Lengthy as the Gospel passage is, I think it would be best to set it in its context, by looking first at the preceeding paragraph, verses 17-20. Looking at the context of a passage is always a good thing to do – it helps us avoid many mistakes – and in this case it will help us avoid a mistake made by many commentators.

What is Jesus doing?

I’m going to ask, and seek to answer three questions: What is Jesus doing? What is Jesus teaching? and What is Jesus asking us to do? The first of these is very important because Jesus is telling us that the relationship between his teaching and that of the Old Testament is NOT one of replacement, but one of reinforcement by way of reinterpretation of God’s Law in the way God intended it to be understood. Jesus could not be more explicit.

Don’t think I’ve come to abolish the Law or the Prophets (i.e. the OT) – I’ve not come to abolish them – but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished... 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.

It sounds to me as if Jesus had been accused of downgrading the law given through Moses. Unlike the other teachers, he didn’t teach what had been handed down from the past. Remarkably he didn’t even speak like the prophets saying, This is what the LORD says.., instead he said, But I tell you.. – as clear an assertion of his deity as you could wish for. Yet he also said, My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. (John 7:16) And the clear stance he took was that the Jewish teachers and the Pharisees were the ones downgrading God’s Law, because they were selling it short!

So, when we come to the first verse of the passage we heard read, it is better (despite most modern translations) to read the Greek equally correctly as, it was said by the people of long ago. Jesus is criticising Jewish tradition NOT the word of God through Moses. When Jesus quotes Scripture he always used an entirely different verb, It is written.. (And people of long ago corresponds exactly to expressions used by the Rabbis to describe those who had passed down oral teaching.)

Yet, you will tell me, Jesus’ quotation appears to be exactly what Scripture said! Do not murder. (Exod 20:13 & Deut 5:17) The following words, Anyone who murders will be subject to – or is deserving of – judgement, are not a direct quotation, but certainly reflect Gen 9:6, Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. What then was the fault of the contemporary Jewish teachers? Their teaching was inadequate, because it only considered the outward action and not the inward attitude that gave rise to it. They held the Law was kept if one refrained from actual killing.

This despite the OT teaching, from the beginning, that killing arose from a wrong attitude of the human heart. Before Cain slew his brother, we are told, Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast..(Gen 4:5) Stories throughout the OT tell the same: Saul’s jealousy of David, leading to attempted murder (1 Sam 18:8-10,25;20:31); Ahab’s greed and Jezebel’s contempt for godly Naboth, which led to his actual murder...(1 Kgs 21) And so on.

So we find Jesus six times in this chapter saying, You have heard it said.. but I tell you.., contrasting Jewish tradition with the real meaning of God’s Law, which endures forever because it is the expression of his character. What does Jesus say elsewhere? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Deut 6:5).. And, Love your neighbour as yourself (Lev 19:18) All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matt 22:37-40) Contempt of God and one’s fellow human beings is the real source of all evil.

What is Jesus teaching? About the 6th commandment?

Jesus proceeds to underline this by further comment on this commandment, Do not murder. His words seem strange to our ears because Jesus adopts the teaching style of the Rabbis, and perhaps there is something of irony in his doing so, because his intention is surely not to imply that there are fine distinctions between one insult and another, but to teach one lesson. That sinful anger – the kind that leads to bitter words – is, in its very nature, murder. Murder committed in the heart. Of course, anger and hatred can increase by degrees, and so lead to actual murder. But unless the person with any kind of sinful anger in their heart repents – he or she is in danger of hell.

But Jesus doesn’t leave it there. Cain was angry because his brother’s offering was favoured over his own. Saul hated David because his exploits drew greater applause. Jezebel hated being defied by a man with godly scruples... How should these situations have been handled? By a recognition that each was loving self more than the other person. That the other person’s viewpoint or favour had merit.

Reconciliation may be possible when one is prepared to put the other’s interest before one’s own. That is what is meant by love towards one’s neighbour. You can’t say you’re loving God, if you don’t love your neighbour, who is made in God’s image. (1 John 1:9-11; 3:11-18; 4:11,19-21) So, Jesus says, first go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift to God (your worship of him). (Matt 5:24) Or in modern terms, If you’re in church, and you suddenly remember your brother has a grievance against you – leave at once, don’t wait until the service has ended. Seek out your brother, ask his forgiveness, and be reconciled to him.

What is Jesus teaching? About the 7th commandment?

The second example Jesus takes, of the inadequacy of current teaching about God’s Law, concerns the command, Do not commit adultery. (Exod 20:14 & Deut 5:18) Again, the Pharisees believed it was sufficient that one did not commit the actual act of forbidden sexual intercourse. Of course, they recognised human frailty, and for that reason deplored public conversation outside the family, between a man and a woman – just as muslims do today – although they didn’t demand that women covered themselves from the sight of men, as muslims do.

But Jesus went to the heart of the matter. What is gained if a man refrains from adultery, but entertains his imagination with impure thoughts? Thought may lead to action, but even if it doesn’t, the thought betrays an attitude (on the part of a man or woman) that degrades and despises the one lusted after. For, to be concerned with one’s own bodily satisfaction, without first being concerned with the integrity, purity and well-being of the other, is to despise her or him. That is why Jesus says the deliberate lustful look, is tantamount to adultery, and therefore a transgression of the commandment.

