ONE WIFE!
DO 249
10/72
[HomeARC note: The current Charter articulates the Family's principles, policies and attitudes regarding marriage, parents and their children.]
1. GOD WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM, NOT EVEN THE SANCTITY OF THE MARRIAGE GOD! God is God of marriage, too & the main thing is to be married to Him & His Work, & when a marriage is not according to His Will, He doesn't hesitate to break it up & form other unions to further His Work!
2. THE SPIRITUAL REALITY BEHIND SO-CALLED GROUP MARRIAGE is that of putting the larger family, the whole family, first, even above the last remaining vestige of private property, your husband or your wife!
3. WE DO NOT MINIMISE THE MARRIAGE TIES AS SUCH. We just consider our ties to the Lord & the larger Family greater & more important.--And when the PRIVATE marriage ties interfere with OUR FAMILY & GOD ties, they can be readily abandoned for the glory of God & the good of THE Family! We are not forsaking the marital unit.--We are adopting a greater & more important & far larger concept of marriage: The TOTALITY of the BRIDE & her marriage to THE BRIDEGROOM is THE Family!
4. WHAT DOES "UNIT" MEAN?--SOMETHING THAT IS UNITED!--Something that is ONE! So if God has to break up these little private twosomes in order to make us conscious of the greater unit of THE Family, He will do it! If He can trust you with the private unit for the glory of God, He will do it. But if you put that privacy first before the whole Family Unit, God will blow on it & destroy it if He has to! It would be worth it!--If that's what it took, if they weren't able to put God first any other way. We would keep right on rolling stronger than ever! When anything begins to HINDER more than it HELPS, it is time to ABOLISH it!
5. GOD HAS MADE ME CARRY OVER FROM MY SMALL LITTLE PRIVATE FAMILY INTO THE LARGER FAMILY, & to do so God has had to break up many little families of the World to make our kids all members of His Family. God is in the business of BREAKING UP many FAMILIES to make them all ONE Family!
6. WE HAVEN'T HESITATED TO BREAK UP WORLDLY FAMILIES BY [making disciples of] THEIR [legal-aged] KIDS FOR GOD'S FAMILY! What is the difference in that & breaking up HUSBAND & WIFE? Jesus said you're going to have to forsake ALL--mother, father, sister, brother, HUSBAND or WIFE! This is nothing NEW with the LORD!
7. GOD'S IN THE BUSINESS OF BREAKING UP LITTLE SELFISH PRIVATE FAMILIES TO MAKE OF THEIR YIELDED BROKEN PIECES A LARGER UNIT--ONE FAMILY! He's in the business of destroying the relationships of MANY wives in order to make them ONE Wife--THE Bride of CHRIST! God is not averse to breaking up selfish little families for HIS glory, to make of the pieces a much larger unselfish unit--the WHOLE Family--the ENTIRE Bride--ONE WIFE instead of MANY wives!
8. GOD HAS BROKEN UP THE MARRIAGES OF ALMOST OUR ENTIRE TOP LEADERSHIP AT SOME TIME OR OTHER. I've certainly seen a lot of good fruit in these since this has happened, & also it has borne good fruit amongst the kids. If you have not forsaken your husband or wife for the Lord at some time or other, you have not forsaken all!
9. THE PRIVATE FAMILY IS THE BASIS OF THE SELFISH CAPITALISTIC PRIVATE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM & all its selfish evils! The history of communes shows that the most successful communes either abolished all private relationships entirely & required total celibacy or abandoned the private marriage unit for group marriage!--Because they found that the PRIVATE family group was always a threat to the LARGER Family unit as a whole!
10. GOD IS TRYING TO TEACH US THE LESSON OF PUTTING HIM & HIS FAMILY FIRST. If you cannot be trusted with a PRIVATE relationship & keep it in its proper perspective--LAST--then God will break it up in order to ensure HE & HIS work get FIRST place! There can be no superior or selfish private ties which supercede our ties to GOD above ALL! And if you don't give God ALL, He will just TAKE them away & MAKE you forsake all! This is one of the most outstanding lessons God has taught us from the top right on down: These personal private husband-wife relationships are unedifying & unfruitful unless they are kept totally subordinate!
