Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Tom Shepherd
Series Code: HPOV
Program Code: HPOV000026A
00:15 Hello, and welcome to Heaven's Point of View.
00:18 This time our series 00:20 is on Love, Marriage, Sex and Divorce 00:23 from the New Testament prospective. 00:25 And our featured host is Dr. Tom Sheperd. 00:29 Dr. Sheperd, is a man of many accomplishments. 00:33 He is the director for the Ph.D and Th.D programs 00:38 at Andrews University. 00:40 He's a professor of New Testament interpretation 00:43 at Andrews University 00:45 and he has an M.P.H and a Doctorate 00:49 in Public Health, am I right? 00:50 Dr. Sheperd. It's true. 00:52 I did theology in under graduate 00:54 at Pacific Union College. 00:56 And, then I went and did Masters 00:58 in Public Health Nutrition and then the--- 01:01 where they kind of call at that time 01:03 the Doctor of Health Science 01:04 and later it was grandfathered into Doctor of Public Health 01:07 so, that's my Public Health side. 01:10 I sometimes, you know, I mean, most of my work 01:12 is now in religion and teaching New Testament, 01:15 but every once in a while 01:16 I kind of put on my public health that 01:19 and share few health statistics 01:21 with my students and things like that. 01:22 Well, that's awesome 'cause I know you're gonna share 01:24 some information with us today 01:26 that comes from that health side as well. 01:29 So we're, really, really happy and excited 01:31 to have you here and to talk about 01:34 these topics of Love, Marriage, Sex and Divorce. 01:39 Because, this is such an important, 01:41 important array of topics 01:44 with what's going on in society today. 01:46 Yes. 01:47 Is marriage really that important? 01:50 Well, that's a, that's a great question 01:52 because there's just been an amazing shift 01:54 in American society over about the last 50 years 01:58 in relationship to sexually expression, 02:01 sexual behavior and issues about marriage. 02:05 And it's quite interesting that the, 02:07 well, the US government 02:09 is quite interested in these topics. 02:11 They put our text others to work 02:13 and they actually did a study back in the late 90s 02:16 that was published in 2002, 02:18 which is available on the Center For diseases, 02:22 the CDC the Center For Disease Control website, 02:26 you can look it up and see the full report there, 02:28 but they have a kind of an interesting summary about 02:32 marriage in this study. 02:34 This was the study done by the US government 02:36 so, it wasn't from any religious point of view. 02:39 It was from a government stand point that they did this. 02:42 And I'd like to read part of the summary 02:45 of the meaning of marriage or it's a, 02:48 what it does to our lives from this study 02:51 and here's what it says. 02:52 It says "Marriage is associated 02:55 with a variety of positive outcomes, 02:58 and dissolution of marriage," that's divorce, break-up, 03:01 "is associated with negative outcomes - 03:04 for men, women, and their children. 03:07 Compared with unmarried people, 03:10 married men and women tend to have lower mortality." 03:13 They don't die so much. 03:15 "Less risky behavior." 03:18 They're not doing drugs and other kinds of things 03:20 that are messing them up. 03:22 "More monitoring of health." 03:24 Maybe they go to the doctor more often. 03:26 "More compliance with medical regimens." 03:28 So they take their medicine, your wife says, 03:31 your husband says to you, "Now, take your pill." 03:33 All Right, right. 03:34 "Higher sexual frequency." They have sex more often. 03:37 "More satisfaction with their sexual lives." 03:39 They enjoy it more. 03:40 "More savings, and higher wages." 03:43 Well, this sounds pretty good, but we're not done. 03:45 "Compared to married individuals, 03:48 divorced persons exhibit 03:49 lower levels of psychological well-being, 03:52 more health problems, greater risk of mortality, 03:56 more social isolation, less satisfying sex lives, 04:00 more negative life events, 04:02 greater levels of depression and alcohol use, 04:05 and lower levels of happiness and self-acceptance." 04:07 Pretty, pretty... 04:08 That sounds a little depressing. 04:10 Yes, it does. I'm afraid it does. 04:12 Then there's more, it says, 04:13 "Adverse outcomes accrue to children of divorce 04:17 and children raised in single-parent families... 