Knowing The Word in Luke 16:14-18, The Law and the Kingdom of God

The Pharisees justified their wealth on God’s blessing of their personal righteousness. However, what they believe sets them apart from and higher than others makes God ill. In God’s economy, the Law will be fulfilled down to the minutest particulars in the life of Jesus, who never casts doubt on the Law. He then turns briefly to the topic of divorce to illustrate the problem of the human heart. Divorce is never the aim of the Law. Divorce is a provision because of the hardness of men’s hearts. The Law allows men to divorce their wives (Dt. 24:1-4) but not wives their husbands. Marriage is meant to be a life-long union with the two becoming one flesh, one person (Genesis 2:24).

14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.

18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Prayer: Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, and no strength known but the strength of love: we pray thee so mightily to shed and spread abroad thy Spirit, that all peoples and ranks may be gathered under one banner, of the Prince of Peace; as children of one God and Father of all; to whom be dominion and glory now and for ever.

Source unknown