A Greater Righteousness, Pt. 2 // Matthew 5:31-37

Table Question: Who would you trust to take care of you if you were an egg?

Why? What qualities do they possess?

1. Jesus exposes the heart of the Law

Like we began to discuss last week, starting in verse 21, Jesus is going to expound on 6 teachings from the Old Testament.

You’ll notice a pattern with these:

“You have heard that it was said...”

“But I say to you...”

Again, the word that is translated as “but” in these verses could also be translated as “and.” Like I said before, I personally prefer the use of the word “and” because I think this is a little more faithful to what Jesus has already said in that He did not come to do away with the Law, but complete it.

Main Idea: Kingdom citizens are called to be radically committed to Christ and one another.

Like we started to do last week, we’re going to look at the commands that Jesus mentions, how He expands on them, and see what these commands reveal to us about the heart of the Lord.

Because, what we said last week was this: At the heart of the Old Testament Law is the heart of God.

a. The Value of Marital Loyalty (Matt. 5:31-32, Matt. 19:1-12)

The command Jesus addresses here is… “Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce” (v. 31)

We haven’t done this much but I want us to look back to the original command in Deut. 24:1-4 because there is a lot more context that Jesus is assuming His listeners already understand (Verses on a slide)

Deuteronomy 24:1–4 (CSB)

1 “If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. 2 If after leaving his house she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies, 4 the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

The grounds for divorce mentioned here is that the husband discovers “something indecent about her”

Literally, this phrase means “the nakedness of a thing”

Most scholars look to this now as a figure of speech that is alluding to a woman having committed adultery (i.e. indecent exposure to a man not her husband)

I also think this is the right way to understand what was commanded here.

The way that the Pharisees and law experts in Israel interpreted this phrase had major implications on how this law was applied throughout Israel’s history.

Without getting too deep in the weeds, there were two major ways that religious leaders would apply this command:

Shammai: sexual sin is the only permissible reason to end a marriage by divorce (stricter interpretation)

Hillel: had a much broader understanding of what “discovering something indecent” could mean

A husband could divorce his wife at will for any number of reasons: if she were barren (not able to have children), became deaf/mute, had epilepsy, warts, or leprosy, if her husband thought she was lazy, if her head was misshapen, she had bad posture, thinning hair, weird eyebrows, if she ate something he had forbidden her to eat, spoke to any man not her husband, if she burned a meal, or if he found someone he thought was prettier…

One of the most common reasons for divorce was that the wife did not offer sexual relations enough. (Quarles, quoted in CCE: Sermon on the Mount by Akin, 58-59).

Now back in Matthew, I hope it’s clear that Jesus sides with the stricter understanding of this command when he says in Matthew 5:32

Matthew 5:32 CSB

32 But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Now with all that being said, I want to visit one more passage in the book of Matthew where Jesus is asked about this directly, and that is in Matthew 19:1-12.

v. 3-6: Jesus roots the value of marriage within the covenant of marriage.

Within this covenant, two people are becoming one. We often only think about that “one flesh” in regard to the physical union of a man and wife, but within God’s design of marriage the bond is far deeper than only physical. It’s a deep, intimate spiritual, emotional, and whole life union.

Why does God care so deeply about this covenant?… because it’s a picture of God’s love for us in Christ. Paul says this in Eph. 5:31-32,

Ephesians 5:31–32 CSB

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.

A marriage commitment is not intended to be dissolved on a whim because Christ’s commitment to us will not be dissolved on a whim… in fact, it won’t be dissolved ever!

In response to Jesus’ answer, the Pharisees then as a pretty good question in Matt. 19:7

Matthew 19:7 CSB

“Why then,” they asked him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?”

Jesus’ response? Matt. 19:8

Matthew 19:8 CSB

He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not like that from the beginning.

One New Testament scholar explains Jesus’ answer this this way,

It’s a concession: to sinfulness AND to this tendency to not stay loyal… to God and to other people. -Jeannine Brown

So, Jesus’ stipulations for divorce are intended to elevate the significance of the covenant, the commitment between a man and woman to one another and before God.

It is in the breaking of that covenant that divorce is permitted, and practically I think this this looks like a few things that we can discern from these passages in Matthew and from other places in the New Testament.

3 Ways the Covenant of Marriage is Broken:

Adultery (Matt. 5:32, Matt. 19:9)

Abandonment (1 Cor. 7:15)

Abuse (Eph. 5:25-30)

*So, this instruction from Jesus gives us an idea of what commitment should look like in marriage, but what about in our relationships with other people?

Back in Matt. 5:33-37, Jesus is going to discuss…

b. The Value of Honoring Your Word (Matt. 5:33-37)

The command Jesus addresses here is… “You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord”

This is a little bit different than just telling the truth; Jesus is not just saying here, “be honest.”

Jesus is more so instructing us on how we make commitments to others.

The Jewish teachers had a tendency to emphasize commitments made to God rather than commitments made to other people.

Chuck Quarles, who preached here just a few weeks ago now, makes this comment,

They thought that they had a special obligation to keep promises made to God specifically but could break promises made to others when it was convenient.

(Quoted in CCE: Sermon on the Mount, Akin, 65)

So, to make what they were saying sound more trustworthy, people would swear by things that were close to God, but that they felt were not binding enough to lock them into their commitment when it really came down to following through.

When I was in elementary school, people would throw around 2 phrases pretty loosely: “I swear to God” and “I swear on my momma” when they wanted you to do something for them… usually borrow money for extra lunch or look at your homework.

When we’re trying to convince people that something we’re saying now is true, the phrase that’s popular now is, “On God”

When a President swears in or when we give a testimony in court, we place our hand on a Bible and say “I pledge xyz, so help me God.”

How does Jesus respond to all of these oaths?

Don’t do that!

But why?

We are not in control of the outcome of what we commit to (v. 36).

If we don’t follow through, who’s name have we now brought down with us?… God’s

Invoking the name of God, or something remotely close to God, to get our way is manipulative.

Look what Jesus says in Matt. 5:37

Matthew 5:37 CSB

37 But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.

Why would using God’s name to make you be more trustworthy be considered, “from the evil one?”

What happened back in Genesis 3?

The serpent took the command of God to Adam and Eve, twisted it, and manipulated them to do his bidding and commit evil.

Satan was the first one to use God’s name to further his own agenda… Jesus is warning us not to do the same thing.

So, quite simply, don’t attempt to convince someone that your trustworthy by bringing God into your commitments… just do what you say you will do.

Close: So, at the heart of both of these commands that Jesus unpacks is true loyalty. And again, I hope we see that Jesus is calling us to something far greater than just keeping the letter of the Law. To be honest and loyal people comes from a transformed heart that only Jesus can offer us through faith in Him.

Secondly, I hope we see Jesus at the heart of these commands too.

He is the True Bridegroom who will never send us away in favor of someone better or because He is simply bored or fed up with us.

His Word is always trustworthy and true. Everything He has said He will do, He is faithful to make it happen.