Let’s be quite clear about this. Sexual attraction between men and women is a wonderful gift of God, to be valued and honoured. Why else is a whole book of the Bible devoted to the subject? (The Song of Songs) So also sexual intercourse itself is a gift of God. But God has wisely created that to be exclusive. For a man and a woman committed to each other (in marriage) for life. Any other use is a departure from his pattern, and forfeits his blessing.

As we know, such departures are only too common in our society, and in the end can cause much grief and sorrow – not the least of which is a loss of fellowship with our Saviour, who loves us most of all, and died to save us from an eternal separation from him. It is for that reason that he uses here such strong language – such hyperbole – to bring home to our hearts the sinfulness of the deliberate lustful look. Is there a man here who doesn’t understand this?

Who doesn’t feel the power of his heart’s natural attraction to lead him into wrong thoughts, wrong desires – that if not dealt with, would lead him into wrong actions? We should recognise our Lord’s intention is not that we should take his words literally (as Origen, a third century scholar of Alexandria, did by castrating himself) but equally seriously – if this is our temptation – and avoid ruthlessly the places, books, videos, web-sites, etc that stimulate these wrong thoughts and desires. In other words, we are to behave as if we’d torn out our eyes or cut off hand or foot. Matthew follows this by some of our Lord’s teaching about divorce, which he deals with at greater length in chapter 19. This subject deserves far fuller treatment than I can give it now. Because of the sinfulness of the human heart, it is a perennial subject for discussion among God’s people. It certainly was in Jesus’ day, when it was treated far too lightly, defended, as here, by the quotation of Deut 24:1.

But in that bit of case law, Moses is actually defending women from casual exploitation, and protecting the institution of marriage. Jesus here and elsewhere makes it clear that divorce was only allowable because of the hardness of human hearts (Mark 10:5). It is contrary to God’s intention of life-long fidelity in marriage, which cannot be broken without sin. (Gen 2:24; Mal 2:14-16; Matt 5:32; 19:3-12; Mark 10:1-12; Luke 16:18)

What is Jesus’ teaching? About the 3rd & 9th commandments?

The third example that Jesus takes, to show the inadequacy of the current interpretations of God’s law, and the hypocrisy of the human heart – concerns mostly the command, You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.. but also the command, You shall not give false testimony..

Many fancied they kept these commands so long as they didn’t swear falsely and they performed their oaths. But Jesus said, Do not swear at all.. simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ be ‘No’.. Because the Pharisees had deflected people’s attention away from the frequent biblical commands to fulfill your vows (made to the Lord) – that is, to keep your promises, and not perjure yourselves. (Num 30:2; Deut 23:21; Ex 20:7; Lev 19:12)

Instead they had more concern for the formula used. If the actual name of God was not used – to avoid profanity – then the vow or oath, they said, was not binding! Jesus had no time for such evasion of honesty, and such a shallow view of what it meant to honour God’s name, that is, honour his character.

Their distinction between one kind of vow or oath and another is quite artificial – and therefore irrelevant. The whole world is God’s, and you cannot eliminate him from it, just by swearing by heaven, or by the earth, or by a sacred place... nor by swearing by one’s own person, for that too is under God’s control, not ours. God remains the witness to our every word, he’s present at every transaction, whether we’ve formally invited him to be there or not.

We reflect God’s faithfulness when we are faithful, and utterly honest in all we do, so that our speech is always trustworthy. The Bible rarely commands oaths to be made in God’s name, only when it serves the cause of justice (Exod 22:8-11; Num 5:16-22). The need for any oath-taking (which the Bible permits) arises from the sinfulness of the human heart, our proneness to be liars, so that plain speech is not believed or trusted, as it should be.

What therefore is the Lord really saying to us?

1. “If you truly love me, the Lord your God, you will want to be like me in your character. Since I am utterly holy, so should you be. What (I’m) after is truth from the inside out. (Psa 51:6a – The Message) And since I am full of love to you, so should you be to others”.

2. “As you have been hearing my words describing the inwardness, the true meaning of my law, you surely cannot fail to see how far short you all fall of my moral purity, my holiness, and how inadequate your obedience is to what I require”.

3. “Do you recognise the sinfulness and guilt of your own hearts? If so, do you recognise my great love in coming, and in dying instead of you? Do you desire my forgiveness, my cleansing? Is your love for me – a love that is growing?”

4. “Knowing your own weakness and failure, the impossibility in your own strength of your living up to my standard, have you cried to me for a full measure of my Holy Spirit in your lives – so that you may overcome your sin? For only then can you be filled with love for God and your fellow men and women. And that’s how to fulfill my intention for your lives.” (Rom 8:3-4; 13:8-10; Gal 5:16,22-25)

We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? ..We were buried with Christ through baptism into (his) death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead.. we too may live a new life... Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body.. (Rom 6:2-4,12)

What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Rom 8:3-4)