The Kingdom of God: Divorce and Adultery

In this episode of Gospel Portions & Torah Tidbits, Shirah Chante explores Mark chapters 10 and 11 with a bold focus on divorce and adultery in the Kingdom of God. What did Jesus really mean when He said remarriage after divorce is adultery? How does the Kingdom standard differ from cultural norms? And what role do repentance and forgiveness play for those who have already walked this path?

This episode is a heartfelt teaching, warning, and prayer covering for Christian marriages. If you are married, considering divorce, remarried, or simply want to understand Jesus’ words more clearly this conversation is for you.

Listen in, reflect deeply, and align your heart with the Kingdom standard.

Transcript

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Hi everyone, it's Shira Sean today, your relationship coach and artist here with Gospel Portions and Torah Tidbits podcast.

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God is love.

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And we are studying the four gospels of love. Yes, the gospels of Jesus Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So thank you for joining me. We are in the book of Mark today. Mark chapters 10 and 11, portion number 21. I love reading the Gospels. I started reading the Gospels back in 20. No. I lie. 19, 1998. And I well, before that, of course, as a child, no, well, not of course, but I did as a child. I I read the gospels. I was taught the gospels in Sunday school. I read the gospels in church. Um would sit in the back of the church uh while the pastor was preaching and just read the Bible because he was it was such a long service. We were like in church so long, like at least three hours. At least, like if we were in church less than three hours, it was like, what? What's going on today? I think that may have happened one time, and but uh it it was definitely a joy. But I would so I would just sit in the back, and if I didn't fall asleep, I would read the Bible, or I would read the Bible and fall asleep, or so I've been akin to this word of God since I was a little child, and I thank God for that. And if you don't know the word of God, you really, really should. It's it's really uh yeah, people say it's a good book. It is a good book, but it's living, it's a living book. All the words are alive, and uh it's gonna last forever. My words shall not pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. That's what Jesus says in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So this is something that you can build your life upon, that you can trust, that you can that will endure past anything. We see a lot of destruction happening in the world, in the war. We see buildings being destroyed, uh oil tankers being demolished, we see uh people being killed, uh, we see just a lot of um uh unfortunate events happening that that is that's a part of war, and and uh it shows us that things don't last long and it doesn't take long or a lot to get to uh destroy something in this earth, even a person. And so we want to make sure we have something that can't be destroyed, and that is the word of God. Oh, yes, that puts a smile on my face. Thank you, Lord. We got something in this world to depend upon, to stand on, the rock, Jesus Christ, and so today's portion is called the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, I don't know if we're gonna get to that topic, uh, but today's topic that the Lord put on my heart is divorce and adultery. Divorce and adultery, which is a hot topic, it should be because there's way too much divorce. Uh, and that could be for a number of reasons, but I'm going to talk about divorce and adultery. That's how the Lord is leading me today. So we're gonna just read the scripture here in Mark chapter 10, where uh they came and asked Jesus about divorce. Uh they being the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a religious group in uh Jerusalem and of the Jews who uh they really knew the Torah very well. Um they knew the law, the first five books of the Bible, this is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy very well, and so they would come and test Jesus about his knowledge. So let's see what Jesus tells them today. In Mark chapter 10. Uh, let's start with uh verse one. And he arose from thence and cometh into the coast of Judea by the father side of Jordan, and the people resort unto him again, and as he was wont, he taught them again. And the Pharisees came to him and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting him? And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God had joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter, and he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another committed adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committed adultery. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah. If a man divorces his wife and marries another woman, he commits adultery against his wife. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery against her husband. So that that's a little different kind of uh concept than what we are used to, because we're talking about the kingdom of God. If you are a part of the kingdom of God, you are child of God, you a believer in God, you this is the rule that we go by, not by the rule of the land, but by God's rule, who says if you divorce your wife for another and marry another, you commit adultery for her. And I think this is more like you know, uh you you got your eye on somebody, it's not going very well with your wife, and you're like, hmm, any mini miny mo, you know, uh it's not going well with this one, but this one over here looks good, you see. And uh so even though you divorce your wife before you get with that other woman, Jesus still calls it adultery. Because you already you already had your eye on her, you she was already in the mix, she was she was already in your sight. You already had this planned out. That's still adultery, according to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he doesn't leave women out, women, same thing, and if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committed adultery. Same thing. You divorce your husband, you see a man over here, you get married to him, adultery. Now, this is I I'm saying this is probably most likely happening when we are already involved with someone. Maybe not physically, like you may not be having sex with them, but you're like, oh, they're there, and it's a potential, and you're you're maybe