The Sermon on the Mount
By E.H. “Jack” Sequeira
Our study today will be Matthew 5:31-42:
“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 marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear 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. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
I would like to remind you that our study in the Sermon the Mount is what Jesus is telling His disciples. He is instructing them on how Christians should live on this earth while they are waiting for the coming of Christ.
In this section we are going to cover today, Jesus is dealing with three of His six statements where He begins, “You have heard” [or “It has been said”] but “this is what I say.” What Jesus is doing is showing His people that the way they were raised up under Judaism was not the right way and He is trying to show them the correct interpretation of Moses in contrast to what they were taught.
We must keep in mind verse 20, which is the key passage to these six statements. Matthew 5:20:
“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
When we dealt with verse 20, we saw that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was the righteousness of legalism, which was in outward conformity: it was in the letter. The righteousness that God wants us to reveal is the righteousness of the Spirit: the fruits of righteousness by faith.
As I mentioned, there are three areas which Christ is dealing with in this passage. One, the sanctity of marriage (verses 31-32). The second has to do with swearing, oaths, and profanity (verses 33-37). And the last, He enjoins non-resistance; in other words, He is dealing with abuses and mistreatments, etc. (verses 38-42).
Let’s take them one by one. The first one is a very sensitive area in view of the condition of our world today. It is dealing with the issue of divorce. I realize it is sensitive and that people are hurting. But let us see what Jesus says — He is dealing with the ideal — with how God views marriage. Matthew 5:31-32:
“It has been said [this is what the Pharisees and scribes were teaching], ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.”
These two verses are a summary of what Jesus expounded on in Chapter 19. We need to get the full picture before we deal with the summary. Matthew 19:3-9 is the full picture: the full picture of what the Pharisees taught, why they taught it, and how Christ reacted to their teaching. Verse 3:
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
Now I need to help you here. There were two famous Rabbis: they are Shamiah and Hilliel and they both gave opposite instructions to the verses that Moses gave about divorce and marriage. The Shamiah Rabbi was very strict; the Hilliel one was very liberal and the Pharisees tended to follow Hilliel. Hilliel said that if your wife displeases you in any area — for example, if she burnt your food — you could divorce her. Or if you found some other woman that pleased you more than your wife, you could divorce your wife. They wanted to find out which camp Christ belonged to. You have the same situation today: People will ask you questions to find out to which camp you belong. “Do you belong to Shamiah or do you belong to Hilliel?”
So the Pharisees presented the Hilliel view when they asked Jesus if it was right for a man to put away his wife for ever cause, for any small mistake she makes. Is it right? Verses 4-6:
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Please notice that He did not go to Shamiah; He did not go to Hilliel. He went to the Scripture and to the original plan that God had for marriage: God “made them male and female” for a specific reason, which he then states.
They were not satisfied with His answer, so what did they say? Verse 7:
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
Please notice that they interpret Moses as saying that “he commanded us” but, of course, Moses was inspired. Verses 8-9:
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Jesus doesn’t contradict Moses but says, “The reason why Moses allowed this was not because God wanted this but because of the hardness of your heart.”
If you look at this passage and then interpret Matthew 5, you will notice there are three major differences. Number one, the Pharisees were preoccupied with the grounds of divorce. Jesus was teaching them about the institution of marriage, what God intends marriage to be. What God is saying in the verses we read is two things: (a) marriage is exclusive — it has to do with husband and wife — and (b) marriage is permanent: “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Number two, the Pharisees called Moses’ provision for divorce a commandment. Do you know what a commandment means? It means that God said you must do this. Christ called it a concession because of the hardness of their hearts. When the Jews came out of Egypt (where they had been for over 400 years), they had been influenced by the Egyptian mentality. And the Egyptian mentality is that a woman has a very low place in society. The Jews were affected by this.
When you read the Bible, when they counted people, they counted only men. The result of this was that a woman had no rights and they were treating women like dirt — divorcing them and so on. (I will come back to our modern situation in a moment.) God had to gradually wean them out of this mentality and so He made certain concessions. For example, when they were coming to the promised land, but were still in the wilderness, they lusted for flesh. What did God do? Did He say, “No, this is not my idea?” He said, “I’ll give you what you want.” God did make concessions and, when you read the Old Testament, you will discover that God made many concessions. For example, polygamy. Look at the great men of God. Jacob, the father of Israel, had twelve sons. How many wives did these sons come from? Look at Abraham and Hagar. Was that God’s plan? No. But He did make concessions because of the hardness of men’s hearts.
When a man sinned, he departed so far from God at times, that God could not bring him back to the right place immediately. You look at the reformation. Did God give Luther all the light? No, he could not handle it. He was coming out of darkness. The Dark Ages had turned the church so far away from the truth that God had to do it gradually. This was not a commandment that God gave to Moses. It was simply a concession because of the hardness of their hearts, because of what sin had produced in society. And you will find this all the time. We are living in the end of time and God’s ultimate purpose for His people must be revealed in the last days.