04:20 Children raised in single-parent families 04:22 are more likely to drop out of high school." 04:23 That's right. 04:24 "Have lower grades and attendance while in school, 04:27 and are less likely to attend and graduate from college 04:30 than children raised in two-parent families. 04:33 Studies have found that, 04:34 compared to children in two-parent families, 04:37 children of divorce score lower on measures of self-concept, 04:41 social competence, conduct, 04:44 psychological adjustment and long-term health." 04:47 It's amazing. That is amazing. 04:49 And, and I've heard this time and time again 04:53 that so many children suffer as a result of divorce. 04:58 Yes. 04:59 You know, and the, and the financial outcome 05:02 is so much more dismal. 05:03 Yeah. 05:05 For a single parent families, I mean that's one of the things 05:07 that we deal with on Dare to Dream, 05:09 and our focus is on single parent families 05:12 and just trying to help the erosion of the family. 05:16 Yes, they need support when that, 05:18 when that kind of experience happens. 05:21 The, the idea sometimes people get the idea 05:25 that they will get divorced for the children's sake. 05:29 That's right. 05:31 Because, they're fighting, 05:32 but actually I mean, unless there is physical abuse 05:35 and physical abuse is always wrong. 05:38 But, unless there's that, 05:39 if they're just fighting verbally, 05:41 you known, I mean, that can be a pretty unpleasant 05:45 kind of a situation. 05:46 But actually it still better for the children 05:51 than an experience where the parents get divorced, 05:53 'cause the children start to blame themselves, 05:56 like you said, they have economic problems. 05:58 They don't have that other person in their family, 06:01 that other male or female role model before them 06:06 and the children, they don't see everything 06:09 that's going on always with the adults especially, 06:12 if the adults are only arguing behind doors. 06:15 I mean, it's always sad. 06:16 And I, I hope that people can, 06:19 as we go through these kinds presentations, 06:21 and we learn what the Bible says about 06:23 marriage and love, sex and divorce, 06:26 that they can see 06:28 that the Bible holds out a better message. 06:29 Yeah. 06:31 Happy home, a message about a happy home, 06:33 of about sharing love with one another. 06:35 And, I think that's an important point 06:37 that these programs are not condemnation 06:41 for those that are divorced 06:42 or going through these kinds of things 06:44 but, this is just showing 06:46 that the Bible has a happier outcome, 06:49 a more fulfilling outcome, a better plan for us. 06:53 God has a better plan for us, than divorce. 06:56 And, our, our, message is, 06:59 should be primarily for young people, 07:02 who haven't got married yet, that they'll make good choices. 07:05 Yes. 07:07 Before, they get married, they'll make good choices 07:08 in getting married 07:09 and they'll make good choices after marriage, 07:12 after they get married. 07:14 Good choices lead to good outcomes. 07:16 That's right. 07:17 Bad choices lead to bad outcomes. 07:19 And the children, young people are blessed 07:22 if they have adults in their life 07:24 that they can trust, that they can turn to 07:26 and follow good advice. 07:28 Absolutely. 07:30 But you know, there's no advice as good as what's in the Bible. 07:32 That's right. The scriptures. 07:33 That's right, and it's so relevant. 07:35 Yeah. What about divorce? 07:37 Are some people more likely to get divorced than others? 07:40 They are, again, this big study 07:42 that was done by the government. 07:43 They said the characteristics of individuals 07:45 related to a higher probability of divorce 07:48 so, who is more likely to get divorced? 07:52 And they just looked at all the stats in terms of 07:54 you know, what happens in people. 07:56 They found that, if you get younger age of marriage, 08:01 if you get married younger, 08:04 you're more likely to get divorced. 08:06 That's an interesting point, 08:07 because what you, you are kind of, 08:11 your taste at 18 might not be what you like it at 25. 08:16 Or 40. 