Polygamy

Polygamy!    Is it morally acceptable to have 2 wives? To answer this question, we need to draw a proper distinction between that which is moral & that which is wise.  Matthew 5:27–28 (ESV): You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. As you can see, in the Sermon on the Mount, adultery is not defined merely by the fact that he or she is not your spouse. Adultery is defined by lustful intent. What is lust? Lust is, at its root, the failure to love God over & above everything & everyone else & your neighbor before yourself.  Loving yourself more than God & others is definitional to lust, & lust is what underwrites sexual sin - not the mere sex/gender of your target &/or the lack of marriage certificate.    Using Matt. 5:19 - or any text - to move the moral grounds of moral guil...
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Tackling Tradition 16 - Where 2 Or 3 Are Gathered

From time to time I hear a fellow Calvinist or Christian Apologist correct what they believe to be a misunderstanding of Matthew 18:15 - 20.  It’s about baby old instance of two or three people gathering in Christ’s name.  It’s about church discipline.  Consequently, using it to support another sort of gathering is a mistake. 

The Bible disagrees.  Let’s take a look.

Matthew 18:15–20 (ESV): If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” 

The text takes the form of casuistic law, & it calls upon Deuteronomy 19:15 - 21, where the situation is civil, not just ecclesiastical.  That means both Matthew 18:15 - 20 & Deuteronomy 19:15 - 21 are shining examples of the 3 uses of the Law.  

Matthew 18 presents us with an example of the wider proposition that Christ as to His divinity is present among two or three gathered in His name in the ecclesiastical sphere in which the uses of the keys are involved, & Deuteronomy 19 presents us with an outworking in the civil sphere. 


Matthew 6:9 - 13 highlights an individual application of this principle in prayer.  This is also corporate, insofar as prayer is a corporate, not merely individual, exercise.  The Lord’s Prayer includes binding & loosing language in 6:10 in particular, & that language, in turn, is parallel with Mt. 18:18.  


So, yes, Matthew 18:15 - 20 is not just applicable to church discipline.  It applies to court room proceedings & both individual & corporate prayer.


God bless us all, each & every one.  Go & sin no more. 


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