forbid

² Some Pharisees came and, trying to test him, they asked, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife?” ³ Jesus answered, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a divorce certificate and to divorce his wife.” ⁵ Jesus said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your unyielding hearts. ⁶ At the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ⁷ Because of this, a man should leave his father and mother and be joined together with his wife, ⁸ and the two will be one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore, humans must not pull apart what God has put together.” ¹⁰ Inside the house, the disciples asked him again about this. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; ¹² and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” ¹³ People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. ¹⁴ When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. ¹⁵ I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ Then he hugged the children and blessed them. (Mark 10:2-16, CEB)

Here again we see that if you divorce and remarry you commit adultery. I have a friend who is divorced and she refuses to get married again because she doesn’t want to make the man an adulterer. I applaud her tenacity. Because it clearly says here that if you are divorced and get remarried that you are an adulterer. Now as I said in yesterdays devotion, own that. That is a sin you are committing and don’t have to hide from the world. Not that we need to hide any of our sins because why does it matter what someone, who isn’t God, thinks about our sins.

But here we also have the disciples forbidding children to come to Jesus. How can we forbid anyone to come to Jesus? We need to actively help everyone come to Jesus and believe like a child. Where we believe because we have been told, and not because we have seen.

Let us all share love and grace and not forbid anyone.

Love People. Love God.