20230406 Malachi 2:10-16 The Faithfulness Disputation
Do you ever think of humanity as one big family? Imagine if everyone on the metro acted like family. When you got on everyone would cheer and greet you! When you got off, they would send you off with the best wishes. Imagine if everywhere we waited in line, we would talk to those around us to see how they are doing. Whenever we are lonely, we could go to a park and be sure to receive a warm welcome. Does this seem too weird? In our society, we are indifferent toward one another. If we were to practice being family for a few decades, this would be the environment children grow up in. Could anxiety, depression, crime, all go down?”
Malachi addresses a disappointed people. They have returned from exile with great expectations. God operates on his own timeline. The people are disappointed. Their disappointment was affecting their devotion to God and conduct with each other. Mal 2:10-16 promotes harmony among people. It appeals to their common brotherhood under the fatherhood of God.
Malachi uses a disputation which includes a statement, objection, and proof. The Lord warns them that he will not accept the offering of a faithless person. The people object and the Lord shows their faithlessness. The invitation of this passage is to faithfulness. This invitation finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. It is in Christ that we enjoy being children of God. It is the power of Christ that transforms us to enjoy healthy relationships with each other. He bore our faithlessness. He gives us his faithfulness. He empowers us to be faithful. Harmony in the church is one of the joys of eternal life for us today. Mal 2:10-16 teaches that (1) because we are God’s family (Mal 2:10), we must turn from faithlessness (Mal 2:10-16) and be faithful to one another (Mal 2:16).
When pressed most agree that even if we do not act like it, humanity is one big family. The preamble of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights refers to the “Human Family.” Scientifically, humans have the same number of chromosomes. We share the same home, planet Earth. We communicate with each other in a way that we cannot with non-humans. Those who do ancestry DNA tests often realize they are related to more groups of people than they thought. Our consciences testify that we are a big family. We give to charity. We send money to families and children on the other side of the world, that we have never met. We have this unexplainable sense that we are connected somehow even to strangers.
Biblically, humanity is one big family. The Bible teaches that God is the creator of all things. We all descend from Adam. We all descend from Noah. The Bible connects family to morality. The Bible can teach that we are a family and then regulate how we treat one another. Only the fatherhood of God gives us grounds for how to treat each other. The secular document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can claim that humanity is a family. It can claim that human beings have rights. Yet, it has no way of proving it. Science can show the relationship between all human beings. When science declares how we must behave, it has breached the limit of what science can teach. Without a moral creator and organizer of the universe, morality is a figment of our imagination. God is the creator, and he tells us to act like a family.
Mal 2:10 reads “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another?” Ever since the first sin, alienation marks our relationship with God and others. There is a sense in which all people are God’s children. Because of sin, we are also separate. It is only those who believe in Jesus who receive the right to be children of God. Jesus is the son of God. We enjoy sonship when by faith we are born again and God clothes us with Christ’s righteousness. The true way to be family is in Christ. While sin causes alienation, Jesus allows us to enjoy true family in him and in the church.
The second act of faithlessness is divorce in Mal 2:13-16. According to Mal 2:14, they were marrying daughters of foreign God after divorcing the wives of their youth. They were breaking the covenant of marriage. Mal 2:16 calls divorce an act of violence. It goes against God’s plans for marriage. According to Mal 2:15, God seeks godly marriages that produce godly children. Divorce affects the raising of children. It hinders God's goal that the children would be godly. In Mal 2:12, the prophet pleads that the Lord would cut off any person who acts faithlessly and continues to worship. The idea is that those who act faithlessly do not please God and should not expect his blessing on their lives. We cannot separate how we live Monday to Saturday from what we do on Sunday.
Application: This passage is a call to repent. We all fail to be faithful somehow. Mal 2:16 ends with, “So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless. “Marrying a non-believer is not the unforgivable sin. Behind every divorce is a complicated story. Also, those who have not married an unbeliever or gotten divorced are not spared. We can be faithless in marrying a believer and while remaining married. Faithlessness can take many forms, through adultery, theft, manipulation, and gossip. This passage is for everyone. This is how we can be faithless in marrying a believer. Too many Christians treat marrying a believer as an item on a check list. They prioritize compatibility in so many other areas. They want a similar lifestyle, hobbies, and attractiveness. Then, they see their potential spouse’s faith as the final check mark, that gives them permission to marry. If we love God, we need to begin with the other’s faith. We must make devotion to God the most important reason we marry someone. If being a family is what drives us from faithlessness, then we can only satisfy this in Christ. In our own strength we can manage to turn from faithlessness sometimes. Ultimately to be God’s family we need divine help. Jesus made himself the victim of our unfaithfulness. Humanity is so faithless that we murdered God in the flesh. Through his act of faithfulness, God changes us. There is no greater love than what Jesus did for us that it changes the whole trajectory of our lives. When we believe in Jesus, God adopts us as his sons and daughters. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we want to be a faithful people. When we fail, as Christ forgave us, we repent, and forgive.