08:18 Or 40, 08:21 so the younger, I've heard, 08:23 I've heard actually some people advocate 08:25 for people getting married at a younger age 08:28 because that teaches you responsibility 08:29 and so on and so forth. 08:31 But, I think your choices, your taste 08:33 is not really as developed. 08:35 Yeah. As maturely as it should be. 08:38 So divorce happens more often when younger age of marriage, 08:42 lower education and later birth cohort. 08:47 Now, I have to explain this idea of cohort. 08:49 A cohort is a group of people 08:51 that are identified by some characteristic 08:55 and then you follow them through time. 08:56 So a later birth cohort means, a group of people 09:02 who are born later. 09:04 So if you were born 09:05 say back in the, in the 1950s, 09:10 you are less likely to get divorced 09:13 than somebody was born in the 1980s. 09:16 Yeah, so later birth cohort 09:19 gives you a higher probability of divorce. 09:22 That's just one of the indicators 09:24 that there's been a shift about marriage, 09:27 about sexual ethics, about all these things 09:29 in our society over the last 50 years. 09:33 Then there's also, later marriage cohort 09:35 so, people who got married later. 09:37 People who got married in the 50s 09:39 are less likely to have divorce, 09:42 than people who got married in the 80s. 09:44 Because our society has shifted its sexual mores, 09:47 its concepts of marriage, 09:49 its concepts of what it means to be married 09:52 or to be sexually active. 09:54 Presence of a pre-marital birth. 09:57 So if you have sex before marriage 09:58 and you get pregnant, 10:00 you're more likely to have a divorce. 10:02 A pre-marital cohabitation. 10:04 If you got... 10:05 were living with somebody before you got married, 10:08 you're more likely to have a divorce. 10:09 Isn't that interesting? 10:10 Because a lot of people say, "Well, let's try it first." 10:13 We'll try it out. 10:14 Yeah, we'll test drive and see if it works for us. 10:17 They're actually setting themselves up 10:19 more likely to end up with divorce. 10:20 Pre-marital sexual activity, they have sex before marriage, 10:23 they're more likely to have divorce as well. 10:24 Yeah. 10:26 That is very interesting. Yes, striking. 10:27 So, does religious faith, what role does that play 10:32 in marriage and divorce? 10:33 Well, it makes a difference actually. 10:35 Again, from the study, they asked people 10:39 how important religion was to them. 10:41 And then they compared this with the data 10:45 for first marriage break-up, if they're marriage broke-up. 10:48 So, at 15 years, at 15 years of marriage, 10:51 the statistics shows like this, 10:53 people who said that religion was not important to them. 10:56 54 percent of their marriages broke-up. 11:00 So about half, if religion was not important, 11:03 about half of the marriages at 15 years were broken. 11:06 Religion was somewhat important to them. 11:10 The percentage was 45 percent, about 10 percent less. 11:14 So, they've still not quite half 11:17 but, still it was higher than, 11:19 than we come to the... 11:20 where religion is very important to them, 37 percent. 11:25 So, there is about a 20 percent difference 11:28 between those who said religion was not important to them, 11:31 and where religion was very important. 11:33 So religion, 11:35 the importance of religion in a person's life 11:38 has a protective effect on their marriage. 11:42 And I mean, that make sense 11:44 because if somebody takes the Bible's message seriously 11:46 and the Bible says, God say, "I hate divorce." 11:49 They... 11:51 if they take that seriously in their life 11:53 it's a value that they've have internalized 11:55 and they say, "Well, no I can't do that, 11:57 'cause Bible tells me not to do that." 11:59 So, they're, they're not likely to do. 12:01 If just somebody says, religion is not important 12:03 they're like, 12:04 "Well, no. I don't care for them anymore 12:06 so, I'm just going to get divorced." 12:07 Yeah. 12:08 So, it gives you a standard 12:10 against which you can base your life. 12:12 Yeah. Base your choices. 12:14 Yeah, yeah that they also found 12:16 that people who had no religious affiliation, 12:19 that's people we would say, 12:21 that aren't members of a church, 12:23 okay, that they were significantly 12:25 more likely to divorce 12:27 then those with religious affiliation. 