Let Not Man Put Asunder
Scripture: Matthew 19:6Devotional Series: Husbands
Teaching: Husbands pt. 3 (SUN_AM 2024-08-11) by Pastor Star R Scott
We are to diligently keep the commandments of the Lord. A jealousy, a guarding, a protecting; it’s what makes us a separate people. It’s what causes the world to tremble before us, because they know that we won’t bow to their gods. It’s too bad that’s not the reputation of Christians today. The testimony of Christians in America today is that they can be bought because the mentality in America is that everything’s for sale. Get this Word, and don’t sell it (Proverbs 23:23); amen? Protect it, praise God! Let this relationship, this community that we have, be that pearl of great price. We’ve emptied everything out, or we should have. We should have emptied everything out to obtain that pearl; amen? It’s precious to us, and it becomes generational. Men, that’s your responsibility to see that these children are trained up (raised up) in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
A Christian husband and wife is the ultimate human relationship. Your wife is your ultimate love. It’s not your children and it’s not friends. There should be no greater love on earth. They talk about a mother’s love—and thank God for a mother’s love; thank God for the selflessness of mothers who are laying their lives down for their children—but there can be no love greater than this union in which two become one; amen? Two become one. We become almost like some of those affinities that identical twins have. You’ve probably seen it, where a husband and wife begin to finish each other’s sentences and know what each is thinking. That union. We become unified in the spirit, bone of bone and flesh of flesh; amen? That’s why the Bible is clear: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). God’s intention was that this union would be so binding, so strong, and such a great covenant and commitment, that nothing on earth could pull it apart. Maybe we can even paraphrase one of the Scriptures to say, “Nothing can separate you from the love of your spouse: neither height, nor depth, nor principalities, nor powers…” I know that it says, “the Lord,” but, in the Lord (praise God! Amen?), nothing can separate us from loving one another and fulfilling that commitment that we have to one another.
The Scripture is very clear that a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife—and will cleave to his wife—and these two will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The word cleave means, “to cling to,” “to abide fast,” or, I like this one, “to pursue after.” Husbands, you ought to be continually pursuing your wife just like you did when you were courting her. We don’t practice courting in the way the world does. Our courting process is the process called fellowship, or koinonia; amen? It’s a coming together and then, out of the midst of the community, there’s that desire for a specific individual. Then you’re being caught up in your mind with this particular person. Like Willie Nelson sang, “You are always on my mind.” So, we see that, as that begins to happen by the Holy Spirit, this longing for that person, you’ll do whatever you can to be by them. We split up into groups and, somehow, you just end up in the group where she is—by “chance.” You can’t wait to see her the next day. All of the great love songs singing about swimming the ocean and climbing the mountain: does your wife still attract you that way? Is there a love and a desire for that woman that causes you to be taken up with her well‑being?
A Christian husband and wife is the ultimate human relationship. Your wife is your ultimate love. It’s not your children and it’s not friends. There should be no greater love on earth. They talk about a mother’s love—and thank God for a mother’s love; thank God for the selflessness of mothers who are laying their lives down for their children—but there can be no love greater than this union in which two become one; amen? Two become one. We become almost like some of those affinities that identical twins have. You’ve probably seen it, where a husband and wife begin to finish each other’s sentences and know what each is thinking. That union. We become unified in the spirit, bone of bone and flesh of flesh; amen? That’s why the Bible is clear: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). God’s intention was that this union would be so binding, so strong, and such a great covenant and commitment, that nothing on earth could pull it apart. Maybe we can even paraphrase one of the Scriptures to say, “Nothing can separate you from the love of your spouse: neither height, nor depth, nor principalities, nor powers…” I know that it says, “the Lord,” but, in the Lord (praise God! Amen?), nothing can separate us from loving one another and fulfilling that commitment that we have to one another.
The Scripture is very clear that a man will leave his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife—and will cleave to his wife—and these two will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The word cleave means, “to cling to,” “to abide fast,” or, I like this one, “to pursue after.” Husbands, you ought to be continually pursuing your wife just like you did when you were courting her. We don’t practice courting in the way the world does. Our courting process is the process called fellowship, or koinonia; amen? It’s a coming together and then, out of the midst of the community, there’s that desire for a specific individual. Then you’re being caught up in your mind with this particular person. Like Willie Nelson sang, “You are always on my mind.” So, we see that, as that begins to happen by the Holy Spirit, this longing for that person, you’ll do whatever you can to be by them. We split up into groups and, somehow, you just end up in the group where she is—by “chance.” You can’t wait to see her the next day. All of the great love songs singing about swimming the ocean and climbing the mountain: does your wife still attract you that way? Is there a love and a desire for that woman that causes you to be taken up with her well‑being?