Leviticus 20:26 - Summer of Scripture

The Burlington Coat Event is back. Buy a coat now through November 29th and get $5 off your merchandise purchase of 25 or more from December 6th through December 24th. Plus, Burlington is donating 50,000 new coats to help those in need nationwide. Through our partnership with Delivering Good, we've been keeping you warm for over 50 years. We'll see you at our coat event, Burlington Deals brands.

Wow.

Visit burlington.com coats for details.

Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we are releasing a daily devotional episode for your marriage. And over these 66 days, we're going to pull out one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talk about how it applies to your marriage. So if you listen to every single.

One of these episodes, you're going to.

Have a comprehensive understanding of God's plan for your marriage. We encourage you to listen to everyone. Let's dive into today's scripture. Hey friends, welcome to day three of Summer of Scripture. We're enjoying this. Hope you're enjoying it too. I hope it's meaningful to you as.

Every day we're looking at one book.

Of the Bible, a scripture from that book, and talking about how it applies to our marriage. So today's is from the book of Leviticus. Leviticus, chapter 2026 says, you must be.

Holy because I, the Lord, am holy.

I have set you apart from all.

Other people to be my very now.

The book of Leviticus is really kind of all about these rules and regulations and laws that God intended for his people to live lives that were set apart. And that word holy really just means set apart. It means set apart for God and by God. And he wants all of us, you and me, to be holy. Holy doesn't mean that we're perfect because all of us have blown it. All of us have messed up. Thankfully because of what Jesus did on the cross. We put our faith in him. We can be made new. The Bible says we're a new creation in Christ once we do that. And yet we're called to live, even in spite of our imperfections, this holy life. And so in marriage, what does that look like? What does it mean to live set apart from the way the world does things and instead to do it the way God desires us to?

I love that question and I think that it's one we all need to really ponder. Like we hope with these episodes it's not just you listening to us, but it's you and your spouse having a conversation afterwards and really maybe Discussing discovering new about each other and about God. And I know the first thought that I had when you asked that question, Sweetie, was kind of the boundaries that we as Christian married people put in place and how different they are from the world. And they may not even have the same boundary. And I know in particular, and I've shared this story before, but I feel like it fits here. So I wanna share it very briefly again. I remember early into our marriage, we were part of a youth ministry organization. We loved it. It was just a great way to start our marriage. And I actually was a part time staffer at this church. And I remember the youth pastor at the time, you know, I kind of was his assistant. And we had to go on this like, meeting, like we had to drive somewhere to go to a meeting. And he said to me, he said, you drive and I'll drive and we'll meet up there. And I said, well, why can't I just ride with you? And he goes, well, one of my boundaries in marriage is I don't, you know, ride with women. And at the time, Dave and I hadn't even talked about that. We know this couple, they're dear friends of ours. And I remember at the time I took that very offensively. Cause I was like, who does he think I am? Like, I've never like even hinted at making moves on this guy. Like, he's a dear friend of ours. He's like a brother. Like, what in the world? And I talked to Dave about it and Dave said, ashley, he's not meaning this to offend you. It has nothing to do with you. It's out of respect for you and out of respect for me and out of respect for marriage in general. And he's like, honestly, I like this. I think that this is a good policy to have. Because in the years that followed, how many times have we seen people both in ministry and outside of ministry, both Christians and non Christians, who do not have this boundary. And it has led to an inappropriate.

Relationship even at that church, that very church. Yes, the senior pastor did not have those same kind of boundaries at all. And he fell into an adulterous affair with their female worship leader who did not have those same kind of boundaries. And because they got so close and comfortable and there were no boundaries in place, then lines were crossed and before long a full fledged sexual affair took place which imploded the church and really planted the seeds in our mind, I think, to the importance of marriage ministry. I think maybe that's part of where it started, is we Saw the aftermath of what happens when marriage is not valued, when boundaries are not in place. But it was a difficult thing to walk through. And those boundaries, they really are important.

They're so important. And so, like, here. I get it. You guys probably listening to this and watching this are like, yeah, I would have felt that way, too. That's kind of weird. And we've been told that by especially people in the secular professional world, both men and women who've heard us talk about this are like, guys, I would be seen as some weirdo alien, like, unicorn, just. Or maybe pompous. Like, they said I would be seen as being pompous. Like, who do you think you are?

Or career suicide. Or career suicide. I'm not gonna sit alone with the woman. And in different contexts, you're gonna have to sometimes. And you have to feel that out. I mean, you might be a police officer that's assigned to a partner of the opposite gender, where you're gonna be with each other.

Yes.

And there are all different kinds of scenarios like that, but you have to figure out within that context what healthy boundaries look like.

And keeping your spouse in the loop, I think that's what's clear. I remember a good friend of mine, she's in the professional world, has been for a long time, and she was saying, like, I have to be in the car with different male colleagues of mine all the time, But I just try to really bring my husband into the picture. I touch base with him throughout the day. This other person usually does too. And I just. I don't find myself having any, like, personal conversations with them. And so I know. You know, just listen to us when we say we understand that there's different scenarios, but the main thing. Exactly. The main thing is just asking yourself that hard question, like, am I sharing more with this opposite sex colleague of mine than I am with my own spouse?

Or would I be comfortable if my spouse was watching and listening to every bit of the interaction I'm having with this person?

Exactly. And, you know, bringing it back to this verse in Leviticus about holiness, I think that that is one way that we are living holy in our marriage, because we are l out our vows that God established in, you know, what do we talk about? Don't let man put asunder. As far as, like, this marital bond, that's kind of an old way of saying, don't let another man or another woman outside your marriage. Take this marriage down. Okay? And it starts with us, okay? This other person may have the hots for you, but we've got to recognize that. And then we have to put those boundaries in place and not mess with it. And so I think also when it comes to holiness, you know, really, it's just getting to know our Holy Father, our God, more and more each day. And how do we do that? We do that through prayer. We do that by praying individually and also praying together as a married couple, praying together as a family. We do that by attending church. We do that by reading the Bible, by getting around other believers, doing Bible studies, really growing in our faith, and I think just. Just constantly being on that journey of growing, growing in the Lord.

So good.

So maybe as a next step, you and your spouse just ask each other, like, what could we do to live.

Lives more set apart for God?

You know, what part of our life.

Maybe isn't fully surrendered to God?

That's a good word.

And then have the tough conversations, take the tough actions to surrender to the Lord.

So don't let any part of your.

Life, your thoughts, your heart, your money, your anything, not be fully surrendered to God, because God has great plans for your marriage.

I want to say one more thing. I think it's very easy for us as married people to be much more concerned about our spouse's holiness than our own holiness.

Ooh, yeah, there it is.

It is so easy to be like, oh, he's not being the spiritual leader, he's not being holy, or she's not carrying up her end of the bargain as a wife, being a holy wife. So easy to do that when God, though, has called us to first work on that relationship we have with Him. Like, our holiness needs to be our concern. It's between us and God. And guess, I mean, if you feel like there's some issue with your spouse, 100%, address it with them. But that's also between your spouse and the Lord. It does affect you, but we've got to be much more concerned about what are we doing on our part as Christ followers in order to grow in our holiness.

So good, guys.

Thanks for tuning in today.

So hope you're enjoying these as much as we are. Tune in tomorrow, day four, for the Book of Numbers and what we can learn from that. We will see you then.