I Can Kill My Wife?

I was watching television the other day and heard a news story that was beyond comprehension to me. Truly it will be beyond comprehension for any American. The story was about honor killing in India. They showed two dynamically clashing sides of their culture. Hoards of people were protesting and crying for the overturn of  honor killing, while others were demanding that the laws stay in tact. As they showed both sides of the issue I felt myself cringing on the inside thinking how can anybody think it is okay to kill their wife or any woman especially after she has been violently assaulted. According to the honor killing theory a raped woman was no different than a fornicator, prostitute or adulteress.

When the reporter asked the person he was interviewing why there was no difference. He admitted to killing his own sister who had been raped. Shooting her four times in the head and stating she was damaged goods and that no one in their country wanted their women to be like American women. I had to chuckle at that because an Amercian male would more than likely say we would not want to be like you because we don’t  kill our women, especially those that have been raped. Even in the American prison system a man who abuses a woman, a child, or the elderly is likely to be dead by the hands of inmates long before their prison term is over because it’s not tolerated.

One of the persons interviewed that was against honor killing said that the system had been around since the Ottoman Empire and it should end now. The person cried out that thte killing must stop. Our Bible would agree with that person. The Lord straightened that out a long time ago when a woman caught in the very act of adultery was tossed down at his feet by a mob that was carrying massive rocks to stone her. The crowd was thristy for blood - the blood of the woman I might add, they let the man off the hook. The mob said something to the effect, the law says we have the right to stone and adultress. The Lord started writing in the sand. They pressed him again. He replied he that is without sin cast the first stone. Not a one in the crowd could do anything but put their stones down and leave because they were all, just as we all are, guilty of something.

Another time the Lord encountered a woman that was living with a man. He exposed her whole life with men. He said, you’ve had 5 husbands and the one you are living with now is not your husband. He never condemend her for being a fornicator. He knew what she and the man were doing. He just let her go to spread the good news.

The standard that our bible sets up for marriage is love your wife, honor your wife, support your wife, encourage your wife, listen to your wife, help your wife, provide for your wife and physically satisfy your wife. The standard is also to love God first so that he can show you how to do that. He never wanted one single hair on one of his womens head harmed in any way. That is why he even allowed Moses to write the bill of divorcement because the men were abusing and killing the women. God’s heart breaks when women are abused, harmed or killed. As much as he never EVER wanted divorce to ever take place - he valued a woman’s life more and in essence said if you are going to treat her like that just let her go. We are the problem. We disobey God. We disobey his standards and doing things the way he instructed us to do them. Then our lives are in a mess and marriages are in shambles. Go back to God and all that can be remedied.

Is it a sin to fornicate and commit adultery. Yes by all means according to God’s law. And according to his most holy standard it is worthy of death by what was written in the law. But in his mercy he placed love and forgiveness above the law. But in his mercy he placed life above death. So he told the woman caught in adultery go and sin no more. To the other woman living with the man he said nothing.

Any deviation from God’s standard according to God is sin. And according to God’s standard all people with unrepented sin will perish. I truly believe that want God wants from all of us is to love him and to obey him, and then when we disobey because of our human weakness to come to him ask forgiveness and allow him to teach us to live according to what he knows is best for us. God never wanted anyone to fornicate or commit adultery - NEVER. He sanctified sex for marriage only. He wanted us to have one special person that and one special relationship that no one else could immitate. One initmate relationship that no one else could have but them. Then he wanted that couple to spend a lifetime figuring each other out. But he is aware that we do it and will never stop trying to get us to do the right thing because he knows that is the path that will bring the most good to our lives and spare us pain. Women are a gift from God to be treated as precious. The spirit of the living God is still crying out all over the world today put the rocks down.