For some, the word family may not bring up pleasant thoughts. The Bible teaches us how to be a faithful family member. We honor our parents. We do not provoke our children. Wives respect their husbands. Husbands love their wives. Because we are a church family, we must also be faithful to one another. Faithfulness in the church family matters. God sees faithlessness against his children as faithlessness against him. It impacts the wellbeing of the church.
Kevin DeYoung notes two non-negotiables for a positive experience in church. The first is good teaching. The second is good friendships. If you only have one of those you will probably stay in your current church but not be entirely satisfied. If the teaching is bad, your good friendships will keep you in church. The same is true if the friendships are not so good but the teaching is great. This is the importance of faithfulness among church members. Being a good and faithful friend will affect how much people enjoy coming to church. How we treat other church members also affects our relationship with God.
Malachi 2:10 calls unfaithfulness between people, breaking the Covenant with God. The Ten Commandments taught the people how to live in covenant with God. Out of the ten, six relate to human relationships. When we harm people, we sin against God. The idea of loving God might sound abstract, the Bible makes it concrete. We love the invisible God by loving people we do see. 1 John 4:20 puts it this way: “If anyone says, 'I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. '“We love God by loving our neighbor. Jesus said in Matt 5:23-24 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. “If we want to please God with an offering, first we must reconcile with his other children. Mal 2:13 states that if we are unfaithful to members of God’s covenant community, God does not even look at our offerings. Because we are a big family, we are to be faithful to one another on a global scale, in our families and in our churches.
Malachi addresses a disappointed people. They have returned from exile with great expectations. God operates on his own timeline. The people are disappointed. Their disappointment was affecting their devotion to God and conduct with each other. Mal 2:10-16 promotes harmony among people. It appeals to their common brotherhood under the fatherhood of God.
Malachi uses a disputation which includes a statement, objection, and proof. The Lord warns them that he will not accept the offering of a faithless person. The people object and the Lord shows their faithlessness. The invitation of this passage is to faithfulness. This invitation finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. It is in Christ that we enjoy being children of God. It is the power of Christ that transforms us to enjoy healthy relationships with each other. He bore our faithlessness. He gives us his faithfulness. He empowers us to be faithful. Harmony in the church is one of the joys of eternal life for us today. Mal 2:10-16 teaches that (1) because we are God’s family (Mal 2:10), we must turn from faithlessness (Mal 2:10-16) and be faithful to one another (Mal 2:16).
Mal 2:10 Humanity is one big family
A little girl asked her mother, “How did the human race begin?” The mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve and they had children, and so all mankind was made. “Two days later the girl asked her father the same question, “How did the human race begin?” The father answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved. The confused girl returned to her mother. She asked, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys?” The mother answered, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his. “When pressed most agree that even if we do not act like it, humanity is one big family. The preamble of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights refers to the “Human Family.” Scientifically, humans have the same number of chromosomes. We share the same home, planet Earth. We communicate with each other in a way that we cannot with non-humans. Those who do ancestry DNA tests often realize they are related to more groups of people than they thought. Our consciences testify that we are a big family. We give to charity. We send money to families and children on the other side of the world, that we have never met. We have this unexplainable sense that we are connected somehow even to strangers.
Biblically, humanity is one big family. The Bible teaches that God is the creator of all things. We all descend from Adam. We all descend from Noah. The Bible connects family to morality. The Bible can teach that we are a family and then regulate how we treat one another. Only the fatherhood of God gives us grounds for how to treat each other. The secular document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can claim that humanity is a family. It can claim that human beings have rights. Yet, it has no way of proving it. Science can show the relationship between all human beings. When science declares how we must behave, it has breached the limit of what science can teach. Without a moral creator and organizer of the universe, morality is a figment of our imagination. God is the creator, and he tells us to act like a family.
Mal 2:10 reads “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another?” Ever since the first sin, alienation marks our relationship with God and others. There is a sense in which all people are God’s children. Because of sin, we are also separate. It is only those who believe in Jesus who receive the right to be children of God. Jesus is the son of God. We enjoy sonship when by faith we are born again and God clothes us with Christ’s righteousness. The true way to be family is in Christ. While sin causes alienation, Jesus allows us to enjoy true family in him and in the church.