12:30 Religion, you see, makes a difference 12:32 in marriage stability. 12:35 It's the US government that's telling you this. 12:38 Isn't that interesting? 12:39 Yeah, the title of this study is, Cohabitation, Marriage, 12:42 Divorce, and Re-marriage in the United States. 12:44 And it's available on the Centers 12:45 For Diseases control website, which is a fantastic website. 12:49 I put on my public health add here, and say, 12:51 "If you want good health information, 12:53 go to the CDC website." 12:54 They have, they have very useful, 12:56 and you'd be surprised the things 12:58 that they have on there you know. 12:59 And, one of them is this whole big study on marriage. 13:03 That's tremendous. 13:05 I love the fact that we can really go to the word 13:10 and find out, just, it's so relevant. 13:12 It applies to us today. Yes. 13:15 And, to me worship together 13:17 is a really intimate kind of thing. 13:19 When you worship with your family, 13:21 it's such an intimate act 13:24 that I think we underestimate the power of worship. 13:29 You know, they, the studies that people talk about 13:32 are children do better in school 13:34 when the family has a meal together, you know. 13:37 Isn't that interesting? 13:38 They eat, they eat meals together you know, 13:40 when the children will do well-- why, why is that? 13:41 Well, you're talking together. 13:43 It's not just eating food, your conversing 13:46 and the children are learning 13:48 the vocabulary of their parents, you know. 13:50 And, maybe they are talking about the day. 13:52 Well, I'll tell you, for years, what my family has done, 13:55 my wife and I will have morning worship, 13:57 we read the Sabbath school lesson. 13:59 We eat breakfast, we read the Sabbath school lesson, 14:01 and we have a prayer calendar from our Sabbath school class, 14:04 and from another Sabbath school class. 14:05 And, we pray for people 14:07 and I just put in little plug here for a 3ABN, that... 14:11 3ABN says, that you should pray for everybody at 7o'clock. 14:14 7 and 7, you pray for the Holy Spirit, 14:16 and my wife has set a little, 14:18 we're usually eating breakfast around 7, 14:20 and my wife has set a little alarm clock on her phone. 14:23 And, it goes off. 14:24 It sounds like a little alarm clock going off 14:26 and little birds singing or something. 14:29 And, then we know it's time to pray. 14:30 And, then we stop and we'll pray 14:32 and we have some grandchildren now, 14:35 and well, the grandchildren they would say, 14:36 "Oh, it's time to pray." 14:38 You know, and if we already prayed for them, 14:40 "Oh, we're gonna pray again." You know. 14:42 So these kinds of experiences are 14:45 which bring stability to families. 14:47 Yes. Yeah. 14:48 Yes, and it's so important 14:50 to see fathers pray, mothers pray. 14:53 Yes. 14:54 You know, because it shows that God is at the center. 14:57 And we can relay upon him and depend upon him. 14:59 Exactly. 15:00 Let's see what words say in Ephesians 5. 15:02 Ephesians 5 has a section 15:05 that we're gonna study when we're-- 15:06 you know this, this whole series of studies 15:09 that we're doing talks about love, 15:11 we've already talked about those, 15:12 the Old Testament and New Testament 15:14 and I Corinthians 13, 15:16 and now, we're gonna start on a serious 15:18 of a presentation to on marriage. 15:20 Then we'll look at, the presentations on sex, 15:23 and then we'll finish with the presentation on divorce, 15:25 which is almost kind of sad 15:26 you know, like finishing it up with divorce, 15:28 'cause that's not what we hope people will end. 15:29 What we need to know what the Bible says 15:31 about this subject. 15:32 But now as we turn to the subject of marriage, 15:34 the Apostle Paul has in Ephesians 5, 15:37 some very important instruction about the household. 15:42 He was writing to people 2000 years ago, 15:44 what we call the Greco-Roman world 15:46 and the Greco-Roman house hold. 15:48 He was instructing people 15:50 how to be a Christian household. 15:53 So, he introduces this in Chapter 5. 15:55 Now the book Ephesians written by Paul 15:58 has at least four major theological themes. 16:02 These four themes are Eschatology, 16:06 Christology, Soteriology, and Ecclesiology. 