Meditation May 23 2020

Matthew 5:31-37

 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

In these verses we have subject we can treat more speedily. Like the laws on murder and adultery, Jesus is dealing primarily with correcting the people regarding the laws as they had been taught them by the Rabbis and religious leaders. Murder, adultery etc. had been understood or interpreted and taught to have reference only to the strict letter of the physical act. Jesus teaching them that the real problem and the sin is at the heart and not simply in the outward act which is only a manifestation of that which lay in the heart out which proceed the issues of life.

The verses dealing with divorce and oaths had reference to laws that were uniquely Jewish. For this reason; i.e. they have less application for us (I did not say no application). For that reason, and the fact no one seems to agree on them, we can handle them more cursorily.

Divorce was originally disallowed. We know this because we read that regulations regarding divorce we added because of the hardness of the hearts of men. Divorce was never ordained by Got, promoted by God nor sanctioned by God. It seems to me that originally not even sexual unfaithfulness was grounds for divorce. If such occurred, it seems the marriage was to stay intact and reconciliation and forgiveness sought. I think we can glean this knowledge from Hosea’s example and primarily from God’s dealing with His whoring people, the church, the bride of Christ.  Divorce was ‘allowed’ by God with a certificate of divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of men. Matt. 19:8. One can imagine the regulation was given to maintain something of an orderly society in the face of the sins of man. At the first, divorce was allowed only for unfaithfulness, sexual impurity, either before or after marriage. The wickedness of man’s heart being such as it is, the Rabbis et al., yielding to the desires of the people rather than taking their guidance from God, quickly diluted the regulation as God had given it to allow divorce on no better grounds than that a man’s wife simply no longer pleased him – which, I suspect, invariable meant he was pleased by someone else. Women were not allowed to initiate and seek a divorce for any reason. This is the ‘law’ the people had been taught and it is this Jesus is correcting. In doing so, He takes it back to the original allowance made by God, i.e. sexual immorality.

At this point, it seems any agreement ends. By sexual immorality did Jesus mean only the physical act by the wife of having sex with someone other than her husband? Some argue that would be a very strange way of understanding it since he is dealing with the issues of the heart contrary to purely physical acts. But if he means something other than the physical act, what would it be? Some say a flirtatious spouse, one who shows that in their hearts they desire another, would be allowable grounds. Still others argue that a spouse who no longer can or will perform their physical spousal duties so that the other is left to “burn in the flesh” (1 Cor. 7:9) would be acceptable grounds for divorce. Still others would include psychological abandonment, the forsaking of fellowship and companionship with a spouse as acceptable grounds.

My personal conviction is that divorce on any grounds is contrary to the original intent of God in making us man and woman, male and female and is therefore sin for which we should seek God’s forgiveness. I say that as one divorced. The same is to be said regarding the remarriage of a divorced person. Is the new wife, assuming adultery did not occur before a divorce nonetheless guilty of divorce for marrying a divorced man? Under Jewish law apparently it was only the divorced wife who, if she remarried, that was guilty of adultery. The man could divorce and remarry for any cause and unless he was guilty of actual physical sexual immorality while married he could divorce are remarry as often as he wished without being charged with adultery, but the woman, though she was the offended, could not remarry without presumably being subject to stoning.  It seems pretty clear these laws did not come from God.

What are we to make of Jesus teaching about remarriage? Again, I think it best to assume guilt and seek forgiveness. It matters not our sin. When we have turned from it and seeks God’s forgiveness, God in mercy through Christ grants forgiveness. It is my experience that if we think we may possibly have sinned in something we have done; we probably have done so. We ought then to take that concern to the throne of grace. One of the saddest things I see in the life of Christians is notion that they are lost if they have any sins. That belief, the remaining notion that somehow they be sinless to please God, though most often completely denied in doctrine, is seen to be alive and well in the fear of going to God with their sins. Joy in the Lord is found not in the pretense of purity but, as Jesus has just said, in mourning over sin.

With regard to the taking of oaths, Jesus reference is to common oaths. Those oaths, for example, that we take when we say to someone something such as “I swear on my mother’s grave, I am telling the truth.” Or “I swear to God that is what happened.” It is not an absolute forbidding of all oaths as some take it. Jesus gave testimony under oath. (Matt. 26:63ff) Paul often uses oaths. (Ro.1:9, ! Cor. 15:31; etc) God in numerous places swore by Himself (Isa. 43:23).

To put it in perspective as I see it, God has created in Christ new creatures, a peculiar people, a holy nation (blessed a people) for Himself. Those people are humble (poor in spirit) mourn over their sins and hunger and thirst to be sinless. Being such a people, they are salt and light in the world and being such, they strive after holiness. That means striving to keeps God’s commandments. But keeping God’s commandments means knowing them and knowing them correctly; therefore, Jesus clarifies the commandments not only that they may know of a truth that after which they are to strive but that the blessed may the better know their sinfulness and dependency of His finished work for their redemption. It is the recognition and admission of our sinfulness that keeps us abiding in the Vine. The least notion that in this or that area I am guiltless, cuts me from the Vine. May God grant there is no sin for which we exonerate ourselves.