John 3:16—God so loved the world that he sent his Son. And his Son sends his transformed people into that same world.

• Point of 5:17-20—I have come to fill the Old Testament Law full of meaning. I am looking to produce radical, internal forms of transformation within my people.
• Point of 5:21-48 (next two weeks)—Here are six examples of the transformation I want to produce!
  • Overall Theme: Social Commands
    • Today: Three commands regarding the interior life.
    • Next Week: Three commands regarding social interactions.
  • In each, Jesus goes after the heart.
  • Remember: 
    • Grace
    • Christ’s intention
    • The beautiful world that would unfold if everyone lived this way.
• Steps in each example:
  • Step 1. Old Testament Quotation
  • Step 2. Interpretation of Others (sometimes)
  • Step 3. Jesus’ Teaching: “But I say to you…” 
  • Step 4. Some Little Steps: practical counsel
    • These steps are often hyperbolic, emphasizing the radical longing of the disciple to cut off anything that feeds sin.

1. Radical Devotion to Reconciliation (5:21-26)

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Old Testament: The Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13).

• Seven Hebrew words for killing—the one used in Exodus 20:13 is murder because it includes premeditation and deliberateness.
• Does not apply to killing animals (Gen. 9:3), defending one’s home (Ex. 22:2), involuntary manslaughter (Deut. 19:5), the execution of murderers by the state (Genesis 9:6), or involvement with one’s nation in certain types of war.

Jesus’ Interpretation—watch out!

• Not righteous anger:

• • • Be angry and do not sin… (Ephesians 4:26)
    • Jesus is confronting our sin of irritable, temperamental anger, making us angry people.

• 1. Watch out for simmering resentment (whoever is angry with his brother).

• • • Orgizomenos implies a continuous, simmering resentment rather than a momentary flare-up.
      • Being angry / carrying anger / nursing a grudge
      • Example: Not gasoline, but oak, on the fire.

• 2. Watch out for the tendency to insult and attack someone’s intelligence or competence (whoever insults his brother).

• • • Verbal scorn
    • Some translations: Raca! (emptyhead)

• 3. Watch out for the tendency to attack someone’s moral character (whoever says, ‘You fool!).

• • Moros (moron).

Jesus’ Warning—the stakes are high!

• Liable to judgment / Liable to the council / Liable to the hell of fire: Earthly courts can only deal with the external, but God’s court can easily deal with the heart.

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Jesus offers two illustrations meant to help us take ownership.

• The Altar: reconcile before worship.

• • • When your (spiritual) brother (or sister) is grieved by your actions, settle it.

• The Court: reconcile before judgment.

• • On the way to court with an aggrieved other (not a brother)—deal with it quickly rather than become embroiled.

Fascinating! Jesus doesn’t give us a technique to control our anger, but counsel on how to take responsibility when we’ve angered others.

• Q: Do others anger me, or do I anger others? Yes.
  • Often, the same conflict from two sides.
• When we habitually seek reconciliation when we have angered, our grace capacity grows, and we are better able to navigate times we are angered.
• When we minimize our offenses and maximize others’ offenses, we create a prison of delusion and anger for ourselves.

2. Radical Commitment to Sexual Purity (5:27-30)

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 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.

Old Testament: The Seventh Commandment (Exodus 20:14)

• Another loving commandment.
• God sees how, among his people, sexual fidelity leads to marital health, which leads to familial health, which leads to church health, which leads to societal health.

Jesus’ Interpretation—guard your heart from lust!

• Jesus blended in the tenth commandment (covetousness).
  • “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17, ESV)
• Jesus shifts sexual unfaithfulness from the bed to the brain, the hands to the heart, or from external actions to internal intentions (28).
• Looks at a woman with lustful intent: A deliberate, cultivated desire (as opposed to passing attraction or a recognition of beauty).

Our world

• Sex has an improper place.

• • • Sex was created by God, but stolen by the devil. He took a beautiful thing, a good thing, and made it a god-thing to be worshiped. The marriage bed can be an undefiled place of pleasure (Hebrews 13:4).

• Our culture has built a technologically aided sexual ethic.

• Modern sexual ethics are only viable because of technological buffers that mask consequences that would otherwise be unsustainable.
• The modern sexual revolution was enabled by:
  • Antibiotics (1940s+)
  • The Pill (1960)
  • Roe v. Wade (1973)
  • Antiretrovirals (1990s+)

• But there are no technological interventions for the damage done to our souls.

• • Sexual freedom is a myth.

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’ Warning—high stakes!

• Whole body go into hell (30).
• Example: Difference between waking up to a fire alarm or an alarm clock. Hand in fire — you don’t slowly disengage.

Jesus encourages radical discipline to deal with lust.

• Hyperbolic: a deliberate exaggeration to show how radical and intense discipline is required.
• If your right eye (right hand) causes you to sin: The heart is the problem—and it cannot be helped by self-mutilation.
  • Jesus’ teaching helps us understand our need for grace, forgiveness, salvation, and regeneration.

How to deal drastically with lust.

• We are called to:

• • • Col. 3:5—Put to death what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.
    • 1 Thess. 4:3—For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.
    • 1 Cor. 6:18—Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
    • John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1656): “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

• How can we cultivate a radical commitment to sexual holiness?

