BibleProject | Sermon on the Mountنموونە

Wisdom Within Laws About Murder, Adultery, and Divorce

After introducing the concept of a greater righteousness (Matt. 5:17-20), Jesus offers six case studies to illustrate what “doing right by others” might look like in day-to-day life.Today, we’ll look at his first three case studies on murder, adultery, divorce in Matthew 5:21-32. Here, Jesus focuses attention on the human tendency to devalue other humans, all of whom God created in his image. In each of the three examples, he quotes from Israel’s law and then exposes a deeper wisdom embedded within the law.

Let’s watch episode 4, Wisdom Within Laws About Murder, Adultery, and Divorce.

Video Reflection Questions

1. Why might Jesus connect anger and name-calling to murder?
2. How is looking at someone lustfully rooted in the same attitude involved with adultery?
3. When Jesus talks about a person’s need to cut off their own hand or pluck out their own eye, what is he really talking about?
4. How is Jesus advocating for the fair treatment of women when he teaches about divorce and remarriage?
5. What does Jesus seem to be saying in Matthew 5:21-32 about the value of every human being God created?

Let’s read Matthew 5:21-32. Below is the BibleProject Scholarship team translation, and we also encourage you to read this passage in other translations.

21 You have heard that it was said to the ancients,

“You will not murder,”

and “Whoever murders

will be guilty by the court.”

22 And I say to you,

that anyone who is angry with his brother

will be guilty by the court;

and whoever calls his brother “good-for-nothing!”

will be guilty by the sanhedrin;

and whoever says “fool!”

will be guilty of the fire of gehenna.

23 Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar,

and there remember that your brother has something against you,

24 leave your offering there before the altar

and go, first be reconciled to your brother,

and then come and present your offering.

25 Settle matters in a friendly way with your legal-opponent

while you are with him on the way,

so that your opponent doesn’t hand you over to the court-judge,

and the court-judge to the officer,

so that you are thrown into prison.

26 Truly I say to you,

you will not come out of there

until you have paid back the last coin.

27 You have heard that it was said,

“You will not commit adultery.”

28 And I say to you that

anyone who goes on looking at a woman in order to cultivate lust for her,

he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

29 If your right eye causes your downfall,

tear it out and throw it from you;

for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body

than for your whole body to be thrown into gehenna.

30 If your right hand causes your downfall,

cut it off and throw it from you;

for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body

than for your whole body to go off into gehenna.

31 It has also been said,

“Whoever sends away his wife,

he must give her a certificate of divorce.”

32 And I say to you that

anyone who sends away his wife,

except on the ground of sexual immorality,

he makes her the victim of adultery,

and whoever marries a divorced woman

commits adultery.