Day 185: Marriage, or Not to Marriage

1 Corinthians 7:25-40; 1 Kings 21; Amos 5

These verses in Corinthians about getting married are interesting. Basically, Paul is saying that staying single is best because you can focus on The Lord more easily. Unmarried people don't have to concern themselves with a secondary important relationship. Married people however, have more issues and problems to deal with. This includes trying to please their spouse in marriage, trying to keep themselves or their spouse faithful, trying to provide for a larger family, etc. The point is that marriage is not bad, but it can be a distraction from serving and focusing on The Lord. And I've talked to people who said that they worshiped their family more than God. There are a lot of people out there who feel like marriage is the ultimate goal in life. It's not.   Giving glory to The Lord is. A spouse cannot fill a person's soul like Jesus Christ can. And so Paul tells people not to pursue marriage if they are unmarried, but pursue The Lord. And if we are married, then that is fine too, we just have to be prepared for the struggle to shift our focus from our Lord to our spouse.

Man, 1 Kings is a bit depressing this morning. Jezebel goes behind Ahab's back and gets a guy killed just so her husband can have a vegetable garden. People do the cruelest things, just for something minor. I think the same is true today. People sell out their friends and family just so that their own skin will be saved. Others abuse their families with violence just to feel a sense of control. Leaders are corrupted just so they can gain some sort of political advantage. People are sleeping around, sacrificing their purity, and stealing from their future spouse, just for a little bit of pleasure. Students get in the habit of cheating, just so they can barely pass a small assignment. So many people are trading such valuable things like relationships, loyalty, purity, and honesty, for stuff that is barely worth anything. And God has set up consequences. So when the consequences of those actions rain down (like Ahab and his whole family dying), people feel bad, but not because of what they did, simply because they didn't think about the consequences. We need to live a life of purity and honesty because those things are so valuable in and of themselves, as well as to please The Lord and help other people.

Both in the time of Amos and today, God is calling people to turn back to him. He says in these scriptures that they "have built expensive homes, but [they] won't enjoy them. [They] have planted vineyards, but [they] will get no wine." What these scriptures make me see are all the hard work that Americans go to in order to work and produce stuff on earth but how many people are still unhappy, even if they are rich? He goes on to say that the "times are so evil that anyone with good sense will keep quiet." I know that I often feel very hesitant to speak up about anything of value, like Christ, faith, and justice, because the culture that we live in is so against the words of scripture and I would be setting myself up for ridicule. Obviously, that shouldn't matter, but I would be lying to say that it isn't still is a hindrance. And yet, people need to hear the warnings, the hope, the message of the Word. People are running from lions in their lives, only to be met by a bear. Then when they finally think they have it figured out and are safe and happy, they get bit by a snake (verse 19). People are pursuing the wrong things, and because of that, they continue to get deeper and deeper into sin, just like the Israelites. However, there is a way out; there is hope. It is found in believing and following Jesus.