As we considered in yesterday’s study, what is the point of the devil's planting children "in the world" in a general way, if all it means is that the devil's children and God's children live side by side? At best that is self evident. Besides, if that is what Jesus means, the parable is not even stating the situation in the best way. If the field is the world apart from the church, it would be more correct to say that the devil's children are in the world already and that it is Jesus, rather than Satan, who plants his seed among the seed that is already growing. It would be Jesus who does the new thing, not Satan. He is planting seed that is to grow up into spiritual fruit in the lives of his people. But as Jesus tells the story, he stresses what Satan is doing, and that must be after Jesus has already sown his seed. The devil is mixing counterfeit Christians in among true Christians to hinder God's work.

Nothing good has ever come into the world without opposition, and that is especially true in spiritual matters. Here we face not only the hostility and opposition of mere people like ourselves, but satanic or demonic opposition as well. That is why the Bible wants us to be on our guard against the devil who, we are told, "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8). The Scripture alerts us to the devil’s "schemes." He must not be able to "outwit us" (2 Cor. 2:11).

Where do we come into this picture of marriage and divorce? We can acknowledge the Bible’s high standard and still struggle with how to do what is required. Or we can struggle over what to do when we fail to live up to Jesus’ teaching. Many people are being hurt by situations involving estrangement, divorce, or remarriage. I want to close by saying a few things about the application of these standards.

There is one other interesting point to be considered. Mark also has a discussion of this issue (in Mark 10:1-12), but the exception clause that has been the cause of so much controversy does not appear in Mark. Matthew is the only Gospel that has it. Why is that? Some liberal commentators (and even some conservative ones) argue that Mark’s version of this saying is the original one and that Matthew added the exception because of divorce problems in the church of his day. That is hardly satisfactory.

Here is where the chief difficulty comes for our being guided by this text. It is clear that Jesus calls remarriage after divorce adultery, forbidding it. But then he added what is usually referred to as the exception clause. "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery" (v. 9). Most people today understand "marital unfaithfulness" to mean adultery and conclude that this is the one valid grounds for divorce, since adultery will already have broken the relationship.