Your question suggests that the response of man dictates the ability of God's commands to be effective or not. That is absurd.
It makes no difference if the command is you shall not worship any other god or you shall not murder, or your shall not bear false witness or you shall honor your parents or kiss one another or not divorce. They each have the full force an effect of a command of Almighty God. That you are willing to debate such a point shows how much contempt you have for God and His commands, and how you view yourself as equal to Him in establishing what commands are appropriate to obey or not obey.
And when I say irrelevant, I speak with regard to its authoritative nature, not the impact of obedience or disobedience of the hearers on their own self and those whom they impact.
"Many of us recognize that many of Paul's writings were given within a cultural context as principles, not direct commands for all believers to follow at all times."
I believe what you meant to say was, "Many of us assume that "many" of "Paul's" writings were given within a cultural context as principles, not direct commands for all believers to follow at all times", without being able to show why in any particular situation, that such is the case.
Others are satisfied that this is God's unchanging word, which enunciates unchanging principles and commands which abide no matter the culture, or the passing of time unless specifically noted. God changes not, so why would the truth of His word be constantly changing, based upon culture or the passage of time? In particular, when Paul, speaking on behalf of God, says that a particular command or principle is rooted in creation order, he is saying that culture has no impact on the rule or principle. This is evident in 1 Timothy 2:13, where Paul says the rules in the passage are based upon creation order, not passing cultural standards.
"For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
�You are My Son, today I have begotten You.� As He also says in another place:
�You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek�; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of ETERNAL G166 SALVATION G4991 to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest �according to the order of Melchizedek,� of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
From BlueLetterBible.com
Strong's G166 - aionios
1 - without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be
2 - without beginning
3 - without end, never to cease, everlasting
Strong's G4991 - soteria -
1 deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
A - deliverance from the molestation of enemies
B - in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the soul's safety or salvation
i - of Messianic salvation
2 - salvation as the present possession of all true Christians
3 - future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God.
Sin - Strong's G266 - hamartia
1 - equivalent to 264
A - to be without a share in
B - to miss the mark
C - to err, be mistaken
D - to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to E - do or go wrong
to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin
2 - that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act
3 - collectively, the complex or aggregate of sins committed either by a single person or by many
Strong's G264 - hamartano
1 - to be without a share in
2 - to miss the mark
3 - to err, be mistaken
4 - to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong
5 - to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin
"to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord (God's commandment to the married): A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart (get a divorce), let her remain unmarried or be reconciled (remarried) to her husband." (Same commands apply to husbands. Don't divorce, don't marry another.)
So what if God says a divorced person shouldn't marry someone else in 1 Corinthians 7:11, that they should remain alone for the rest of their life or be reconciled to their wife/husband.
"You don't understand "my" situation."
"You don't know what kind of monster my ex is."
"I have needs."
"He doesn't understand because never had to endure this, so He can't possibly relate."
"I don't think God would want me to be alone for the rest of my life."
Help me out here. What are some other reasons why God is clueless with His false expectations for the life of the divorced?
Tell everyone why it's ridiculous to think God's nonsense plan will work.
Yes, someone in the story did something that the people were told to do differently. But that is not the main point. That is a surface issue. Look closer. There is a far more important and overriding principle involved. Keep digging.
"If anyone sees HIS BROTHER sinning a sin which DOES NOT LEAD TO DEATH, he will ask, and He (God) will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him." 1 John 5:16-18.
What? The Apostle Paul sinned as a Christian. Romans chapters 7-8. How can this be? The new man does not sin. The old man, still present, is still capable of sin. The flesh wars against the Spirit. That is why we have to make a conscience decision to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit moment by moment.
Can we live without sinning? Yes. Do we? No. Should we give up because we can't? No. Should we ignore the possibility of sin, and not know what must be done for restoration if we do? Absolutely not. It is critical to know what you need to do to restore fellowship, or you will remain in sin. Hence, John admonition, in 1 John 2, that we sin not, but, know we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one�s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another�to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, �You shall not covet.� But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God�through Jesus Christ our Lord!
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors�not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, �Abba, Father.� The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs�heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God�s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: �For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.� Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So then, with the mind I MYSELF SERVE the law of God, but with the flesh THE LAW OF SIN." Romans chapters 6-8.
Why is the Apostle Paul confessing that he, an apostle of Jesus Christ, serves THE LAW OF SIN, if Christians cannot sin?
Is Paul, by confessing his sin as sin, suggesting that it okay to sin, or is he just making a truthful statement, that he has to fight against sin in his life, but that from time to time, he sins?
