The Law concerning Adultery

Matthew 5:27-30

a. The Law concerning adultery (5:27)

b. Jesus concerning adultery (5:28-30)

2. INTRODUCTION

3. BODY

a. The Law concerning adultery (5:27)

i. There is a perfect transition here in what Jesus is speaking about. Jesus just concluded how our relationship with our brothers must be reconciled. What is the first category of relationship does He speak of? Marriage. Why? Because marriage is the deepest relationship one person will encounter in this life. Therefore Jesus deals with adultery and divorce in the next sessions. Today, we are dealing with adultery and next week, we will deal with divorce.

ii. I believe this makes sense in a logical sense because adultery and divorce don’t happen in a vacuum. People don’t wake up one morning and say, I will destroy my marriage of X years. No, it happens because there is dissatisfaction in the marriage. This is what causes a person to fall into adultery. If we are satisfied with our spouses, we won’t look anywhere else. Same for God. If we have found our satisfaction in God, then we won’t look to another idol.

iii. Jesus opens verse 27 the same way as He did in verse 21. He then gives His intention and His statement in verse 28. But what’s important here in verse 27 is that Jesus is dealing with the Law. Jesus does not simply state something without comparing or helping people understand what was said.

iv. Jesus wants to make it plain that many of the Jewish people of His day understood what the Law said. Remember 5:20 sets that foundation to help us understand that people understood the law. This is why Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

v. We can’t forget that Jesus is not replacing the Law here. He’s stating the Law so that He can deal with the Law and explain it in a deeper and with more clarity. Jesus was making it clear that there are no exceptions and no room for debate. What Jesus was doing was explaining what God wrote and His intentions. Man had taken what God had written and made loopholes but God was levelling everyone on the same plane. Nobody was exempt. Everyone was sinful and equally sinful. Nobody was free from sin and certainly, nobody was and is better than somebody else.

vi. What we recognize from Jesus’s statement here is that our actions, specifically the actions that are done outwardly must first be renewed inwardly for us to be righteous. Again, God must first save us for us to be right before God. This is the heart of Jesus’s teaching. It is not merely about doing good works. The question and of why we do good works must always be leveraged by our intention. Why do we do good works?

vii. So Jesus is now introducing the topic of adultery. Interesting enough, Jesus is pointing back to the 7thcommandment, but He seems to be explaining the 7th commandment with the 10th commandment.

viii. Why is this statement important? The reason it’s important is because in the ancient world, is because of what is written in verse 28. The point of what Jesus is focusing is on the man. Why is this important? Because in the ancient world, generally, although there were laws later during the Roman Empire that had laws against adultery, generally, throughout the ancient world, adultery was severe towards women, but not men. Generally, the Law was gracious towards men who cheated on their wives, whereas, if women were to cheat on their husbands, they would be severely punished, and in extreme cases, be killed.

ix. So why is this statement important? Because Jesus is addressing men. Jesus is saying that adultery, whether it be women or men, is a problem. It is not acceptable to commit adultery in any instance.

x. Now what else is interesting? The term adultery implies that it is distinctly Judeo-Christian and Islamic attitudes towards marriage. This causes many anthropologists to be cautious using the term for other contexts.

xi. The Code of Hammurabi was during the reign of Hammurabi of the 1st dynasty of Babylon. It was during this time, that 282 laws were created to govern their dynasty. So many historians will say that the 10 Commandments came after the Law of Hammurabi, therefore the 10 Commandments were borrowing from Hammurabi. But when you read the 10 Commandments, what is different? The 10 Commandments don’t deal with outwardly laws on governance, but rather, the moral Law of God. Whereas Hammurabi’s Code dealt with the civil nature of how people were to interact together, the 10 Commandments deal strictly on desired behavior. It was God’s expectations for how His people were to live and obey Him as their God.

xii. So again, going back to what Jesus says here in verse 27-28, we see the importance of what and who He is addressing. Because the law dealt more graciously with men than women when dealing with adultery, Jesus was now making the statement that all adultery was unacceptable.

b. Jesus concerning adultery (5:28-30)

i. Jesus opens verse 28 by saying “But I say to you.” Again, Jesus is elevating Himself to what God had said in the 10 Commandments and equates Himself as equal to God. As I said before, Jesus is connecting the 7th Commandment with the 10th Commandment.