you're struggling at home, you've lost the love, you haven't been kindling the fire, you haven't worked out whatever is happening in your own marriage, and you see this other opportunity, and so you divorce your husband, and now you start dating this man. That's adultery. Well, Shera, I could I got a divorce, though I was already divorced, so if I marry someone else, that's not really adultery. Well, not according to Jesus, even if you divorce already, if you marry someone else, it's still adultery, it's still adultery, and like I said, it's probably you know, if you already had this in your mind, this intention, I think this is more catered toward that kind of worldview, like where you you're like, I'll just divorce him and marry someone else. That's adultery, I'll get married again, according to the word of God. That is adultery, leaving your wife for another adultery, leaving your husband for another adultery, even if you have not been physical with them, even if you hadn't had sex with them before, it's still called adultery. And yes, you need to repent if you have done that in the past, if you divorced your wife and you married another. I don't I don't know why he's coming to my mind, but I'm thinking about him, is Jeff Bezos. Sorry, Jeff, I'm using you as an example here, but um he had the situation, he divorced his wife, he married another. God considers that adultery, and you need to repent, just like anyone else needs to repent for doing that. Now, I'm not saying you need to go and divorce the wife you married or divorce the husband you married, it doesn't say that, however, you need to repent for that act of adultery, uh, because we need to all repent of our sins in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven. We need to have our sins forgiven. Yes, we forgive, we have our sins forgiven when we um when we uh let's see, uh accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Like you accepted the Lord Jesus as a child. I don't know if if if Jeff accepted Jesus Christ, but maybe he did. And and so he's saved, he's going to heaven. However, when we sin, we still need to ask for forgiveness because we will sin again. I mean, yes, we we we we are we want to be holy, we want to be sanctified, getting to know the Lord and to know his commandments, but we also you know we have to realize that um we're human and so we might sin again. Um and this is a warning for others who may be on the verge of divorce, maybe it's not going so well in your marriage. Um, and uh you need to uh reconcile, you need to make sure things are right, and it just could be a warning from God uh just to be careful about divorce, to watch out for divorce. I have to be obedient, you know. God has given me these names, and he, you know, I have to just say it. Uh, I'm thinking about Jackie Hill Perry. Okay, this is the Lord talked to me about this when before I even started this show. And uh I'm not saying she's having trouble or anything, God forbid, but this is a warning that if you divorce your husband and marry another, it's committed adultery. And for her husband, if he divorces his wife and marries another, it's called adultery. And so I believe this is just a warning to watch out, to pray, to fast, because there are attacks that come upon Christian marriages because people don't want to see God's people happy and in love and doing it right. And I I saw on social media that they just celebrated uh a milestone in their marriage, and people get attacked, people attack others, and um so that happens, and uh, you know, even with Jeff, he didn't get married right away, you know, he didn't, but still, if you kind of already had this going on, it's still adultery, so it's like um it's the kingdom of God has higher standards, and he wants us to be perfect, you know. He wants Jeff to be perfect, he wants Jackie to be perfect, he wants us to be perfect, and so we need to make sure that we are keeping our hearts and our minds and our souls and using all our strength to follow exactly the word of God, what Jesus says. And like I said, sometimes we don't even know this. Sometimes we don't know that. Well, if we divorce, even if we're already divorced, and but we had this plan going on, we already had this person in our sight, it's still adultery, even if we didn't physically get with that person uh before we were divorced, it's still adultery in God's eyes. And so I'm gonna lead you into a prayer for repentance so that you can be clean and you know you enjoy your your your new marriage and and let the Lord God bless you, uh, but acknowledge your sin and so that um it's not hanging over your head. Father God, in the name of Yeshua, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Father God, all of those who have committed adultery by divorcing their wife or divorcing their husband and marrying another, Father God asks you to forgive them, Father, in Jesus' name. Those who are seeking forgiveness, who are asking for forgiveness, just say, uh, dear Jesus, forgive me for divorcing my wife and marrying another. Dear Jesus, please forgive me for divorcing my husband and marrying another. Help me to have a fruitful marriage and this new marriage according to your will. And I pray for uh the life of the one whom I left, yes, and bless them as well, Father. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. And thank God, hallelujah. See, it's just it just clears the air with you in Christ. Now you can enjoy your God more, you can enjoy his blessings more, and uh you can guard against any future um temptation to entertain the idea of divorce or entertain another uh uh and then a subsequent divorce. We come against that in Jesus' name. We just bind up all of the uh distractions, the plans of the enemy, uh, and we just cast them into the fire. We say, no, do not attack God's children's marriages in Jesus' name. That is not for us. We throw that back to the children of the devil, and we live happily ever after. Hallelujah. In Jesus' mighty name. Not saying that all moments will be happy, but you know, you're making it, you you know, you're staying together, hallelujah. All right, that is our show today. The kingdom of God, divorce and adultery. Hope you got something out of this. And like, subscribe, and share this message so that people's marriages can be saved and that they can repent of any uh adultery that they have committed. In Jesus' name. The Lord bless and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you, may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Thank God.