A question I often ask in Bible class, “What is the ‘therefore’ there for?” When you see the word in the Bible, it typically serves to connect a truth with a proper response. In effect, “This is so, therefore do that.”
Such events in scripture help to flesh out the proper response of a child of God to circumstances, scenarios, provocations and blessings. Let me give you a few examples from scripture.
Marriage
God created the woman for the man. After God took Adam’s rib, he made that rib into a woman. Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23). Moses took Adam’s the fact of the woman’s creation, and Adam’s words, and concluded, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Later, Jesus reasoned, “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).
With these two passages, we learn a lot about marriage. Since God created the woman for the man, marriage is between a man and woman. Because God joined them together, divorce for any cause is unacceptable. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery” (Matthew 19:9).
God’s Conditional Blessings
God chose the Israelites to be a special people. He established a land for them, and provided for them as a nation. He also gave them a law to follow. Moses told the nation, “You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time” (Deuteronomy 4:40).
This is a principle we all should heed. We too are given conditional blessings in Christ. “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).
The Second Coming
Jesus taught a parable in Matthew 25 about his second coming. Ten virgins took their lamps out to meet the bridegroom. When he was delayed in coming, the lamps went out for lack of fuel. Five had extra fuel, five did not. While the five foolish virgins went out to buy oil, the bridegroom came, and they were shut out from the wedding. Jesus then shared the purpose of this object lesson, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13).
Two lessons for us from the text. First, men who claim they have figured out when the Lord will come are false teachers. No one knows when Jesus will come again, and it is a vain exercise to seek to divine it from the scriptures. Second, the proper way to prepare for that eventuality is to live in constant preparedness. Live righteously and soberly, serving the Lord. That way, no matter when he comes, you will be ready! Within the immediate context of the Lord’s coming, Paul wrote, “But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing” (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12).
And that is what the “therefore” is there for!
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