John 5:39, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
The title verse chosen for this letter clearly brings into view the words and idea of, ‘ye think.’ This put me in search of a definition, or some alternative language. I know what I think; therefore, I do it. Every person is privileged to think for himself, but what does God want us to think? The living Bible states in its translation ‘you believe,’ rather than ‘ye think.’ The same King James versionwhich says ‘ye think,’ concludes the verse with these words, ‘…they are they which testify of me.’ The second translation consulted, which changes the words to ‘you believe,’ concludes with, ‘… and the scriptures point to me.’ It is the following verse, number forty, that is very distinct with its message. It says, “Yet you won’t come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.” No one needs a dictionary to understand what that means.
The words thinking and believing will have to give place to some supposition. The luxury of thinking, believing, and supposing, are conspicuously removed in the message of verse forty. The absence of any benefit in belief or thought is by an even greater degree banished by what Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8:19 which states, “Then said they unto him, where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” Although everyone may not be prone to question this, it does trouble me. How can we follow one that is unknown to us? Therefore, my fascination with the original text where Jesus told us to “search the scriptures.” If there is something you need to have clarity on, you need to investigate and research it. Do not remain complacent or just accept what others think or believe and go with the flow.
Yesterday I asked our optometrist who is a Jew by nationality, to pronounce for me the last word of the Shama. Jews and Christians quote it alike and comes to us in Deuteronomy 6:4, which says, “Hear Oh Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” That family doctor had asked us something about the Spanish language, then I in turn sought his help to perfect my pronunciation of the Shama. We agreed on the Bible message of that verse with one mammoth difference. Who is that one LORD to whom we need to heed? Proverbs 27:17 tells us that, “Iron sharpens iron…”
Dozens of times in the Bible in both the Old and the New Testaments we read verses in different contexts that speak about deceiving or being deceived. Though everyone knows to read the small print on contracts that they sign, not all do. The fact that it is written in small print is a witness that you will be signing something, that is not wanted to be known readily. There is a little known and seldom used English word, ‘wrest,’ that isrecorded in the bible a few times. That word, in our dictionary, is defined as, “to distort or change the true meaning or purpose of.” (Also note that Jesus used parables to both reveal and conceal. They were to reveal or enhance truths to the sincere seeker and conceal truth from the mockers and curiosity mongers.) Mark 4:11-12 tells us this, “And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.” It was not yet time for all to be revealed, but now is the time for understanding.
Giving our attention again to the word ‘wrest,’ we see it recorded in Psalm 56:5 which says, “Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.” There is another application of that single word ‘wrest,’ this time referring to scriptural things hard to understand. Written by our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him. We read it in 2 Peter 3:16-17, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” He was warning them that when they wrestle the word of God to try to make it say what they want it say, it will be to their own destruction.
Let us look at a few easy examples. How many times have you heard that God is love, compassionate, and long-suffering? How many other times, were you told that he is severe, jealous, and a consuming fire? Someone may have told you a half-truth, or we might wonder who is telling the truth. Everyone knows Acts 16:31 which says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” It was not a cursory, casual, or superficial hearing by the Philippian jailer, for he was also baptized that night, notwithstanding, most people are not aware of that. “Oh half-truth, that art a killer and a curse to the soul of those ‘unlearned and unstable.’” It is imperative that we put the time in to find the truth for ourselves in the word of God.
I submit that most church people have heard James 4:7 which says, “…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Many can even quote this portion; however, most people have forgotten that there is a first part to the verse, which says, “Submit yourselves unto God…” When no submission is given to God, there will be no fleeing done by the devil. It is good for a demolition expert to know the power of his explosives, but he will not be able to enjoy a long employment if he disregards the simple rules of safety that are needed on the job site. One without the other is not a complete package or truth.
Here is a hypothetical illustration, which I hope to make an application with. A man was employed as an executioner. His duties were to obey what he was told to do and ask no questions. A man was delivered to him to be his next subject to expedite. He is told to cut the man’s throat and shoot him in the heart. “Superfluous,” groans the executioner, “that poor man suffers double jeopardy.” You can be sure that he lost his position; nevertheless, the condemned man died at the hands of another.
