Forbidden Sexual Relationships and Marriages

My friend and fellow pastor, Rick, wrote to me after the last post to ask the following questions. 

I have had a question with regard to the man of Corinth marrying his father's wife. Was the father dead?  Was it because he broke the Levitical law? If so, can a man marry his brother's wife, if he has passed away or if they are divorced?  Does the Levitical law still apply? I had a similar case in Lake City.  They attended our church, but did not join.  Some Lutherans in our area said it was wrong for the man to marry his brother's wife.  His brother had died.  What say you?  Are we still under the Levitical law?

The question of who may marry whom is complex and has been frequently discussed by the Jewish community (cf. Yibbum or levirate marriage). The Torah (Moses' Five Books) forbids marriage with a brother's widow (Leviticus 18:16; 20:21). The general rule is this: "None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness" (Leviticus 18:6). The exception is when a brother dies fatherless. In that case his brother is to marry the deceased brother's widow in order to produce children and preserve the family. The first born son of this new marriage will thus perpetuate the dead brother's name (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). Read the links above to understand further how the Jewish community handled this law and deals with it still.

The Leviticus 18 passage goes into further detail about forbidden sexual relations with close relatives, with those of the same sex and with animals. Even non-Christians understand the Torah's reasons for prohibiting adultery, pedophilia, incest and bestiality. We all understand the havoc, pain and harm such acts produce. It has become much more difficult to support civil laws that prohibit sex and marriage between homosexuals or a brother and his widowed sister-in-law. In American culture there is no longer a commonly accepted source of authority in these matters. The Bible certainly is not. Consequently there are many divergent opinions. The general rule that seems to prevail is this: if two people are mentally competent adults, all our culture needs to permit their sexual relationship and/or marriage is mutual consent. In other words, consenting adults are free to do whatever they want as long as the interests and well being of others are not harmed.

We must set aside the widespread confusion about sex and marriage in American society in general in order to focus upon the Christian community and my brother-pastor's question: Are we Christians still under the Levitical law? To answer this we must turn to Holy Scriptures to do some sorting.

One time the Sadducees challenged the Lord Jesus to explain His views about the resurrection in light of the Mosaic command that a man must marry his brother's childless widow in order to produce a male offspring (Deuteronomy 25:5-6; Matthew 22:23-33). Jesus did not reject their make-believe example of seven brothers marrying the same widow and each dying childless. In theory at least this was permitted. The Sadducees' confusion had to do with the Biblical teaching about the resurrection of the dead.

A few verses later we read about the Pharisees testing Jesus' understanding of the Law. What's the purpose of the Law? Why did the LORD God give us His Law? To this Jesus quoted two passages that summarize the two tables of the Law: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all our mind" (Deuteronomy 6:5) and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:34-40).

The primary purpose of the Law therefore is to show us how and where we have failed to love our God with all our being and how and where we have failed to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Note that the summary command to love your neighbor follows in the next chapter after the Leviticus 18 chapter about forbidden sexual relationships. Leviticus 19 continues to give one example after another about how a person may fail to put the needs and concerns of his neighbor on a par equal to his own. "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself : I am the LORD" (Leviticus 19:18).

The answer to my brother's question about the Levitical Law is simply yes! That Law serves to reveal our essential and natural sinful nature. When the world around us duplicates at least some parts of that Law in its civil laws, it shows that this Law is written on the very hearts of men (Romans 2:14-15). We sin in our sexual and marital relationships. For these sins we must beg God's forgiveness and flee to the cross of Jesus to obtain it. Once again this is why meditation upon the Word is important in the Lenten season before us.

Having said that, I realize I have not discussed those other parts of the Law that command various rituals and requirements about sacrifices, washings and the observances of days, weeks and months. I shall come back to that another time. For now consider what the apostle writes in Colossians 2:6-23.