Written this week by Alan Lindberg
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
“You shall not commit adultery” is another of the Ten Commandments, just as “You shall not murder” that we reviewed yesterday. To illustrate His point Jesus often used more than one example to ensure that His listeners and those of us today understand what He is telling us.
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Just as our thoughts cause us to be considered by God as a murderer, our thoughts cause us to be considered as an adulterer. It is our intentions and the sin in our hearts and minds that matter to God, just as much as the actions that follow them. Sin takes place first in our mind and attitude. God wants us to nip it in the bud there, before it takes control of us.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Jesus is not asking us to disfigure ourselves to prevent sin. Since the sin is in our mind and heart it should be stopped there first. What He is saying though is that we should take extreme measures to avoid sin. Anything which is an enabler to sin should be removed. We should have an attitude of sin prevention, not of continuing to sin and asking forgiveness. We need to be asking ourselves, is there something in our lives which is enabling sin to creep into our lives? To take the adulterous example in verse 28 is there “harmless” flirting going on at the office? The trouble with these kinds of things is that they can and often do escalate to something that is no longer harmless. What is the best course of action? Avoid those situations. Be careful not to enable sin in your life.
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’
Here Jesus is referring to Deuteronomy 24:1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then 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 of his house, and she departs out of his house, While we would say that the “indecency” is likely to be adultery only, to the Jews of the time it was often interpreted to mean anything that the husband did not like, causing them to divorce for reasons God had not sanctioned.
32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Jesus now describes an example of the sin of adultery. While Deuteronomy permitted divorce and described some of the circumstances for divorce, it did not describe the sin relationships associated with it specifically enough for the people. In Deuteronomy Moses said that the man had “found some indecency in her”. Jesus says specifically that the only “indecency” on the wife’s part to justify divorce is her adultery. It also says that divorce for any other reason causes adultery to be committed after the divorce if she re-marries, in this case causing her, and her new husband also, to commit adultery.
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’
Again Jesus takes an example of the Ten Commandments, the commandment to not bear false witness. Just like with the teaching on murder and adultery He is not overturning the Law but letting us know what the true meaning of the law is. To some people at the time it was so different than the interpretation they were used to.
34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Swearing by things, or taking oaths, was a common practice at the time and was, as many other things, a source of abuse and misuse. Sometimes we hear it in our own day when someone declares that they “swear to God” that something is true. It is better to leave the statement as it is without the embellishment of oaths or “swearing by” something. Our statements should all be true to begin with not embellished with oaths. Be forthcoming and clear and do not pull other people, places and things into your statements.
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