Certainly, no man wants to do violence to the word of God, and I wish to be one of those; however, a parallel can be seen in some of this, when reading about the subject of marriage and divorce. Matthew 19:10 says, “His disciples said unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.” In the preceding verse nine it says, “And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marries her which is put away doth commit adultery.” Jesus is uttering a devastating condemnation to those divorcing an innocent woman and then marrying another. Jesus revealing that this would constitute adultery, was a startling realization and brought about the words of verse ten unanimously from all the disciples. We see Jesus’ response to their astonishment in verse eleven, “But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
The disciples understood Jesus when in a simple utterance he declared what Luke penned in his gospel. Luke 16:18 says, “Whosoever puts away his wife, and marries another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marries her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.” If he puts away a virtuous woman and marries again, he commits adultery, and if she marries again, he has caused her to commit adultery. This shows that both commitments are equally a sin. (The executioner does not have to shoot the condemned man and cut his throat.) Additionally, the man that marries the divorced, guilty, or innocent, commits adultery. Divorcing a clean woman does not require the man to marry again to be in disobedience. Matthew 5:32 annuls any thought or supposition to this. It says, “But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.” When he causes her to commit adultery by her subsequent marriage, he becomes an accessory to her sin and is as guilty as she.
Continuing this theme, another grave error can deceive some, whose marriage partner, wanting out, being an unbeliever, walks away. It is recorded in first Corinthians 7:15, “But if the unbelieving departs, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.” In this she or he is innocent of adultery when the one separates voluntarily and goes out to have another marriage. (Note, the word ‘remarriage’ is not a word found in the Bible.) There is a diabolical concept in much of Christianity today regarding the meaning of marriage and divorce. The word ‘marriage’ is listed in the scripture more than a dozen and a half times, while the word ‘divorce’ is only recorded once. Contemporary thought, at least in practice, is often that marriage is conditional or impermanent. In other words, the covenant of marriage becomes a contract that can be voided. On the contrary, divorce is made the more permanent option, or more the rule than the exception, and can never be contested, while marriage is.
In Jeremiah we see that divorce was made law for the Medes and Persians. The Lord spoke to his people with an analogy they would understand. Jeremiah 3:8-15 says, “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord. And the Lord said unto me, the backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” No matter how far they had walked away from them, God loved his people and wanted them to return to him, even though he had to separate himself from their sin because he is Holy.
You have heard the only time divorce is recorded in the Bible and it certainly did not mean permanence. The Lord was longing for his people to come back to him. There are many references to marriage and divorce in the scriptures. There are seven times in scriptures that it is recorded, “…they shall be one flesh.” Indeed, there are eight references if you include Malachi 2:15 which says, “And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” There are two gospel writers that recorded, “…let no man put them asunder.” This seems to denote permanence rather than impermanence. Question. When a man or a woman takes another or an additional person comes into the equation of marriage because of marrying a second time, is the Lord discriminating by not making the three one flesh? He would have to do it if they all were still living, or it would be considered adultery, according to my scriptural search.
God wants marriage to be as it is defined in the scripture. His word is the final authority, and it is written down for us three times for clarity. You may read Romans 7:2, “For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.” Romans 7:3, “So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” And 1 Corinthians 7:39, “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” In each, a death is mentioned, and the noun or adjective “liberty,” “loosed,” or “free,” is said to be had from the marriage. This is binding only to those proclaiming to be in the church. Those coming to God in rebirth of water and the Spirit must adhere to the writings of the apostles.
The verses on marriage that we read in 1 Corinthians seven are preceded in the same chapter by another controversial topic in New Testament church circles, circumcision. 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, “But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so, ordain I in all churches. Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise, also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.” It is so important that he said in verse seventeen, “And so ordain I in all churches.”
A brief mention of portions of the verses given above are, “…as the Lord hath called everyone, so let him walk.” “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” “Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God.” The man, not born again, does not do well for himself in his life thinking that the Lord just wants him to be happy. Woe awaits many in eternity, which is interpreted as pain, sorrow, misery, and destruction, to the one who is always thinking he knows best. We must follow Jesus and stop just ‘thinking’ about it. Our text in John 5:39 said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” 2 Timothy 2:15 said it this way, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Jesus concluded in John 5:40 speaking to the Pharisees, “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Yet, we, present day, have the opportunity to search his word, learn of him, stop trying to think it all out for ourselves, and come to him, that we might have life as he promised and as he reiterated in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Try digging into his word for yourselves today, you will be surprised at the understanding that will unfold and what you will learn about life, hope, love, trust, marriage, and so much more, especially about our Lord Jesus!