Mal 2:10-16 We must turn from Unfaithfulness
Following the appeal to live as a family, Malachi lists what they have done. First, Mal 2:11 presents Judah’s faithlessness. He married the daughter of a Canaanite in Gen 38:2. “Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. “Judah married one who worshiped a god other than the God of Israel. Malachi calls the marriage to an unbeliever a faithless act against God and the people of God. In our times, this verse might seem to be strange. Should we judge someone by their religion? Is this not the definition of intolerance? We love unbelievers. We want unbelievers in our lives. We want friends who are unbelievers. We want unbelievers to come to church and explore Christianity with us. Marriage is a step too far. Marriage accepts and brings into the family of God one whose heart is far from God. Marrying an unbeliever is deceptive. It dampens the message that God sends sinners to hell. It is unloving towards an unbeliever who needs to repent and believe in Christ to enjoy eternal life. In the Bible, the warning against marrying unbelievers concerns worship. King Solomon married women who worshipped foreign gods in 1 Kings 11. As a result, he started to worship other gods. In this way, marrying unbelievers also draws the believer away from the church community. It is unfaithfulness against the church. Malachi accuses the people of Israel of walking in the sin of Judah.The second act of faithlessness is divorce in Mal 2:13-16. According to Mal 2:14, they were marrying daughters of foreign God after divorcing the wives of their youth. They were breaking the covenant of marriage. Mal 2:16 calls divorce an act of violence. It goes against God’s plans for marriage. According to Mal 2:15, God seeks godly marriages that produce godly children. Divorce affects the raising of children. It hinders God's goal that the children would be godly. In Mal 2:12, the prophet pleads that the Lord would cut off any person who acts faithlessly and continues to worship. The idea is that those who act faithlessly do not please God and should not expect his blessing on their lives. We cannot separate how we live Monday to Saturday from what we do on Sunday.
Application: This passage is a call to repent. We all fail to be faithful somehow. Mal 2:16 ends with, “So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless. “Marrying a non-believer is not the unforgivable sin. Behind every divorce is a complicated story. Also, those who have not married an unbeliever or gotten divorced are not spared. We can be faithless in marrying a believer and while remaining married. Faithlessness can take many forms, through adultery, theft, manipulation, and gossip. This passage is for everyone. This is how we can be faithless in marrying a believer. Too many Christians treat marrying a believer as an item on a check list. They prioritize compatibility in so many other areas. They want a similar lifestyle, hobbies, and attractiveness. Then, they see their potential spouse’s faith as the final check mark, that gives them permission to marry. If we love God, we need to begin with the other’s faith. We must make devotion to God the most important reason we marry someone. If being a family is what drives us from faithlessness, then we can only satisfy this in Christ. In our own strength we can manage to turn from faithlessness sometimes. Ultimately to be God’s family we need divine help. Jesus made himself the victim of our unfaithfulness. Humanity is so faithless that we murdered God in the flesh. Through his act of faithfulness, God changes us. There is no greater love than what Jesus did for us that it changes the whole trajectory of our lives. When we believe in Jesus, God adopts us as his sons and daughters. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we want to be a faithful people. When we fail, as Christ forgave us, we repent, and forgive.
Mal 2:16 We must be Faithful to one another
Jesus is the embodiment of faithfulness. He is the fulfillment of God’s promises in bodily form. The way we can be faithful covenant members is by being hidden in Jesus. Now, in Christ, we can obey this text. Christians do not divorce the wives of your youth, and do not marry unbelievers. Both are characterized as faithlessness against God. We will still act unfaithfully. Christians are quick to recognize our shortcomings and point each other to Jesus. We need to show kindness to the faithless. God calls us family, so we act like family.For some, the word family may not bring up pleasant thoughts. The Bible teaches us how to be a faithful family member. We honor our parents. We do not provoke our children. Wives respect their husbands. Husbands love their wives. Because we are a church family, we must also be faithful to one another. Faithfulness in the church family matters. God sees faithlessness against his children as faithlessness against him. It impacts the wellbeing of the church.
Kevin DeYoung notes two non-negotiables for a positive experience in church. The first is good teaching. The second is good friendships. If you only have one of those you will probably stay in your current church but not be entirely satisfied. If the teaching is bad, your good friendships will keep you in church. The same is true if the friendships are not so good but the teaching is great. This is the importance of faithfulness among church members. Being a good and faithful friend will affect how much people enjoy coming to church. How we treat other church members also affects our relationship with God.
Malachi 2:10 calls unfaithfulness between people, breaking the Covenant with God. The Ten Commandments taught the people how to live in covenant with God. Out of the ten, six relate to human relationships. When we harm people, we sin against God. The idea of loving God might sound abstract, the Bible makes it concrete. We love the invisible God by loving people we do see. 1 John 4:20 puts it this way: “If anyone says, 'I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. '“We love God by loving our neighbor. Jesus said in Matt 5:23-24 23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. “If we want to please God with an offering, first we must reconcile with his other children. Mal 2:13 states that if we are unfaithful to members of God’s covenant community, God does not even look at our offerings. Because we are a big family, we are to be faithful to one another on a global scale, in our families and in our churches.
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