Murder and Marriage
Notes
Transcript
Handout
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
One of the most important things for us to remember as we approach Jesus’ Manifesto (aka the Sermon on the Mount), is that Jesus is calling His followers to a life that is very different from our nature. The standards He sets out are not natural and they are not meant to be. What comes naturally to us—what has always come naturally to mankind—is an extension of our sin nature. Jesus is calling us to recognize that we have a new nature and train ourselves to live according to it.
Murder, 21-26
Murder, 21-26
The Law of Moses is pretty clear that murder is prohibited.
13 “You shall not murder.
17 ‘You shall not murder.
But there are a lot of steps between peaceful co-existence and murder. Jesus walks the act back all of those steps.
No Anger Without Cause
No Anger Without Cause
The first step we usually take happens within ourselves: anger. And most of the time, that anger is not truly justifiable.
“Cause” indicates a legal or moral cause
Inconvenience is not cause
Insult is not cause
Irony abounds here: we feel it less when we have cause
Anger is the result of stolen glory
When someone steals our glory, we get angry
When we have cause, it is usually God’s glory that has been stolen, not ours, so we feel it less
Your sense of outrage is a good thermometer: if you are really angry, you probably do not have cause
The penalty, if we have to know it, is the same as the penalty for actual murder: the judgment
This significantly raises the bar on our interactions with other people
Unfortunately for us in our natural state, He isn’t done with us yet
No Verbal Expressions of Anger
No Verbal Expressions of Anger
Most of the time, when we get angry, we get verbal about it
Raca was an insult used in Jesus’ day and it meant empty or empty-headed
Our closest analog might be idiot
The word is an expression of our assessment of another person’s intellectual capacity, or lack thereof. Intellectual is the operative word here, Jesus is about to split hairs.
No Dismissal of God’s Image
No Dismissal of God’s Image
“You fool” is a whole other level
It is an expression that someone is worthless
We have no shortage of expressions that convey this thought, because—in our anger—we have little problem thinking someone is worthless: and that is a big problem.
Every person is an image-bearer of God and has inherent value. When we dismiss that value we insult the God whose image they bear.
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Most of the time, murder is the physical expression of anger. Jesus doesn’t just take the physical expression off the table. He takes the verbal expression of anger off the table. And He takes anger off the table.
The pattern in these few verses will repeat itself across many topics. On the surface, Jesus seems to be raising the bar on the behavior of His followers. What He is really doing is dealing with their hearts. He does not take the outside-in approach of governing behavior. He takes the inside-out approach of governing your heart. The outside-in approach has only ever had mixed results on behavior modification and no effect whatsoever on the hear. The inside-out approach changes the heart and modifies behavior naturally.
Marriage, 27-32
Marriage, 27-32
The next two sections (27-30 and 31-32) are related by a single word: adultery.
Adultery Defined
Adultery Defined
Adultery is having a physical relationship with anyone other than your own spouse
Lust is the desire for something God does not desire for me
Lust can take many forms
The desire to see something God does not want me to see
The desire to do something God does not want me to do
The desire to feel something God does not want me to feel
The desire to have something God does not want me to have
Lust is bigger than our sexual appetite but Jesus uses it here in the way that we most commonly think of it
Lust needs to be dealt with preemptively. To emphasize this point, Jesus uses hyperbole bordering on histrionic to get our attention
He is not suggesting self-mutiliation
He is suggesting self-regulation: avoid, and even eliminate, potential pitfalls
Lust is the number one cause of adultery
Divorce resulting in remarriage (or in unmarried physical relations) is also adultery
Adultery Defended
Adultery Defended
Single Adulterers
Single Adulterers
Before you say I am not married and therefor cannot commit adultery, I would remind you that God exists outside of time and knows who your spouse is. If you’re not with that person, it’s adultry.
Divorced Adulterers
Divorced Adulterers
And before you erect any straw men about Jesus’ views on marriage being antiquated and even dangerous since there are circumstances where a person should leave their marriage, remember this is not the only place in the Bible where marriage is discussed.
10 Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. 11 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.
You may need to leave
That does not mean you get to remarry
Do people remarry? Yes.
Does God recognize those marriages? Yes.
Do you remember the “woman at the well”?
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
Does remarriage and its resulting physical relationship still constitute a violation of the original marriage vow and a physical relationship with someone other than your original spouse? YES!
Adultery Determined
Adultery Determined
What is the big deal?
As much as this is a hot-button topic for us, it is more so for God. Marriage has always been more than a relationship between a man and a woman in God’s eyes. Marriage has always been a portrayal of God’s love, relationship, and commitment to His people.
In the Old Testament, it was the picture of the relationship between God the Father and the Nation of Israel
In the New Testament, is is the picture of the relationship between Jesus and the Church
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Adultery mars the image of God’s love for His people.
Conclusion
Murder destroys an image-bearer of God. Marriage is an image-portrait of God’s love and adultery destroys that.
In calling His followers to higher standards, Jesus invites us to view life from His perspective and to live life according to His intention and design. We chafe at the perceived limitations to our freedom. But those limitations are perceived, they are not real. If we could really live out all of God’s design for our lives, it would be heaven on earth. The closer we get, the better our lives will be!