The third area where Christ differs from the Pharisees is where Pharisees treated divorce lightly. They would give a divorce writing for any small cause. What Moses said was that, “You can’t just simply drop your wife. You need at least to give her a written statement that you have divorced her.” We face the same problem today of treating divorce lightly.
But Jesus took divorce as a very serious issue. He said, “There is only one reason why God will condone divorce, and that is for unfaithfulness.” Some Bibles say, “fornication”; some Bibles say, “adultery.” But do you know the word that Christ used for the word in this passage? It is pornia, from which we get the word “pornography.” It is the word that was used for a prostitute. It is not dealing with somebody who suddenly makes a mistake. It is dealing with somebody who is unfaithful as a practice. Christ is saying that is the only exception that God makes for a divorcement.
Now, let’s take what we have discovered and look at it in our modern situation. If you look at your Bible, you will find that God gives three basic instructions regarding marriage. His original plan, which Christ used, is in Genesis. Genesis 2:24:
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
That was no problem to Adam and Eve because they had a nature that was controlled by agape and agape “seeketh not her own.” There was no self in either Adam or Eve and so for them to be one was no problem. Just like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are in perfect harmony. Have you ever asked yourself how it is that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one? Look at the plan of redemption: each of these three persons in the Godhead have taken different positions:
...But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Please remember, they are all equal. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all equal. Why did the Son not say, “Look, why should I take second place?” and the Holy Spirit could say, “Why should I take third place?” Because they have no self in them. Their one desire is to save the human race and the Son is willing to come under the Father and say that the Father is greater than Himself.
In Adam’s and Eve’s case, there was no problem. The problem came when Adam and Eve sinned, because their natures became changed. They were both bent toward self. When you have two people who are controlled by self, it is impossible for them to be one. They can never agree on every point. And so God gave a new law, which you will find in Genesis 3:16:
To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
That statement was perverted by sinful man. God did not mean that the husband should dominate the wife, but this verse was misused right from the beginning and gradually the women were pushed down and down and down. And the result is that, since both men and women are dominated by self, the time came — and that is what has happened in this country — when the women are not willing to remain down. And so we have the movement called “Women’s Lib.”
How did the men react to that? When somebody is on top, is he willing to step down? No. And so what has happened in this country, as I see it, is that the men are not willing for the women to be equal. And the result is that, because they are stronger physically, you have an increase of wife beating. Why? Because they are threatened, so they use force. The wife cannot use force so she uses the law. In this country, the law has reached the point that men and women are equal. So you have these problems all the time. The women will use the law to fight for their rights and the men will use physical strength, so we have a problem.
But there is instruction that God gives to the Christian church. The Christian has something that the unbeliever doesn’t have and that is why Christian marriage can go back to the ideal. Paul says in Ephesians 5:25:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her....
How did Christ love the Church? With what kind of love? With the agape love, the love that “seeketh not her own.” If we are to take the instructions of Christ, is it possible in a Christian home for husband and wife to be one like God’s original plan? And the answer is, “Yes, it is possible.” But please remember that we have sinful natures and we still have to make decisions and, because of our condition, we will still have disagreements.
How do you deal with disagreements in a marriage? I can only give you some counsel here that I hope will help. When two people are married, you will discover that both have good points, areas where they are good. For example, the husband may be good at controlling the finances and the wife may not, or vice versa, it depends on the couple. I think they should come to an agreement. When it comes to money matters, the one who is cautious and prudent should be in charge. When it comes to education, maybe the wife is better. The husband and wife should come to an agreement on the various areas and then they should work as a team.
Then, also, you should decide on what areas you both are compatible. Very often the husband and wife are opposites. I am an introvert. My wife is an extrovert. She helps me. When there are socials, I don’t want to go and she says, “No, you must come.” I listen to her. I am happy by myself reading a book but she tells me I must go because I am the Pastor, so I go. Because we have a Christian marriage, I don’t say, “God said that I should rule over you.”
When it comes to money matters, I am more careful than she is, so she never buys anything big without consulting me. We sit down and we work it out. And that is how it should be. Christ is saying that God’s original plan for marriage hasn’t changed because of sin. The purpose of the gospel is to restore God’s original plan — whether it is marriage, in health and eating habits, or whatever, God’s original plan hasn’t changed. He allowed concessions because of our sinful state.
The Christian home should aim at the goal “the two shall be one.” When two married people follow the principals of the gospel and they are married for 30, 40, 50 years, they even begin to look alike and think alike. A husband can make a decision when his wife is not there because he knows exactly what she will say. They have lived together so closely they can even read each other’s thoughts. That is the goal we want to reach: to be one.