11. MARRIAGE IS GREAT!--REAL UNSELFISH LOVE! Only the utter unselfishness of genuine sacrificial love can ever make such things possible. So it's the very last vestige of forsaking all to forsake even your husband & wife to share with others. Marriage is not the supreme thing. This over-emphasis of the marital relationship is making a GOD & a FETISH of marriage, where they're not willing to forsake PRIVATE families to serve GOD & THE Family!
12. GOD IS TRYING TO SHOW US HE WILL NOT FIT IN SECOND PLACE! IF He allows you any nice cozy little PRIVATE relationship, you can be very thankful for it! It is, in a sense, a PRIVILEGE, a special little dispensation of grace to feel that only TWO of you belong to each other in PARTICULAR. But He will ONLY allow that provided you make it very clear to EACH OTHER & the LORD & the OTHERS that you belong to GOD MOST OF ALL & your private relationship doesn't interfere with your WORK & your relationship with the LORD & others!
13. WE DON'T PUT SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON THE PRIVATE LITTLE INDIVIDUAL MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP, because WE take OUR relationship with GOD & the WHOLE Family MUCH more seriously!
14. BUT LOVE OF GOD & HIS FAMILY IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT TO HIM than these little PRIVATE interpersonal relationships, including marriage! Either He wants you to love Him so much you don't even WANT a mate, or that you love Him so much that you would be willing to share them with Him! Maybe we're learning something about marriage & its UNimportance!
15. WE ARE REVOLUTIONARY! If the church has OVER-emphasised marriage, we are going to go to the opposite extreme of UNDER-emphasising & almost BELITTLING marriage & not even hesitating to destroy marriages that don't glorify God! What GOD has put together don't let MAN put asunder: But if GOD didn't put them together, He won't hesitate to break them up for HIS glory & the welfare of His Family!
16. DON'T FORGET THIS MEANS YOUR CHILDREN ALSO! Special favouritism & partiality is selfish private property interest! If you love your flesh-&-blood children more than you love GOD'S children of GOD'S Family, then you really haven't come to the realisation of what God's Family is all about! If you're kinder to your own flesh-&-blood children & give them things you don't give the others or see that they have more comfort than the other children, then you are being PARTIAL & SELFISH & PRIVATE! With your selfishness & lack of sacrificiality you are striking at the very foundation of God's Family & that kind of selfishness will destroy & undermine the unity of THE Family as a whole.
17. IN OTHER WORDS, PARTIALITY TOWARD YOUR OWN WIFE OR HUSBAND OR CHILDREN STRIKES AT THE VERY FOUNDATION OF COMMUNAL LIVING--against the unity & supremacy of God's Family & its oneness & wholeness! What you're doing when you do that is whittling away little chips & bits of THE Family to separate them in SPIRIT & even sometimes in actuality, from the rest of THE Family, just because they're "YOURS"!
18. I DON'T LIKE THAT EXPRESSION "YOUR CHILDREN"!--THEY'RE ALL "OUR" CHILDREN! Now naturally you have a little more feeling of personal attachment to the children you have borne & there is bound to be a peculiar relationship of special personal interest there. But if you were perfect in spirit before God, there would be no difference! If your spirit was perfect before God, EVERYBODY in the Revolution would be your brother & your sister just as much as your flesh-&-blood, & EVERY child you would feel just as responsible for & love just as much as GOD loves!
19. NOW IF THERE IS ANY REASON FOR WHICH GOD MAY ALLOW YOU TO GIVE YOUR NATURAL CHILDREN A LITTLE MORE PERSONAL ATTENTION, it's because God knows that all children need individual attention & tender loving care. But ANYBODY could give them that. Anybody could be a mother or father to them! As far as He & His Family are concerned, there is no difference!--God & His Family come FIRST. Any private relationships are neither here nor there, if they in any way hinder or interfere with GOD & HIS Family.
20. "WHATSOEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR IN DEED, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD," & whatever glorifies God, that's what's right! Does your marriage glorify God? Does your separation glorify God MORE? Does your relationship with your children glorify God? Does your separation from your children glorify God MORE? Whatever's BEST for GOD & HIS Family is what's RIGHT!--Amen? (All say: "By the grace of God, I'm going to put Him & His Family first!")
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family