce. These views were in place well before Jesus came along and they are in direct conflict with the Law. In Malachi 2:16 God says, "I hate divorce." His plan was always one man and one woman for life. The present religious leaders of Israel had made allowance for a man to divorce his wife for almost any reason. It was as if they had done away with the Law. Later Jesus will accuse them of rigidly keeping parts of the law and neglecting weightier things - marriage would be an example of the latter.
v. 16 states that the Law (first 5 books of O.T.) and Prophets (last 17 books of O.T.) were preached up until John and now the Kingdom of God is the message. Many are anxious to hear (forcing his way) to the gospel but that doesn't mean the Law is gone. In other words Jesus' message doesn't remove the things they learned from the O.T. - marriage is still marriage!
Men will use any method they can to excuse their behavior. Just today I heard a reason why someone thinks divorce is ok and I was amazed because I would have used the same argument to prove how wrong it is. People will choose to see what they want to see and the condition of their heart will be revealed in the process. As verse 15 says, "you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of man".
questions
1) How willing are you to evaluate your present opinions and convictions?
2) What are ways we justify our beliefs and actions?
3) What is one strong belief you use to have that God has confronted and changed? What did that process look like?
prayer
Father we repent of justifying our sin. Let us have sensitive hearts to your commands. We are not the law creators or the ones who implement them. We truly want to follow you. Reveal your truth to us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear your ways. May we only need to hear once to know its your leading and increase our faith to follow!
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