Precept, principle, and action—Jesus responds to divorce.

Some Pharisees tried to stump Jesus on divorce in Mark 10. Check out how important this is:

-They asked him, testing him, "Is it lawful for a husband to put away his wife?" And answering, He said to them, "What did Moses command you?"

-And they said, "Moses permitted us to {both} write a document of divorcement and to put her away."

-Jesus answering, said to them, "He wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart. But God made them male and female from the beginning of the creation. Because
of this, a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife; and the two will
become one flesh, so-that they are no more two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has yoked
together, let no man put asunder."

God says here that He has allowed divorce, though not mere "sending a wife away," because people have hard hearts. Instead of trapping one spouse with someone who has decided that they were useless trash, He permitted a woman to be given divorce papers so that she could start over with a clean slate.

Jesus routinely answered with a pattern of "Precept-Principle-Action." The precept is the command; the law." The Law allowed for divorce. The principle is the primary truth and driving force—in this case, don't have a hard heart! Love one another. And the action was this, "Let not man put asunder."

Divorce is not nominal. It's tragic. It's horrific. We should strive with all of our soul to avoid becoming hard-hearted, and to avoid divorce.

The eunuch and the worship service.

If you pay attention to Acts 8, you'll notice something that's missing. In this chapter, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is returning home from Jerusalem and Philip preaches Jesus to him (29-35). Pay close attention to this part:

"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.  And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” (35-37)

The obvious part is that preaching to a person who is not Christian includes Jesus, and the response is belief and a desire for immediate baptism. But the less-obvious part is the missing bit. IMMEDIATELY after this takes place, Philip vanishes and the Ethiopian goes back to Ethiopia rejoicing (39).  Do you know what is missing? Philip never told him how to have a worship service! 

And oddly enough, the concept of the "worship service" is missing from the entirety of the New Testament writings. It exists 0 times. Whatcha think? 

Whose church?

BQ: I've often heard people say things like, "Guy X is the head of that church." What's wrong with that?

A: God says in Eph 5:23, "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body." None of us lived a perfect life and sacrificed themselves to purchase the church, so no man will ever be the "head of the church." 

If we claim to be disciples of Christ, we must imitate our teacher. Mt 20:25-28 says, "‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’"