Marriage Unbound

This election, especially here in Maine, highlights one of the biggest problems the church has as some try to reconcile with our society over marriage.  The problem is that we are operating in two different kingdoms.   The Bible says that light has nothing in common with darkness and that the natural man cannot understand the things of the spirit.  Jesus made it clear that "My kingdom is not of this world."

For a long time, much of our society was content and even willing to live with Biblical values.  This was probably never quite a pervasive as we like to imagine, but it is true that Biblical values used to permeate our culture a great deal more than they do today.  For decades, those values have been slowly abadoned by society.  Permissive divorce, abortion, removal of various "blue laws", a move by government away from a "pro Christian" position all point to that change in our culture.  Now the latest symptom is the quest to "redefine" marriage.

In all these cases, these are symptoms of a world that is unbound from God.  Christians are bound to Christ, non-Christians are not.  God through Christ, through us, is seeking to reconcile people to Himself.  Often times I fear that as a church we are trying to be evangelists for one little part of what it means to follow God.  But since the world, including our country doesn't know Him, why are we surprised that they reject our definitions.  And should our efforts be to try to change any one fruit, or the root issue;   Salvation?  Marriage, unbound from God, ceases to work correctly no matter the gender of the participants.   Is our message one of reconciliation to Christ or one of trying to finally stem a societal tide that has its roots in a lost people?  Should I make a great polictical effort to make our culture conform to the values of Christ whether or not they actually know Him?    Yes, abondoning God's plans in any area will have negative effects for society, but is my job to save society for me to live in or to proclaim Christ so others may live eternally?

Just a few thoughts to consider.