ii. So Jesus says that everyone who looks at a woman with lust. We understand that everyone is talking about both men and women. It’s not just men who committed adultery but both men and women. Jesus is making it clear that both men and women were being held accountable to the Law. Both men and women would have equal punishment for not keeping God’s Law.

iii. Jesus continues in verse 28 by saying that if any man looks at a woman, here referring to both a married woman and single women with lust for her.

iv. Jesus is a master at explaining adultery. Jesus points to adultery with lust. Again, this is pointing back to the 10thCommandment. Jesus is not simply dealing with adultery, but stating how adultery happens. Adultery doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Jesus is stating that adultery happens because of lust. So then we have to define lust.

1. What is lust? Lust is antithetical to true love: it dehumanizes another person into an object of passion, leading us to act as if the other were a visual or emotional prostitute for our use. Fueled by selfish passion, adultery violates the sanctity of another person’s being and relationships; love, by contrast, seeks what is best for a person, including strengthening their marriage. Adultery usually involves considerable rationalization, justifying one’s behavior as necessary or loving; but lust is the mother of adultery, the demonic force that allows human beings to justify exploiting one another sexually.

v. We can clearly see that lust gives birth to adultery and adultery is the outward expression of lust. Lust is internal and adultery is the outward manifestation of lust. Why is lust wrong? Because lust demands possession. Lust demands that I want something and I will do whatever I can to have that. The opposite is love. Love values and respects and seeks to serve other persons because it is seeking what is genuinely good for them. Lust is always incompatible with God because lust always put self above others. We can never love God if we lust because lust desires to fill one’s will over what God wills for them.

vi. Therefore Jesus says, the person who lusts for a woman has already committed adultery in his heart. If you have lusted for the woman, you have already committed sin in your heart. This goes against 5:8 where He speaks of purity of heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Again, lust is always antithetical to God because it doesn’t seek what God desires but what I desire.

vii. Jesus now goes to what causes a man to lust. Jesus says if everyone looks. The means in which we lust is through the eyes. John also writes in 1 John 2:16 that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes which make it clear that all lust comes through the eyes.

viii. So here Jesus deals with the process of how adultery happens. Jesus explains parts of the body in verses 29-30 to explain specifically in verse 29, how man lusts. Man must see to lust. Verse 30, Jesus says the hand, specifically the right hand because most people are right handed. But more than that, Jesus talks about how important the hand is. Due to the fact that most people are right handed, if you are lefty, it is specifically talking about the dominant hand. Jesus is speaking here about value and usefulness. He is stressing that anything and everything is worth giving up if it will cause us to sin.

ix. I think when we ready verse 29-30, we understand the principle. But one of the principles that we don’t clearly understand is what Jesus says that these body parts causes us to stumble. When Jesus says your eye or hand makes you stumble, it does not simply mean to offend someone or even to hurt someone. It is speaking much more deeply. Remember, Jesus is not merely pointing at the Law. Jesus is not dealing just with the external but the root. The eye and the hand are indicative of the heart.

x. So when Jesus says that if your eye or hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. Why? How could Jesus use such a strong phrase? Because Jesus isn’t simply talking about offending people. He’s telling us that if it causes someone to deflect from the path of salvation. Matthew 18:1-6 helps us understand this better. In Matthew 18:6, it is speaking of salvation. Jesus speaks of conversion (18:3) and humility. Then in 18:6, Jesus says whoever causes one of these little ones, those who are following in Christ, and you cause them to stumble, then it would be better for that person to attach a heavy weight around his neck and drown in the sea.

xi. Again, Jesus is stressing that our actions can cause others to stray away from the faith. We have to understand that Jesus is not simply talking about what we must do. Jesus is not preaching Legalism. He is not simply saying, do this, do that. He is talking about our hearts and our intentions. What is causing us to do these things? If your heart is not pure, then you won’t see God. This is Jesus explaining the beatitudes.

xii. Think about it. Just because we cut off our body parts doesn’t mean we will get into heaven. Jesus is not speaking of castration. He is not speaking of things we can do or can’t do. Legalism cannot change the heart and destroy lust or any other sin; only transformation of the heart to view reality in a new way can.

4. CONCLUSION