Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 31 – 32

• Over the years folks have come to me with some really good Bible questions and one of the things I love the most is coming alongside of someone truly seeking to understand the scriptures. Sometimes I get Bible questions from folks just looking to see if I agree with them or if I will listen to their perspective. They’re not as fun. HA! (Proverbs 23:9 says, “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.”) But someone truly seeking the heart of God and trusting the Holy Spirit’s anointing and approval upon me in their questioning, listen, that’s a blessing! And one question I have gotten several times over the years revolves around folks wrestling with these words of Jesus.
• First, understand that culturally in that time and in that place divorce was rampant. It was also cruel and one-sided because really the law gave no right or rule for a woman to divorce her husband. Deuteronomy 24 only speaks of the husband divorcing the wife and the reason given is due to, “some uncleanness in her.” And there were two camps in this culture stemming from the teachings of two Rabbis, Shammai (brother of Sham-Wow) and Hillel. Shammai was conservative, defining uncleanness as adultery while Hillel was ultra-liberal defining uncleanness as any cause of complaint!
• And so women were literally being put out of their homes for the smallest of offenses against their husbands! Dowry in those days was even taken by the woman’s parents and stored away as a future alimony because the threat of frivolous divorce was so real and so prevalent! And so Jesus clears it all up. (By the way, He always does…) Jesus again reveals the true intent of the law that was given and it appears that Shammai had it right (I wonder if Shammai was there on the mount doing the running man!? HA).
• And so frivolous divorce was rampant then as it is rampant now. And here’s the hard truth to this scripture and the answer to the question that I’ve received time and time again. There is divorce that God does not recognize. It may be a tough thought to digest so let me ask you, is there marriage that God does not recognize? Of course there is! There is actually no such thing as homosexual marriage. Marriage is created by God, defined by God and only authorized by God! And so when man declares man and man, God declares sin…and that marriage is not recognized. That one is easy for us to understand, right?
• Well the same goes for divorce. Except for sexual immorality, adultery on the part of the husband or wife, active participation in divorce is not legitimate in the eyes of God and therefore remarrying is an act of adultery. Now, here’s the thing though. God’s plan is that two people remain married until death separates them…that’s His plan and so if a man or a woman decides to break that, to rebel against God’s plan and their oath, for any reason other than sexual immorality, technically they do commit adultery upon remarriage…BUT…they don’t live in adultery.

• Don’t live in condemnation. That is not the purpose or the point of the law. The law is simply to reveal to us our brokenness…there is in truth not one person in this room that is not an adulterer or adulteress according to verses 27 and 28. And so allow Godly sorrow, welcome repentance, and love your second wife as Christ loved the church…make sense? 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.

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 33 – 37

• I absolutely love this. Jesus instructs his followers to simply be people of simple integrity. How has this been lost amongst the people that name Jesus as Lord!!? To simply do what you say you’re going to do? That takes no talent or skill…all that takes is your will and consideration, man…but I got to tell you, and this is sad, it’s so very uncommon to find, even in today’s church, a man or a woman of simple integrity and strength of character and it should not be so…
• Having to swear to or by something to make someone believe you or having to take some sort of oath reveals the weakness in someone’s simple integrity. It shows that there is not enough weight in your own character to confirm your own words. And so this is so simple but so very lost and uncommon, and tragically so today, Jesus says, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no,’ because anything else reveals sin. And that sin has GOT to be dealt with!

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 38 – 42

• A few things to consider here in order to understand what is being said and what is not being said. Jesus gives a description of the assailant in verse 39 describing them as ‘evil.’ So we are not talking about two Christians in a slap fight. That is to be handled via Matthew 18. This is in context of dealing with the world as followers of the Way and therefore with the goal of winning them to Christ.

• Second, Jesus says, “Whoever slaps you…” You’re not in mortal danger if someone slaps you…in all truth this is probably not even talking about a physical attack because in those times the highest insult was in fact for someone to be publically slapped. What I’m getting to is that it’s wrong to think that Jesus was saying evil should not be resisted. Jesus demonstrated with His life that evil should and must be confronted ferociously such as when he overturned the tables in the temple! Oh WHY did they not have smarthphones then? I would have LOVED to see that!
• What we are talking about is petty offenses, man. And these are harder to swallow sometimes that all out brawls! Followers of Jesus should have long fuses…able to take it…huge capacity! And if you don’t, submit to the Lord!! Barclay said it this way, “Jesus is saying here that the true Christian has learned to resent no insult and to seek retaliation for no slight.” And so Jesus is again addressing depth of character…

• He says, someone needs your shirt…give it to them. And package the deal with your coat…if it will win them to Christ! (Another story if it won’t) And if someone asks for your help, deliver them your Jesus worthy service, man! And if someone needs to borrow…then give…which means work hard, to have something to give in the first place!

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 43 – 48

• Jesus says you will have enemies. Folks that curse you, folks that hate you, and even folks who spitefully use you and persecute you. “Leave them to Me. Be My son, be My daughter. Trust Me and you hold true to who you are even with them.” And I love this…Jesus says if you don’t do this…love, bless, do good and pray for them…if you don’t do this, then how are you any different then the world…you’ve lost your salt, man…
• And the level He goes to is so Godly…I mean, He is God…He goes all the way to the greeting…I’ve learned that as someone in this church that aches for the Lord to be glorified in this place, for His ways to be constantly on display…when someone flippantly greets someone else, that is a special kind of evil…it ripples out for days, weeks, even longer…and folks are caught in the wake. Rather we ought to entreat one another in our greetings…stop, pause the task, delay the material project for 20 seconds, and cause the importance of that brother or sister in the heart of the Lord to be seen…why are we so cold?
• How much more would the heart of God for the world be put on display if we even did this at work? To the cashier at Walmart? To the neighbor on our block? Jesus says there’s a deep mystery of completeness here…a glimpse of even perfection…if we would just stop…listen…obey Him…and trust Him…if we trusted Him, we’d be more like Him…that’s just the simple truth for the simple teaching we’ve heard today…to trust Him is to draw closer to Him and the closer to Him you are, the more like Him you will be…