Ryle on Mark 10:1-12

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 10:1-12.

Source Text

1 And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea, by the farther side of Jordan: and the Eeople resort unto him again ; and, as e was wont, he taught them again. 2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ? tempting him. 8 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you ? 4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. 5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the crea- tion God made them male and female. 7. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh : so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same mat- ter. 11 And he saith unto them, Who- soever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to an- other, she committeth adultery. The opening verse of this passage shows us the patient perseverance of our Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher. We are told that He came " into the coasts of Judaea by the that the " fire" means not tribulation, and some the work of the Holy Spirit. Cartwright holds the last of these opinions, Junius the first. 3. Some think that in the first clause of the verse, our Lord is speaking of all members of His church, both good and bad, and that His meaning is the same as that of St. Paul, where He says, " The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." (1 Cor. hi. 13.) The second clause, they think, describes the preserving effect of grace on the hearts of true believers. According to this view, the meaning of the verse would be - " Every one shall be finally salted, tried, and tested by the fire of the last day ; and every one who has offered himself as a living sacrifice to God, shall be salted with grace, and so finally preserved from death and corruption." 4. Some think that in the first clause of the verse our Lord is speaking of the wicked, and in the second clause of the righteous. According to this view, the sense would be - " Every wicked man shall be salted with fire and punished for evermore ; and every living sacrifice to God, or godly man, shall be salted with grace, kept from the power .of death, and saved for evermore." - This is the view of Hammond and Manton. I offer no opinion and make no comment on any of the above views. The objections which might be made against every one of them are neither few nor small. Whether these objections are insuperable or not, is a point on which learned theologians differ widely, and a conclusion will perhaps never be attained until the Lord appears. farther side of Jordan : and the people resort unto Him again ; and, as He was wont, He taught them again." Wherever our Lord went, He was always about His Father's business, preaching, teaching, and laboring to do good to souls. He threw away no opportunity. In the whole history of His earthly ministry, we never read of an idle day. Of Him it may be truly said, that He " sowed beside all waters," and that " in the morning He sowed his seed, and in the evening withheld not His hand." (Isaiah xxxii. 20. Eccles. xi. 6.) And yet our Lord knew the hearts of all men. He knew perfectly well that the great proportion of His hearers were hardened and unbelieving. He knew, as He spoke, that most of His words fell to the ground uncared for and unheeded, and that so far as concerned the salvation of souls, most of His labor was in vain. He knew all this, and yet He labored on.

Let us see in this fact a standing pattern to all who try to do good to others, whatever their office may be. Let it be remembered by every minister and every missionary - by every schoolmaster and every Sunday-school teacher - by every district visitor and every lay agent - by every head of a house who has family prayers - and by every nurse who has the charge of children. Let all such remember Christ's example, and resolve to do likewise. We are not to give up teaching, because we see no good done. We are not to relax our exertions, because we see no fruit of our toil. We are to work on steadily, keep- ing before us the great principle, that duty is ours, and results are God's. There must be ploughmen and sowers My own conviction is, that we must wait for more light, and regard the text at present as one of the " deep things" of God. as well as reapers and binders of sheaves. The honest master pays his laborers according to the work they do, and not acording to the crops that grow on his land. Our Master in heaven will deal with all His servants at the last day in like manner. He knows that success is not in their hands. He knows that they cannot change hearts. He will reward them according to their labor, and not according to the fruits which have resulted from their labor. It is not " the good and successful servant," but " the good and faithful servant," to whom He will say, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."'-'5 (Matt. xxv. 21.) The greater portion of this passage is meant to show us the dignity and importance of the relation of marriage. It is plain that the prevailing opinions of the Jews upon this subject, when our Lord was upon earth, were lax and low in the extreme. The binding character of the marri- age tie was not recognized. Divorce for slight and trivial causes was allowable and common, f The duties of hus-