I realize that our culture is so far away from this today. I have heard three times, twice in Idaho and once here, that the average American couple can expect three partners in their lifetime. And now in many courts where people get married, they have changed the marriage vows from “until death do us part” to “as long as we love each other.” If you love each other only with human love, which is changeable and unreliable, you can guarantee that this is going to add to the problem.
Now, let’s go to number two, Matthew 5:33-37, which has to do with honesty in speech. Let’s read the verses and then I will give you some background:
“Again, you have heard [same introduction] that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear 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. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
If you read this without looking at other passages, it will sound like a Christian should never take an oath. But we know from the Bible that God Himself swore. Look at Genesis 22:16-17. God swore to Abraham; He took an oath:
...And said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies....
If you look in the New Testament when Christ was before Caiphas, in Matthew 26, the priests and people were accusing Him and He did not reply. But finally, in Matthew 26:63b, Caiphas said, “I adjure you,” which in Greek means, “I make an oath before God, are you the Christ?” Matthew 26:63-64a:
But Jesus remained silent.
The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied....
And Jesus answered because Caiphas gave an oath. You will find that Abraham, when he sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, made the servant swear certain things. When Joseph was about to die, he made his brethren swear they would not leave his bones in Egypt. When Jonathan and David had an agreement, Jonathan made David swear. So we see that the Bible is not against oaths, correctly used. What Jesus is condemning here is taking the name of God in vain. He is referring to the third commandment. Another text for this is Leviticus 19:12:
“Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.”
This is what Moses taught but the Pharisees had twisted that text. In fact, they were using Deuteronomy 6:13 to back up their position:
Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
If you go to the Middle East today, the same problem still exists. To convince you that they are telling the truth, even though they are lying, they will always use the name of God. If they are Muslims, they will say “Allah,” or, if they are Jews, they will use the name of “Jehovah” They will keep swearing all the time. If you listen to people who are not Christians, they will keeping using the name of Jesus, as if it was nothing. What God was saying is that a Christian should be honest, therefore, he doesn’t need to swear. If you say, “yes,” you must mean “yes.”
Now look again at this in terms of the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. A person who says “yes” with his mouth and “no” with his heart is only obeying the law outwardly and there is too much of this. You do not know where you stand when people say one thing with their mouth and in their heart they mean another thing. We do not know and we often ask the question, “Do you really mean that?” We should never have to ask that question of true Christians. We should always say what is in our hearts and, if what is in our hearts might not be the best thing to say, then we shouldn’t say it. Christ wants us to let our “yes” be “yes” from the inside and our “no” be “no” from the inside. Don’t say one thing and mean something else is what Jesus was saying.
Now let’s go to the third item and we’ll come to a conclusion. Number three is a difficult one. Matthew 5:38-42 deals with passive, non-retaliation:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
First of all, let’s look at the statement, “You have been taught an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Where is this found? It is found in more than one place. First of all it is found in Exodus 21:23-25:
But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
The next time it is found in Leviticus 24:19-20:
If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.
And the third time is in Deuteronomy 19:21:
Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Did Moses actually say these words? Yes. Is Christ contradicting Moses? No. What is the problem then? These statements were given by God, through Moses, as legal statements. These were instructions that God gave to the judges, to the law courts. They were never to be used personally. That is where the Pharisees went wrong. God said to the judges, “If somebody has stolen $10,000, his punishment must be equivalent to that crime.” That is what God instructed the law to do. But God never intended for the Jews to take these and apply them personally and use it as an excuse to take revenge.
What Jesus is saying is, “You must leave the method for justice in the hands of the law.” But you say, “the law is corrupt.” There is a statement that we have covered already in Romans 12:19. How do we deal with injustices? It doesn’t mean that we just sit back, but we do not take revenge if we are mistreated. Romans 12:19:
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
The best example of this is Jesus Christ? Was He mistreated? Was He falsely accused? How did He respond? Let me start with Isaiah 50:6, a prophecy about Christ:
I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
Can you imagine what they were doing to Christ? They not only flogged him, they pulled his hair. Have you ever had your hair pulled? It is painful.
Turn to Mark, where we will read a couple of texts. Mark 14:65. How did Christ respond to His mistreatment?
Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.
They normally struck a person on the back. It was an insult in the Middle East to slap the face; it is the same today. And then, in Mark 15:16-20, He got the same thing from the soldiers:
The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
Can you imagine Jesus, the Son of God, the Creator of this world being insulted. All He had to give was one look and they would have dropped dead. He had the power to do that. But He did not.