16:09 Bunch of ologies. 16:10 Yeah, bunch of ologies, that's right. 16:12 Now, Eschatology has to do with last day events. 16:15 Okay. 16:16 And the Apostle presents that there are two ages, 16:20 there's the present age 16:21 and what he calls the age to come. 16:23 That's when Jesus comes back. Okay. 16:26 He emphasizes the, 16:28 in the book of Ephesians the present benefits. 16:31 The present benefits of the age to come. 16:34 It's in Ephesians that we read the words 16:36 "By grace you have been saved." 16:37 Yes, yes. 16:39 So, you have present benefits 16:40 but, there's a final consummation later. 16:43 Jesus is going to come back. 16:44 And, we'll experience that when He returns soon. 16:48 The second great major theme of this book is Christology; 16:52 probably you might say the biggest theme of the book, 16:55 all about Jesus Christ... 16:57 Jesus Christ, is the risen Lord, 16:59 He is seated at the right hand of God. 17:02 Yeah. 17:03 And His authority is for the blessing of the church. 17:06 He talks about giving gifts to the church 17:08 and blessing the church. 17:10 And the Apostle also says, 17:12 we're sitting in heavenly places with Christ. 17:14 And, so it's kind of beautiful. 17:15 Then there's Soteriology; that's all about salvation. 17:18 So we have last day events, the doctrine of Christ, 17:21 Jesus Christ, and then Soteriology, 17:23 it's a doctrine of salvation. 17:24 Christians experiences the blessings of salvation now. 17:29 And, they will receive the inheritance 17:31 when Jesus comes back. 17:32 Okay. 17:33 And, then the last one is Ecclesiology, 17:35 that's doctrine of the church, all about the church. 17:38 "The church is the body of Christ." 17:40 Says, Paul. 17:41 It is God's family, it is the new temple, 17:44 it is Christ's fullness, and it's Christ's bride. 17:47 There's a lot about the church... 17:49 Yes. In the book of Ephesians. 17:50 Now, the book divides into two main sections, okay. 17:56 The first three chapters are focused a lot on theology. 18:00 Give you the theological part. 18:02 And then, Chapter four to six 18:04 are instructions in Christian living. 18:06 So, you learn the theology, what's the doctrine 18:09 and what differences does the doctrine make in your life. 18:12 If the doctrine doesn't make any differences in your life, 18:15 then you know... 18:18 So, would you say it's the teaching 18:19 and the application then? 18:20 Yeah, you can put it that way certainly, 18:22 the teaching and the application. 18:24 And, so the section of Chapter 5 18:27 is in this second part of the book. 18:30 It runs from 5:21 through 6: 9, 18:32 and we'll study that in a little bit later. 18:35 We're gonna do the preamble this time. 18:36 Yeah. Sort of get ready for it. 18:39 But Paul links, interestingly, 18:41 he links his household instructions 18:45 with the themes of the letter. 18:47 So, we say there's those four themes, 18:48 Eschatology, Christology, 18:51 Soteriology, and Ecclesiology. 18:54 Now, the primary linkage 18:57 in the instructions to the Christian home 18:59 are to Christology and Ecclesiology. 19:02 When we get there, we'll find out 19:04 that he talks about Christ as the head of the church. 19:07 And he talks about the church as Christ's body. 19:10 And he all intermingle 19:11 he's talking to husbands and wife. 19:13 Sometimes, you almost get the feeling like, 19:16 "Paul, are you still talking about the home here? 19:20 Or are you talking about the church?" 19:21 You know, he doesn't forget, but he intermingles the two. 19:25 There is a... 19:27 there are secondary linkages 19:29 to Soteriology and Eschatology but, 19:32 the big stuff is Christology and, and Ecclesiology. 19:35 Now this is rather important, that he has this, 19:40 this strong linkage between the themes of the letter 19:42 and the instructions for the home. 19:44 On illustration, 19:46 that Paul in writing about the Christian home, 19:49 he's not just giving a set of rules. 19:53 You know, he doesn't just, yeah, 19:55 sometimes people want to say, 19:56 "oh, he's just parroting the people of his era. 19:59 You know, he's just talking like 20:01 everybody would talk in his time. 20:03 Well, no... 20:04 You know, he's intimately tying together 20:08 instruction for how you're supposed to act as a Christian 20:12 with instruction for what it means to be a Christian. 