THE INNOCENT PARTY
Jesus spoke about the right of a person to contract a second marriage. The right was granted if adultery had taken place (Matthew 19:9). The words used by Jesus speak clearly about an innocent party. Though Jesus declared such to be the case, there is an element that would claim no such innocent party exists. What brings about this reasoning is the idea of dealing with perfection. Since no one is perfect then perhaps the person who did not violate their wedding vows did something to cause their mate to be unfaithful.
We have had to contend with this kind of reasoning for many years in dealing with those of the world outside of Christ. They will point to certain ones in the church who do not live as they should and make the statement, “the church is filled with hypocrites”. Our response must be that we understand that none of us are perfect. Each of us strives with our failures. It is a part of the Christian faith to realize that being a Christian is a growth process (I Peter 2:1,2). No faithful Christian should ever pose the idea that we are perfect. We are a forgiven people through the blood of Jesus who are trying our best to live for the Master (Revelation 1:5).
Each of us do sin but we do not live in sin (I John 1:7-10). We contend with our imperfections and do our best to grow in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 1:5-7). We increase our knowledge and move on to deeper knowledge of the will of God (Hebrews 6:1-3). We are willing to search daily the revelation of God’s will in the scriptures to be sure that we are indeed remaining on the right path (Acts 17:11; II Peter 1:10). If you see us on this journey the message should come from the content of our lives that we are trying. It is as the old adage states, “ we try to put our best foot forward”.
We try to use our lives as channels of influence by which God touches an ungodly world (Matthew 5:13). We at times come short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). We are not perfect; but we are complete which is the meaning of the word “perfect” in its New Testament usage.
We leave childish things and go on to become mature people (I Corinthians 13:8-10). As mature people the scriptures describe such Christians as spiritual ones (Galatians 6:1). Because we are spiritual ones does not mean we are in possession of all knowledge of God or in possession of perfect actions as we live out our daily lives.
Are there areas of our lives that we can improve on? That is part of knowing what the Christian life is about. It is pressing forward to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14). We set our affections on things above and not on things of this earth (Colossians 3:1,2). Yes there is always room for improvement as we work to deepen our faith and trust in God.
Because we are not perfect then we are not to say anything to others about sin taking over in their lives? The difference is that we do fail but we are never content to live with individual failures. We through the help of Jesus through the Word work on ourselves on a regular basis (Philippians 4:13; James 1:25). The person who is overtaken in a fault must be confronted by those who are spiritual, not perfect.
When there is the entrance of a third party in the breakup of a marriage, there is no claim that the injured mate was perfect. There is no claim that there were not areas to work on or improve. There is the claim that one was wrong and the other was right. We do not help the wrong doer by trying to establish that the injured party needed to do something different. It is somewhat the thinking of our age. The person who steals your car is not at fault, you are because you did not lock the doors and have a bar over the steering wheel. Why does not our world understand that it was wrong to steal the car if it had keys in the ignition and the doors were unlocked.
Individuals whose hearts are ripped apart by such tragic acts on the part of others, will wrestle with themselves about what they did to cause it. Some blame can always be assessed. Such blame does not free the guilty party. There is an innocent party, because Jesus said so.