OceanSide church of Christ
Previous | Return to list of sermons | Next |
THE PAULINE PRIVILEGE
Victor M.
Eskew
A.
The holy bond of marriage
was given by God to man in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:18,
21-24).
And
the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will
make him an
help
meet for him… And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and
he
slept:
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the
rib,
which
the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto
the
man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she
shall be
called Woman, because she was taken out of
and
his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one
flesh
B.
The force of the words
“leave” and “cleave” are very strong.
During the ministry of Jesus, He revealed just how strong (Matt.
19:3-6).
The
Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful
for a
man
to put away his wife for every cause?
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye
not
read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
And
said,
For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his
wife: and
they
twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore
they are no more twain, but one flesh. What
therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
C.
They were strong words then,
and they are strong words today.
God intended one man to marry one woman and live with her in marriage
until death parts them.
D.
Jesus gave one exception to
this. (Matt. 19:7-9).
They
say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement,
and
to
put her away? He saith unto them,
Moses because of the hardness of your hearts
suffered
you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto
you,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and
shall marry
another,
committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit
adultery.
1.
Moses suffered them to put
away their wives. “To suffer,”
means an exception to the rule.
2.
From the beginning it was
not so.
3.
One who divorces and
remarries is in adultery, unless his divorce was for
fornication.
E.
Some do not believe there is
one exception. They believe in the
“Pauline Privilege” (I Cor. 7:15).
I. WHAT
THEY TEACH
A.
I
Corinthians 7 is the apostle Paul’s writing to the church at
B.
Our text involves questions
about marriages between believers and unbelievers (I Cor.
7:12-15).
But
to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth
not, and
she
be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath
an
husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not
leave
him.
For the unbelieving husband is
sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is
sanctified
by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. But if
the
unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage
in such
cases:
but God hath called us to peace.
C.
Three points seem to
summarize their teaching:
1.
“But to the rest speak I,
not the Lord.” Paul only spoke about mixed marriages. Jesus’ words, they say, do not apply to
mixed marriages.
2.
“But if the unbelieving
depart.” This is the desertion of
the believer by the unbeliever.
3.
“A brother or sister is not
under bondage in such cases.” This
is the marriage bond.
II. WHY THEY ARE
WRONG
A.
First, they make Matthew
19:9 a “covenant passage.”
1.
A
“covenant passage” is one that applies only to Christians.
2.
The context of Matthew
19:9.
a.
Jesus is addressing Pharisees, a Jewish sect.
b.
Jesus took His words back to the beginning of the entire human
race.
c.
“Whosoever” means all men and women.
3.
The reality is that those
who hold to this position do not believe that God has legislated to the
non-Christian through the gospel at all.
More on this later.
B.
Second, their doctrine
nullifies the exception clause of Matthew 19:9.
1.
Jesus said that one cannot
divorce and remarry “except” for fornication, one reason
only!
2.
Those who teach the “Pauline
Privilege” say that “except” does not mean “except.” There is another exception in I
Corinthians 7:15.
3.
Two
problems:
a.
This type of treatment of an exception complicates all exceptions (i.e.,
John 3:5).
Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and
of the
Spirit,
he cannot enter into the
b.
What about the years in the church between Jesus’ words and I Corinthians
7:15.
C.
Third, the Greek word for
“bondage” in the text.
1.
In the context of I
Corinthians 7, a form of the word “bond” is used 3 times (vs. 15, 27,
39).
2.
In I Corinthians 7:15, the
Greek word is a different Greek word.
It is the word “douloo.”
a.
This word occurs in some form 133 times in the NT, but never refers to
marriage.
b.
Perfect tense: The verb
means that the Christian is not now, nor has he ever been in the type of bondage
indicated by the word bondage. This
could not mean marriage.
D.
The doctrine implies many
false doctrines.
1.
Non-believers have no
legislation from God on marriage.
a.
Divorce and remarriage, polygamy, and same sex
marriage.
b.
Where there is no law, there is no transgression (Rom.
4:15).
c.
Paul said the Corinthians had been guilty of adultery (I Cor.
6:9-11).
2.
Every accountable person
will be lost.
a.
Gospel is only for believers (i.e., baptism, the
church).
b.
Universal damnation is false (Matt. 7:13, 14; Heb. 5:8,
9).
A.
Everything hinges upon the
word “bondage.”
B.
We have already seen that
the tense of the verb means one is not now, nor has he ever been in the bondage
indicated by the word.
1.
This cannot mean the
marriage bond, therefore.
2.
Roy Lanier, Sr.: “He simply means that the believer is
not so bound to the unbeliever that he must give up Christ to hold the
unbeliever” (Studies in I Corinthians, McClish, pp.
388-389).
3.
Harvey Floyd: “Paul uses dedoulotai in I Corinthians
7:15 because he wishes to say that for a Christian to yield to pressure to give
up his Christianity to preserve his marriage would mean slavery of the most
abject kind. The Christian must
never consider himself in such bondage.
A.
This lesson has sought to be
simple in its presentation of these matters.
B. Five words can help us remember the gist of this discussion: 1) Whosoever, 2) Except, 3) Bondage, and 4) False Implications.