Matthew 5:27–32

DISTINCT IN MY RELATIONSHIPS 

Matthew 5:27–32

We continue our unit on the Sermon on the Mount and this week we look at a second passage in what has been called “The Antitheses.” Last week we noted that contrary to what some have taught Jesus does what a good rabbi would do — He “builds a fence around the Torah.” Not only should people not sin they shouldn’t come close to sinning and their intentions matter. Last week we read instructions about murder. This week’s passage is about another of the Ten Commandments (see also 33–37).

Practice purity in your sexual conduct. (27–30)

Prohibitions against adultery appear in Exodus 20:14, Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 5:18. Verses 1, 9 and 10 of Job 31 contain warnings about lust. Whereas Proverbs regularly blames women for adultery and lust (see also the crowd in John 8:1–11), Jesus warns men. Perhaps He is reminding His audience that men themselves, not women, are responsible for men’s sexual ethics.

Jesus again mentions “hell” or “Gehenna” (see v. 22): “Ge Hinnom,” the Hinnom Valley south of Jerusalem, which became associated with a place of posthumous torture for the wicked.

The instructions to mutilate oneself in response to sin are hyperbolic expansions of the idea that one should not even come close to sinning (compare Matt. 18:8–9). On the other hand Jesus might be instructing churches to expel members who refuse to repent of sexual immorality and whose actions hence endanger the moral behavior of more besides themselves. In Greek, as in English, “member” can refer both to a body part and to a member of a group. Jesus will instruct churches to expel recalcitrant sinners in Matthew 18:15–17.

Wayne Oats, the father of Christian pastoral counseling, once said that if he found himself selecting his tie based on the impression he hoped it would make on any woman not his wife it was a warning sign that his feelings were becoming inappropriate. Do not even come close to sinning.

Maintain faithfulness in marriage. (31–32)

Jesus says something similar in Matthew 19:3–9 in a conversation with Pharisees. “Certificate of divorce” or “a written notice of divorce” in some translations is “get” in Hebrew. The biblical instructions on divorce are found in Deuteronomy 24:1–4. They do not mention the possibility of a woman divorcing a man and neither does Jesus, so it might not have been possible.

Also marriage in Deuteronomy, and even in Jesus’ day, was not the same institution that many American Christians practice. Although married couples often loved one another (Gen. 24:67), a person married someone his or her parents selected. Furthermore, one important purpose of marriage (certainly not the only one) was to provide male heirs to whom the husband could pass property.

It’s difficult to say with certainty but Jesus may be speaking against a practice that left too many women helpless: divorced and in His day unable to support themselves by any means other than prostitution or selling themselves into slavery. A male slave owner in Jesus’ day had sexual access to the female slaves in his household. The prohibition against marrying a divorced woman is more difficult to understand.

If we’re right about what Jesus is saying, He is concerned not only with individual righteousness (both right actions and right intentions) but also with unjust systems that oppress people with little power. Do not sin, do not come close to sinning and do not allow the system to sin.