20:15 So, first you learn that doctrine, 20:17 like you said, "The teaching." 20:18 And the, what does it mean, how do you practice. 20:21 So, that is all on display 20:24 when he's talking about the Christian home. 20:26 So it's really beautiful, you know, 20:27 the way he just ties them together so closely. 20:29 Yes, yes it's a about relationship. 20:32 One's relationship with one's spouse. 20:36 And, that relationship as it links with God. 20:38 Husbands and wives. Yeah, yeah. 20:39 Yeah, and children and parents. 20:40 So the purpose of these instructions 20:43 is to help a is to help a Christian house 20:48 or house hold in that time period 20:50 in that Greco-Roman world, 20:52 to understand what difference it makes that you're Christian. 20:56 So it's not like we said, not just a list of rules 20:58 but he actually modifies the Greco-Roman home. 21:04 And, we'll talk about more later 21:06 the Greco-Roman home was very top down, 21:08 very male oriented, 21:10 the leader of the home was called paterfamilias 21:12 and he was pretty much large and in charge, 21:14 he was the guy, you know, was in charge of everything. 21:17 And, Paul really modifies 21:19 this a lot with a different sense 21:21 of what it means to, to be a Christian. 21:25 The section of the letter 21:27 that talks about this divides into three unequal sections. 21:31 He talks to wives and husbands, to children and parents, 21:35 to slaves and masters. 21:36 Interestingly, he talks to the ones 21:39 that are not usually considered to be the leaders, 21:40 he talks to them first. 21:42 So, he talks to wives first, he talks to children first, 21:45 he talks to the slaves first before he talks to the others. 21:48 In each case, the subordinate party is addressed first. 21:52 And there are two parties 21:53 that actually receives the most instruction. 21:56 That is the husbands and the slaves. 22:00 Probably because those two groups 22:02 had the most that needed to change 22:04 from what was typical in Greco-Romans society. 22:07 In ever pair, in every case, Christ is the pattern. 22:11 Christ is the pattern to follow. 22:13 We probably ought to read here, 22:15 that first section of Ephesians 5:1-14, 22:19 which is a kind of build up just before our section. 22:22 So we get sort of the context of what Paul is talking about. 22:25 Why don't you read that for us? 22:27 Ephesians Chapter 5: 1 to 14. 22:33 "Therefore be imitators of God, as dear children. 22:36 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, 22:39 and given Himself for us, 22:41 an offering and a sacrifice to God 22:44 for a sweet smelling aroma. 22:46 But fornication, and all uncleanness, 22:48 or covetousness, 22:50 let it not even be named among you, 22:52 as is fitting for saints. 22:54 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, 22:57 nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting: 22:59 but rather giving of thanks. 23:02 For this you know that no fornicator, 23:04 unclean person, nor covetous man, 23:07 who is an idolater, 23:08 has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God. 23:12 Let no one deceive you with empty words, 23:15 for because of these things 23:16 the wrath of God comes down upon the sons of disobedience. 23:20 Therefore do not be partakers with them. 23:23 For you were once darkness, 23:25 but now you are light in the Lord. 23:27 Walk as children of light: 23:29 For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness 23:32 and righteousness and truth; 23:34 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 23:37 And have no fellowship 23:38 with the unfruitful works of darkness, 23:41 but rather expose them. 23:43 For, it is shameful even to speak of those things 23:45 which are done by them in secret. 23:47 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, 23:52 for whatever makes manifest is light. 23:54 Therefore he says, 23:56 "Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, 23:59 and Christ will give you light." 24:02 Isn't that beautiful? That's beautiful. 24:03 The way that ends. Beautiful. 