• • 1. Agree with God (Amos 3:3).
  • 2. Starve the flesh—don’t feed it that which it desires.
  • 3. Feed the Spirit—replace flesh routines with spiritual disciplines.
  • 4. Remember the price—rejoice regularly over the cross.
  • 5. Pursue true Christian community—Honesty / Confession / Prayer / Accountability
  • 6. Be in the book—Mirror of God’s Word.

3. Radical Esteem for Marriage (5:31-32)

31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’

• Note before talking about divorce: 

• Christ is here as one who protects the vulnerable and lifts up the wounded.
• Christ’s aim was to build a people with a high esteem for marriage vows.

Old Testament: The Deuteronomy 24:1-4 Clause

• This regulation was designed to protect the sanctity of marriage, protect women, and document status—paperwork and bureaucracy given to ancient Israel to help control the chaos of unrestrained divorce.
• Scribes and Pharisees:
  • Debated the meaning of “some indecency” (Deut. 24:1).
  • Conservative View (Shammai): Allowed divorce only for unchastity.
  • Liberal View (Hillel): Allowed divorce for trivial reasons, such as spoiling a dish.
    • Hillel became more popular.

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. (Matthew 5:21–32, ESV)

Jesus’ Interpretation—Protect Your Marriage Covenant!

• Later, Jesus will explain that Moses gave them the Deuteronomy 24 clause because of their hard hearts (Matt. 19:7-8). 
  • He will explain that his view comes from creation itself—a man and woman leave their parents and are joined together by God, not to be separated (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:3-6).
• Here, Jesus gives us a condensed version of his high view of marriage.
  • He put a stop to their cultural tendency to give husbands unlimited freedom to divorce their wives.
  • Jesus offered protection for the vulnerable.

Exception clause: except on the ground of sexual immorality.

• Sexual immorality: a category of sexual sin that fractures the oneness of marriage. The one flesh principle has been violated.
• Point 1—There is a law of love and forgiveness in us; we don’t have to go there.
• Point 2—There is a legitimate cause: sexual immorality. The “one flesh” principle has been violated.
  • Paul: unfaithfulness or abandonment by an unbeliever (1 Cor. 7:10-16).
• Point 3—Wrongful divorce means the marriage is valid in God’s eyes, so the next marriage is seen as adulterous in God’s eyes.
• Difficult to talk about.
  • Because anger and lust are often invisible, but our marital status is visible.
  • Because we sometimes give the impression that divorce or remarriage is unforgivable.
  • Because humans love extreme positions—we often either shun and shame the divorced or shrug marital rebellion off as ‘no big deal.’

Jesus’ point: My disciples carry an extreme devotion to their marriages.

Q: Doesn’t God just want me to be happy?

• • A: God sees your pain and cares deeply about it. He knows pain. He hates pain. He came to suffer to eradicate all pain one day.
  • A: Yes, God genuinely cares and is working towards your happiness.
  • A: But God’s definition of happiness and ours are often different.
    • The truth of the matter is that God wants you, his church, and the whole world to flourish, which is much different than happiness.
  • A: Happiness built on covenant-breaking is not sustainable happiness.
  • A: Your suffering has an expiration date.

• For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18, ESV)

Living in a covenantal marriage:

• Know your roles (male and female, Matthew 19:4).
• Leave and cleave (Matthew 19:5).
• Cultivate oneness (one flesh, Matthew 19:5–6).
• Serve one another (Mark 9:35).
• Financial health — budget, plan, agree.
• Have fun!

Conclusion

• All this drives us back to the gospel!
• Jesus’ people, living in heart-level obedience to him, offer a protective shield for others—we become safe!
  • Emotional exploitation is out.
  • Sexual exploitation is out.
  • Marital exploitation is out.

Study Questions

The Head: Understanding the Word

1. Jesus contrasts the traditional interpretation of the Law with His own authority using the phrase, “But I say to you.” In what ways does Jesus’ interpretation actually “fill the Law full of meaning” (Matthew 5:17) rather than simply adding new rules?
2. Looking at the “Deuteronomy Clause” (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) and Jesus’ response in Matthew 5:31-32, how did Jesus’ teaching protect the vulnerable in a culture that favored “liberal” or trivial grounds for divorce?

The Heart: Examining the Interior Life

1. Jesus shifts the focus of murder to simmering resentment and the focus of adultery to lustful intent. When you consider these “interior” sins, does it change your perspective on your need for God’s daily grace and the necessity of a “new heart”?
2. In the section on marriage, it was noted that “happiness built on covenant-breaking is not sustainable.” How does this truth challenge the modern cultural narrative that personal fulfillment is the highest good?

The Hands: Living the Kingdom Life

1. Jesus provides two practical illustrations for reconciliation: the Altar and the Court. Is there a “brother” or an “accuser” in your life right now where you need to take the initiative to “settle quickly” before continuing in your religious or daily routines?
2. Regarding the “radical discipline” mentioned in verses 29-30, what is one practical “hyperbolic” step you can take this week to “starve the flesh” or remove a specific friction point that leads you toward anger or lust?