* Some remarks of Bishop Latimer on this point are well worth reading. They occur in a passage in one of his sermons on the par- able of the wedding garment. He says, " the man who had not the wedding garment was blamed because he professed one thing, and was indeed another. Why did not the king blame the preachers ? There was no fault in them, they did their duties : they had no fur- ther commandment but to call men to the marriage. The garment he should have provided himself. Therefore he quarrelleth not with the preachers, ' What doth this fellow here ? why suffered ye him to enter ?' For their commission extended no further but only to call him. Many are grieved that there is so little fruit of their preaching. And when they are asked, l Why do you not preach, having so great gifts given you of God?' ' I would preach,' say they, 'but I see so little fruit, so little amendment of life, that it maketh me weary :' a naughty answer : a very naughty answer. Thou art troubled with that which God gave thee no charge of: and leavest undone that which thou art charged with." - Latimer's Works. Parker Society. Vol. I. p 236 t The extent to which the Jews allowed divorce for absurd and bands towards wives, and of wives towards husbands, as a natural consequence, were little understood. To cor- rect this state of things, our Lord sets up a high and holy standard of principles. He refers to the original in- stitution of marriage at the creation, as the union of one man and one woman. He quotes and endorses the solemn words used at the marriage of Adam and Eve, as words of perpetual significance, " a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh." He adds a solemn comment to these words - " What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." And finally, in reply to the inquiry of His disciples, he declares that divorce followed by re-marriage, except for the cause of unfaithfulness, is a breach of the seventh commandment.-'' frivolous causes, would be almost incredible, if we had not the evi- dence of their own Rabbinical writings on the subject. A full ac- count of the matter will be found in Lightfoot's Horas Hebraicse on St. Matthew v. 31. One passage quoted by him will be sufficient to give the reader an idea of Jewish customs about divorce : " The school of Hilleth saith, If the wife cooks her husband's food ill by over-salting it, or over-roasting it, she is to be put away."

* I am aware that the opinions I have expressed at the close of this paragraph are contrary to that of some learned divines. I can only say that I have arrived at them deliberately, after calm investi- gation of the parallel passage in Matt, xix. 9, and of the words of our Lord in Matt. v. 32. I decidedly believe that the re-marriage forbidden by Christ, is re-marriage after a divorce for trivial and friv- olous causes, and that His words do not apply to re-marriage after divorce on account of unfaithfulness. Re-marriage after divorce for frivolous causes is clearly adultery, for one simple reason - the di- vorce never ought to have taken place, and the divorced party is still a married person in the sight of God.- Re-marriage after divorce for unfaithfulness, by the same process of reasoning, is not adultery. " Unfaithfulness dissolves the marriage tie altogether, and places the husband and wife once more in the position of unmarried people, or of a widower or widow. The importance of the whole subject, on which our Lord here pronounces judgment, can hardly be overrated.

We ought to be very thankful that we have so clear and full an exposition of His mind upon it. The marriage relation lies at the very root of the social system of nations. The public morality of a people, and the private happiness of the families which compose a peo- ple, are deeply involved in the whole question of the law of marriage,. The experience of all nations confirms the wisdom of our Lord's decision in this passage in the most striking manner. It is a fact clearly ascertained, that polygamy, and permission to obtain divorce on slight grounds, have a direct tendency to promote immorality. In short, the nearer a nation's laws about marriage approach to the law of Christ, the higher has the moral tone of that nation always proved to be. It becomes all those who are married, or purpose mar- riage, to ponder well the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in this passage. Of all relations of life, none ought to be regarded with such reverence, and none taken in hand so cautiously as the relation of husband and wife. In no relation is so much earthly happiness to be found, if it be entered upon discreetly, advisedly, and in the fear of God. In none is so much misery seen to follow, if it be taken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, wantonly, and without thought. From no step in life does so much benefit come to the soul, if people marry " in the Lord/' From none does the soul take so much harm, if fancy, passion, or any mere worldly mo- tive is the only cause which produce the union. Solo- mon was the wisest of men. " Nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin." (Neh. xiii. 26.) There is, unhappily, only too much necessity for im- pressing these truths upon people. It is a mournful fact, that few steps in life are generally taken with so much levity, self-will, and forgetfulness of God as marriage. Few are the young couples who think of inviting Christ to their wedding ! It is a mournful fact that unhappy marriages are one great cause of the misery and sorrow of which there is so much in the world. People find out too late that they have made a mistake, and go in bit- terness all their days. Happy are they, who in the mat- ter of marriage observe three rules. The first is to marry only in the Lord, and after prayer for God's approval and blessing. The second is not to expect too much from their partners, and to remember that mar- riage is, after all, the union of two sinners, and not of two angels. The third rule is to strive first and foremost for one another's sanctification. The more holy married people are, the happier they are. " Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it,"* (Eph. v. 25, 26.)

* There is an expression in this passage which claims special ob- servation. The Pharisees told our Lord, that " Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away." The answer of our Lord is very remarkable. He says, " For the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this precept." And He then goes on to show that this permission to divorce was a proof that their forefathers had fallen be- low the original standard of marriage, and were dealt with as being in a weak and diseased state of soul. For He says, " But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female." The expression throws much light on some portions of the civil law of Moses. It shows us that it was an institution which in some of its requirements was specially adapted to the state of mind in which the Israelites were, on first leaving the land of Egypt. It was not intended in all its minute particulars to be a code of perpetual obliga- tion. It was meant to lead on to something better and higher, when 13 And they brought young chil- dren to him, that he should touch them : and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14 But when Jesus saw U, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them 201