24:05 Yeah, now so this is like the immediate background, 24:09 a context of the instructions 24:11 he's gonna give to the household 24:13 which he gets down to in verse 21, 22 and onward. 24:16 We have a one more little section to read 24:18 which is very fascinating. 24:19 And that will be in another study that we look at. 24:21 But, we want to see here how he begins. 24:23 In Chapter 5: 1 and 2, 24:27 the Apostle begins by telling them 24:31 that they are to imitate God. 24:36 They are called to be imitators of God, 24:38 and beloved children and they are to walk in love. 24:40 That's in verses 1 and 2, all right. 24:43 So he gives you first the pattern 24:45 of how you're supposed to, 24:47 the overall sort of big large idea thesis 24:50 of what you're supposed to imitate God. 24:53 So, your Christian home, 24:55 your life as a Christian 24:56 should be following God's lead, being like Him. 24:59 All right. 25:01 But, then Paul goes on 25:03 and once he laid that foundation 25:05 how Christian are supposed to act in verses 1 and 2, 25:08 he proceeds to give a rather a long section 25:11 on how they're not supposed to be. 25:13 What they're not supposed to do. 25:15 They're supposed to be no illicit sexual behavior, 25:18 no uncleanness, no greed, no wickedness, 25:21 no foolish talking, or coarse jesting. 25:24 This is suggestive jokes 25:27 that have no place in a Christian's life. 25:30 Sometimes people have looked at some of these and say, 25:32 "Oh, Christians aren't supposed to smile or tell jokes." 25:35 That's not what he's saying. Right. 25:36 He's saying, what you're not supposed to do, 25:38 is tell dirty jokes, tell jokes that are, 25:41 you know, have these double entendres 25:42 and all that kind of thing. 25:44 Paul draws a very dark and deep line 25:48 or clear distinction between the way of the world, 25:51 and way of life of the Christian. 25:53 He gives reasons 25:55 for the Christians' behavior being different. 25:57 And it's interesting because he kind of gives 25:59 three different patterns here. 26:01 He talks first about the "wrong doers 26:04 will not inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God." 26:08 Some people don't like that idea. 26:10 But, he makes that very clear, 26:11 "Don't be deceived." 26:13 "Don't be deceived" exactly, they will not. 26:15 Then he goes on and he talks about God's wrath, 26:17 "God's wrath is coming on the sons of disobediences." 26:20 That's such an important topic, 26:22 the question of the wrath of God. 26:23 You know, later discussion in, in about sexuality, 26:28 we will talk about what Paul says about 26:30 the wrath of God in Romans Chapter 1. 26:32 People want to listening on that. 26:34 But, he says "The wrath of God 26:35 is coming on the sons of disobedience. 26:37 That's an Eschatological idea. 26:39 Then he talks about the history of the change 26:41 that took place in the Christians, 26:42 how they changed from darkness to light 26:44 and he ends up with the hidden things 26:46 of darkness are shameful. 26:47 So, he has an Eschatological argument, 26:50 a salvation history argument, and a moral argument. 26:54 He rejects the world, and tells people 26:56 that they're supposed to follow God's ways 26:59 and not the world's ways. 27:01 Yeah. 27:02 Yeah, he really captures 27:05 and encapsulates a lot with this first chapter. 27:09 As, you said it's kind of the over arching. 27:11 Yeah. Overview. 27:13 Yeah. Of what's to come. 27:15 Yeah, and so he gives them 27:16 this sense of how they're supposed to live their lives 27:20 different than the world. 27:21 We Christians must have a different prospective 27:24 and live in a way that is following Christ 27:27 and in line with His principles. 27:28 Yes, and we'll have joy. Yeah. 27:31 Well, thank you, so much, Dr. Sheperd. 27:33 Next time, we're gonna look at 27:34 what immediately precedes Paul's household instruction. 27:39 Thank you so much for joining us 27:40 and be sure to join us next time. 27:42 You don't want to miss these programs. 27:46 Dr. Sheperd has tremendous insights 27:49 that the Holy Spirit has given him. 27:51 So, you don't want to miss these programs. 27:54 Tune in next time as we delve into the word 27:58 and look at Love, Marriage, Sex and Divorce. 28:03 May God bless you, as you continue 28:05 to seek Him in spirit and in truth. |
Revised 2016-02-25