The Kingdom Come

We often hear preachers or people in general equating their Christian Faith as a "journey". It sounds accurate enough, since we are indeed being continuously conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). But how I often hear it is that our faith is unfinished or "unsettled". We have to be careful how we phrase this. There is certainly our individual faith, but there is also the Christian Faith. The Christian Faith is NOT unsettled.

Among the many topics the Reformer, Martin Luther addressed was the topic of marriage. Luther, as you know came out of a culture where Papalism said that priests should remain celibate. Eventually, Luther himself did get married. I want to take some time to review a treatise by Luther titled, The Estate of Marriage.

Luther discusses who should marry and whom to marry, per the Bible and further Luther discusses whom should be celibate and why. I will review his three-part treatment in even smaller segments. Please refer to this link to see Luther's actual treatise as translated into English by Walther I. Brandt.

No one said being a Christian was going to be one giant love-fest where everything is always cheery. Most of us Christians don't look or act anything like Ned Flanders from the Simpson's cartoon. Flanders seems to be the ideal Christian most non-Christians envision. It would certainly be very difficult to live up to that fictional character. Even Jesus drove out the money-changers with a whip in hand. Even Paul withstood Peter to the face and parted ways with John Mark.