Day 17 - Next of Kin
Part 2: Divorce
Scripture Passage: 1 Corinthians 7:12-16
Focal Verses: But I (not the Lord) say to the rest: If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce her husband. ~ 1 Corinthians 7:12-13 (CSB)
One of the trickiest, nastiest (and I’ll admit, saddest) aspects of identifying, locating, and notifying next of kin has to do with estrangement in relationships and family bickering. Mom claims her dead son divorced his evil wife two years ago. Wife denies these claims. Adult children rant over the fact that their wicked step-mother could have easily killed their father for his meager inheritance or life insurance policies. Accusations invariably are hurled at all sides and their bitter resentments toward one another shine in full display for all the world to see.
Challenges to the rights of a spouse as next of kin ensue, threatening to bring everything to a screeching halt in terms of funeral arrangements and the like. Thankfully (I guess that depends on your point of view), the law is pretty clear on the hierarchy of next of kin and a spouse is universally protected, no matter how many baseless accusations are hurled her way (naturally, many of these charges are investigated and if there is any merit to the claims, things could change), the spouse will remain the primary next of kin with all rights and privileges that entails.
Marriage has privileges. It provides a spouse with certain legal protections that can’t be easily stripped away.
That’s because marriage isn’t ‘merely a piece of paper,’ as some claim. It’s not a contract that can be breached with a little legal pressure. Marriage is a covenant, from the Latin phrase con venire, which means ‘coming together’, and usually used to describe two people agreeing to certain terms with the king’s will holding it together. Unlike a contract, a covenant cannot be broken without the king’s honor and integrity being challenged. So, marriage is a con venire (coming together) between a man and a woman with God (as King) binding it together. A marriage is unbreakable in the eyes of God (except in certain circumstances as Paul mentions in this particular passage).
So, why is that? Why does God take marriage so seriously? Why have such strict enforcement of a marriage where other matters can be as simple as a contract drawn up by a simple lawyer, and not a king?
Because marriage is a picture of God’s covenant with His own Bride, the Church. It is a picture of our very salvation. It is illustrative of the fact that once we are married to Christ, we cannot be sent away. We cannot be divorced. We cannot lose our salvation! We are preserved as next of kin with Christ!
The Devil, whose name literally means ‘accuser’ or ‘slanderer’ might act like all those bickering family members out there, trying to keep a spouse from receiving the benefits afforded to them from their relationship with their loved one. But God’s covenant with us is stronger than any accusations that might be tossed our way.
Take heart in that today! If you have been redeemed by Christ…if you have become His Bride…there is nothing that can pull you away from Him. Nothing that can tear you away from being His heir. From the place you have among His household. To use the old, but true cliche, once you are saved, you are always saved. And that, my friends, is something to praise God for!
Be grateful that God takes marriage so seriously. Be thankful that He does not allow divorce so easily. Remember, it is His way of assuring you of your place in His household. In His Kingdom.
Father God, thank you for the sanctity of marriage. Thank you for taking such things among us mere mortals so seriously. Help us, Lord, to maintain and preserve our marriages just as you maintain and preserve your marriage to us. Help us to have understanding toward our spouses. Help us to take marriage just as seriously as you. And finally, thank you for our very salvation and the very fact that it can never be taken from us.
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