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4 Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure. God will judge as guilty those who take part in sexual sins. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. God has said, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.” ~ Hebrews 13:4-5
Today, we return to the practical application of the truths learned throughout the book of Hebrews. In yesterday's verse our attention was turned to the imprisoned and the suffering. Today, our attention is turned to the subject of marriage and contentment. As the family goes, so goes the society. And, as the marriage goes so goes the family.
In v.4 of today's passage we read, "Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure."
"Marriage should be honored" because it is the foundation for any healthy community. And, like anything else, when we deviate from God's definition of things, we suffer by being defined by the lesser. In Romans 1 we discover the society that increasingly rejects God's definition of things will increasingly degenerate into that which God calls an abomination which is something that causes Him disgust. In biblical usage, an abomination is something that God loathes or hates because it is offensive to Him and His character.
Since God invented marriage, He expects marriage to be honorable and between one man and one woman who have vowed to be committed to one another til death do them part. We live in a day where many are redefining things to the contrary of God's definition and marriage is one of them. In 1 Timothy 4 the Apostle Paul wrote, "In the last days false prophets will come and they will despise marriage, forbidding to marry."
In the beginning God created male and female in his own image, and he blessed them, and said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Then He said, "Therefore a man should leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they become one flesh." This is God's definition of marriage: one man and one woman committed to one another in an one-flesh sexual union until death separates them.
The word for "honored" is more commonly translated "precious" in the New Testament. It's the word used in 1 Corinthians 3:12 where Paul speaks of "gold, silver, and precious stone." It is used in 1 Peter 1:19 in reference to the "precious blood" of the Lord Jesus. It's used in 2 Peter 1:4 to refer to the "precious and very great promises" of God. So, when we honor God's definition of marriage, we are treating it as sacred and precious.
Marriage is based on the truth that men and women are created complementary. The biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and the reality that children need a mother and a father underscores God's definition of a family. To deviate from this definition is to invite destruction not only in our families but also in our very lives. Redefining marriage does not simply expand the existing understanding of marriage; it rejects these truths of God. Marriage is society’s least restrictive means of ensuring the well-being of children. The future of any people depends on our biblical understanding of marriage and its sacredness and preciousness.
The next part of v.4 of today's passage reads, "...husband and wife should keep their marriage pure."
This means we must keep our sex at home in our marriages. It means to keep the marriage undefiled. Just as God invented marriage, He also invented sex to complement the marriage in a variety of ways. When we ignore God's clear definition of marriage and sex, we unknowingly undermine the very fabric of our emotional and physical well-being and that of our prodigy.
The last part of v.4 of today's passage reads, "God will judge as guilty those who take part in sexual sins."
The writer of Hebrews brings up the topic of judgment in the context of marriage because it has always been Satan’s scheme to redefine what God has said is good. The enemies desire is to so trick us that we no longer choose to enjoy the life God intends to give us. Marriage is a picture of God’s great love for us, yet Satan’s ploy to get Adam and Eve to sin involved getting Eve to act in independence of her husband. Even to this day, Satan is working to destroy biblical marriage. He does this by encouraging redefinition of marriage and by getting us to give in to sexual immorality.
In v.5 of today's passage we read, "Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. God has said, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you."
At the root of all sin is covetousness. We show our faith in the God of the Bible by being content with what He has given us. Learning to be content is the antidote to covetousness which is a sick ploy of the enemy to get us to distrust God. Covetousness is that unrighteous longing for more of that which God has not given us. Covetousness is that incessant reaching out for something and never being satisfied with what we get. And, the more we get, the more dissatisfied we become.
The salve to discontentment and covetousness is contentment. The Apostle Paul said, "I have learned in whatever state I'm in to be content." The Apostle learned this as he grew in his relationship with the Lord Jesus wherein he was granted the ability to see just how big the God of the Bible truly is. This is what develops contentment in our souls, our God-sized understanding of the bigness and the goodness of God. It is when we seek after the things of this world that our view of God takes a blow to the head. And, the reverse is true, as well. When we seek after Him, our view of the things of this world are revealed to be what they truly are: limited to this world and lacking in its delivery.
In 1 Timothy 6:6 we read, "But godliness with contentment is great gain."
When we believe this world is the ultimate, we will live for what this world has to offer us. When we choose to let this world define us more than God, we will have false happiness. But, happiness grows not through the pursuit of a process, but through the presence of a person. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives is the mystery to happiness. When we practice His presence which is to treat Him like we do our best friend, we will experience the life the Lord Jesus died to give us.
Twice in 1 Timothy 6 the Apostle uses the word content which is true wealth. We are taught in this world that contentment is the product of the comforts of this world. When we are being defined by God and what He says, our covetousness will diminish because we will increasingly be defined by His definition and pursuit of us. Loving the things of this world ignores the true gain which is the discovery of what is really real.
The word used for godliness is the Greek word which means sacred awe. This is the secret to contentment, the awe of God. In Colossians 1:27 we discover that it is Christ in us that is the hope of glory or the presence of God in our lives. If all we pursue is the things of this world, we will never know this awe of God, because we will never be made content by the things of this world. Only God renders contentment in the soul He has created. Genuine gain is the product of being defined by God which is inseparably linked to His presence in our lives.
The Greek word for contentment means unflappable, not moved by circumstance, oblivious to outside troubles. Being content with what we have is one of the greatest principles in life. When our contentment is based on the sufficiency of Christ, we will be able to transcend everything in and of this world. True contentment comes from God in our heart, not wealth in our hand. A person who depends on material things for peace and assurance will never be satisfied, for material things have a way of being lost.
