Times Of Swaziland: MATRIMONIAL COMMANDMENTS MATRIMONIAL COMMANDMENTS ================================================================================ The Editor on 10/11/2017 03:50:00 Sir, I have attempted to look into the state of the church today and I realised that today’s church leaders have allowed a lot of dangerous pagan beliefs to creep in. I am now writing to express my concern over the increasing number of church leaders who consciously ignore the matrimonial commandments of God through divorces and re-marriages. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,” says Proverbs 16: 25. The issue of divorce and re-marriage is slowly filtering down through the Christian society to form a foundation of a well-accepted practice. Just because our religious role models are slowly accepting such beliefs, does it then mean that it should be embraced by the church whose foundation is based on the teachings of Christ? No! “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery,” says Luke 16:18. I have carefully studied the scripture above and I am convinced that it is not a command directed to a selected number of people, but it refers to everyone because it says ‘whoever’. This scripture was recorded by Luke from the teachings of Jesus and it makes it clear that the issue of divorce is banned from the kingdom of God just as prostitution is banned by the legislative books of Swaziland. This is not the only place in the Bible that makes reference to such a case and because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13: 8), He brings the issue up when He reveals his greatest council to Paul. The principles of the gospel of Christ are very clear and conclusive in that if any man divorces his wife and remarries, he commits adultery and awaits the harsh judgment of God. The issue of divorce and remarriage is not a stand-alone sin because the Bible dictates that it leads to another sin on condition that the divorcee re-marries while his or her spouse is still alive. In Luke 16:18, it is mentioned that the termination of marriage on such conditions will automatically result in adultery, which is listed as one of the greatest sins under sexual immorality. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man,” says Mark 7: 21-23. Defile a man! Yes, regardless of his position in the church and it becomes tragic when such sins are committed by the church’s leadership; people who are marriage counselors. How then do we expect the church to adhere to the principles of God when its leaders fail to do so? Divorce is a sin not only committed against the party being divorced but it’s also committed to Christ as well because it damages the reputation of the church and wounds its conscience. Anonymous