The next two topics addressed in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew both are centered on relationships. One is internal, and the other is more external.
Many of the topics that Jesus address in this passage are topics that are covered in the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jewish people would have known these laws and rules quite well, and the Pharisees were known for keeping the Law to the letter as perfectly as they could. However, Jesus turns all of that upside down and makes the keeping of rules a matter of the heart.
He did that clearly with the topic of murder and anger. Now he turns to a couple of more intimate relational topics: adultery and divorce.
Adultery and Lust – Matthew 5:27-30
The first topic is an area that many have fallen ever since the beginning of time. Sexual immorality has been a sin that has destroyed the marriages of many, and shows no signs of slowing. In New Testament times, the Jewish rabbis taught that adultery was only an external, physical act, and if a man did not commit a specific act of adulterous immorality, he bore no guilt.
But Jesus doesn’t settle for just the external. He desires our hearts to be changed; and he knows that if the heart is filled with impure desires, then that is no different that committing the act itself physically. The outward act of adultery, just like the outward act of anger, is rooted in the heart. Lust begins internally, and moves to the outside as it grows.
Jesus knows that our eyes can cause us to trip up in this area. That’s why the pornography industry is so dangerous; we are tempted to think that just because we aren’t acting, we aren’t sinning. But Jesus is clear. Sin begins in the heart. It’s not just the action itself.
This is such a big issue for us that Jesus makes a very bold statement. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away… If your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and throw it away (Matthew 5:29-30). These are vivid images, and I doubt if Jesus intends us to take them literally. But the present a powerful cry for us to master our temptations by removing whatever causes us to stumble. Jesus isn’t encouraging us to mutilate our bodies, but he does want us to control ourselves against sin as much as possible. In other words, it is better to suffer because of self-denial than to end up in hell because of a lack of self-control.
Marriage and Divorce – Verses 31-32
The second relational topic Matthew tells us of is closely related to the first, and yet different enough to warrant some specific instructions. Jesus addresses the issue of divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 addresses God’s Law concerning this:
When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, 2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
Jesus again ties this to the heart. And this isn’t the only time he addresses the topic. He returns to it again in Matthew 19:8-9 and gives some more insight:
He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
The Law permitted divorce in some instances, but Jesus limits this to cases of unfaithfulness, and then states that if either the husband or wife remarries, they are committing adultery. God’s design is for man and woman to marry, and remain married. Divorce breaks the marriage bond that is created between a husband and wife.
Although this is a topic that is sticky and difficult to define in a culture like ours, and divorce is common, Christ’s intent is clear: marriage is meant to be a permanent bond, and desires that we seek to make him the foundation in our marriages. When we do that, we build relationships that can stand, and we honor God in the process.
Question: How are you doing in these relational areas? You can leave a comment by clicking here.