Jesus said, “If somebody forces you to walk with him one mile, you go two miles.” Please remember the context here. The Jews were under Roman bondage and the Roman law allowed a Roman soldier to give his baggage to a Jew to carry. The typical situation was this: a Roman soldier would force a Jew to carry his heavy baggage, but he was not allowed to make him carry it for more than one mile. And the typical picture is the Roman soldier walking in front with nothing in his hand and the Jew was behind with this heavy load and as he would walk he would mutter under his breath all kinds of curses against the Roman soldier, swearing at him and cursing him.
But Jesus said, “If somebody does that to you, don’t walk only one mile, don’t curse him, but say to the soldier, ‘How would you like for me to walk two miles?’ ” (That was pouring coals on top of his head). “If he slaps you on the right cheek, you are to give him the other.”
Many years ago while I was in Africa, I was reading a story of a black American who was mistreated and he told his Pastor, who was an ex-boxer. And the Pastor went to the person who was mistreating his member and pleaded with him not to mistreat him and this fellow slapped him on the face. And the Pastor turned around and said, “Would you like to slap me on the other cheek?” And the man did so. And the Pastor said, “Now I have done my will to God, and so now I will do my will to my fellow man.” And he took this man and gave him a terrible hiding, broke his jaw. But God did not say that or mean that.
Now let’s conclude. What is the situation? What is the problem here? What is the conclusion of the matter? Please remember that both the Pharisees and Jesus Christ, neither one, disagreed with Moses. They both used Moses. The problem was not there. The problem was their interpretation of Moses. That is where they disagreed. The Pharisees and scribes claimed to be experts in the law. They claimed to be zealous for the law, but they were legalists. Legalists always find loopholes.
Let me give you my personal experience. When I first arrived in the United States in 1964, we were at the General Conference and were put up in Washington, D.C., by a very fine family. He was the Educational Secretary of the General Conference. The reason they put us up is because his son was my roommate at Newbold. They took us to the Takoma Park Church. It was about the time when the new officers were being introduced to the Church. And I heard some rumblings, some talk (we were up in the balcony). Apparently there was a controversy.
There were some ladies who were chosen by the Nominating Committee to be officers in the Sabbath School Department. Some of the members opposed it because the ladies were wearing wedding rings.
It was in the days when that was a big issue. And the Church decided they could not hold office. And there was much disagreement. Some disagreed with that because the ladies were excellent Christians, and so on. When the ladies came on the platform, I noticed that many of them had huge, bright, flashy brooches. It wasn’t to keep their blouse together, it was to the side. I said, “I can’t understand this.” And someone said, “That is the trouble, we are inconsistent.”
But that is exactly how the Pharisees were. They were particular about certain things. But they had loopholes. They had rules and loopholes so they could enjoy the flesh and yet keep the Sabbath, etc. And Jesus was pointing at their hypocrisy. God said, “You must not swear,” but they found loopholes. God said, “You should not divorce,” but they found loopholes. They took texts from Moses and twisted it for their own desires. And that is typical of a legalist. They are very particular about certain things and they will condemn you if you don’t follow them. But if you look at their lives, they are completely inconsistent. One man said to me, “I have never, ever, even put a morsel of meat in my mouth,” but you should have seen him eating ice cream! What he ate was doing him more harm than meat, the way he was eating it. But the Church never condemned eating ice cream so that was okay. In fact, his wife told me that if he ever went through the end of a meal without eating ice cream, he would always be grumpy.
What God is looking for is people whose hearts are right. And when the heart is right, you will not be condemning others. You will know that you yourself are 100% a sinner. And your heart wants to do exactly what God wants you to do. Christ was not against the law, even though the Pharisees accused Him of being. He was against hypocrisy. He was telling His disciples, “Please, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.” They were keeping the law in the letter. Outwardly they looked beautiful. But, if you read the whole Chapter of Matthew 23, you will discover what Christ had to say to these Pharisees who were zealous for the law.
I will read you only one of them: Matthew 23:26-28:
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. [They were only concerned about outward conformity.]
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
“In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Please remember that you cannot deceive our young people. Our young people are experts at spotting a hypocrite and they have seen so much hypocrisy that they say, “If this is Christianity, we want nothing to do with it.”
It is my prayer that the righteousness that is produced in us will be an inward righteousness, a righteousness that is motivated by love. We will not say, “God has done away with the law.” God has not done away with the law, but He wants us to keep the law out of love. Love must be the fulfillment of the law. And this is what Christ is dealing with in these six sections.
There are six statements that Christ makes: “You have heard,” or “I have taught you.” The first one has to do with murder: Matthew 5:21-22:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
Christ said, “If you hate somebody in your heart, you have killed him.” The second one was, “You have been taught thou shalt not commit adultery.” Matthew 5:27-28:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
What was adultery to the Pharisee? The outward act. Jesus said, “If you look at a woman and have desire for her in your heart you have committed adultery.”
The next three are the ones we covered today. The next study will be “You have heard you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” Is this what Moses taught? Jesus said, “I say to you....” And that is what we will cover in our next study.