Latest / Gospel Explorations / 025: What Does Jesus Teach About Divorce? - Matthew 5:31-32
Transcript
- 0:05Mark Davis: Hello everyone, this is Mark Davis and I want to welcome you to the Gospel Explorations podcast, where we gather together each week to take time to explore God's Word, to learn how we ought to live in this present age.
- 0:16Mark Davis: I'm glad you've chosen to spend some time with us today.
- 0:19Mark Davis: Let's jump into today's episode.
- 0:21Mark Davis: Welcome back to the Gospel Explorations podcast, where we're diving deep into the scriptures to understand God's heart truth and call on our lives.
- 0:38Mark Davis: Today we're going to be exploring a passage that is both deeply challenging and incredibly revealing.
- 0:43Mark Davis: If you have your Bibles, we're going to be looking at Matthew 5, verses 31 and 32.
- 0:48Mark Davis: So let's grab them and take a look at this passage together.
- 0:51Mark Davis: Here's what the Bible says, starting in Matthew 5, 31 and 32.
- 0:59Mark Davis: Let him give her a writing of divorcement.
- 1:01Mark Davis: But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her, that is, divorced, committeth adultery.
- 1:12Mark Davis: Now, what we find here in this passage is one of Jesus' six.
- 1:17Mark Davis: You have heard it said.
- 1:19Mark Davis: But I say unto you statements in the Sermon on the Mount and in some of these we've already looked at them already.
- 1:25Mark Davis: But we see where he moves beyond surface obedience and really dives into the heart of the law.
- 1:31Mark Davis: And that's what he does yet again here with this issue of divorce.
- 1:34Mark Davis: You see, he's not just giving a rule about divorce.
- 1:37Mark Davis: Rather, he's calling his listeners, you and I, back to the heart of marriage.
- 1:43Mark Davis: And so we want to take a look at this today and see exactly how this applies to us in the 21st century.
- 1:49Mark Davis: The first thing I want us to make sure we are aware of is that context does matter.
- 1:56Mark Davis: In Jesus' time, a divorce had become alarmingly easy for men.
- 2:00Mark Davis: There was a passage in Deuteronomy 24, verse 1, that rabbis were regularly debating what constituted what the scriptures called uncleanness in a wife.
- 2:11Mark Davis: Here's what the verse says in Deuteronomy 24, verse 1.
- 2:13Mark Davis: When a man hath taken a wife and married her and it came to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house.
- 2:27Mark Davis: Now again, we said these rabbis were debating what this actually meant.
- 2:32Mark Davis: There was one school after the rabbi Shammai, who took a conservative approach and said you know, only sexual immorality justified divorce.
- 2:41Mark Davis: And yet there was another side of the coin under Rabbi Hillel, which was the most popular teaching at the time, which permitted for divorce for really almost any reason, including, quite famously, even burnt food.
- 2:57Mark Davis: If your wife burns your food, then you have the right to divorce her.
- 3:00Mark Davis: So you can imagine within the context of Jesus' day that a woman could be cast aside legally if she depleased her husband really in any trivial way, and all a man needed was this certificate of divorce.
- 3:15Mark Davis: Now Charles Spurgeon puts it well when he says that the original requirement of a written certificate was really just a check against a hasty divorce, of a written certificate was really just a check against a hasty divorce.
- 3:27Mark Davis: It was meant to slow things down, to give emotions time to cool, but by the time Jesus' day had come around, it had been twisted into a loophole to allow for male convenience and cruelty.
- 3:37Mark Davis: And so Jesus addresses this issue in the Sermon on the Mount, and what we notice here is that Jesus yet again calls us back to the heart.
- 3:44Mark Davis: He doesn't just tighten the rules around a situation, he completely redirects the conversation and he says you know, but I say unto you Again, he points us back to God's design for marriage, and what Jesus is saying here is that unless there is sexual immorality what the Greek calls pornea that's the Greek word pornea here then the reality is unless there's sexual immorality, then divorce just leads to further sin, because from God's perspective that marriage covenant still stands.
- 4:19Mark Davis: And so we understand this wasn't just a shock to first century Jews, it goes against the grain in our modern culture too, because we live in a world where really the reality is personal happiness often takes precedent over being faithful to God's covenant.
- 4:36Mark Davis: And Jesus reminds us yet again that marriage is not just a contract, it's a sacred bond made before God.
- 4:44Mark Davis: And so he's not being harsh here, he's rather being protective.
- 4:48Mark Davis: He's protecting marriage, but he's also protecting vulnerable women, especially those that in their society had very little recourse if they were cast aside.
- 5:00Mark Davis: And so Jesus again is just calling us back to the heart of God in this issue.
- 5:04Mark Davis: It's not just about following rules, it's about having the right heart before God, and I think what Jesus is doing here is he's bringing back a weight to the covenant, because he says whenever a man divorces his wife, he causes her to commit adultery.
- 5:20Mark Davis: And that's pretty intense.
- 5:23Mark Davis: And what Jesus is pointing out here is that just because a divorce is legally recognized within the culture and society doesn't mean that it's spiritually recognized and that God may still see that man or that woman as being bound in a marriage covenant.
- 5:40Mark Davis: And if one of them remarries without a legitimate reason for divorce, this new relationship they have will not be built on a clean foundation.
- 5:50Mark Davis: And so Jesus' words challenge yet again the assumptions of the day and the assumptions of our day that just because something is culturally accepted doesn't mean that it's right in the eyes of God.
- 6:03Mark Davis: And this is true even when it comes to marriage.
- 6:06Mark Davis: You see, the bar is high because the purpose is sacred.
- 6:13Mark Davis: It reflects the covenant love between Christ and His church.
- 6:14Mark Davis: So then the questions always ask well, pastor, what about grace?
- 6:18Mark Davis: Well, here's the reality.
- 6:20Mark Davis: If you're listening today and you've experienced divorce, if you're listening today and you've experienced divorce, there's no doubt that this passage seems heavy.
- 6:27Mark Davis: It may even be painful.
- 6:30Mark Davis: And to those individuals I want to speak to you for just a brief moment.
- 6:34Mark Davis: I want to remind you that Jesus is not shaming people who have broken marriages in their past.
- 6:48Mark Davis: That's not the purpose of this conversation, of this discourse.
- 6:49Mark Davis: What he's doing here is he's confronting a culture that had made light of the covenant of marriage, and he wants to call us to go back to honoring marriage as he designed it to be.
- 6:59Mark Davis: He's not condemning the broken, and the beautiful truth that we find here in the gospel, repeated over and over again, is that there's grace.
- 7:09Mark Davis: That means, then, friend, that there's grace for those who are divorced, and God doesn't discard people like people discard relationships.
- 7:18Mark Davis: Remember, god is a God of redemption and he's a God of healing and a God of new beginnings, and we're reminded over and over again that his grace covers sin, and that would even be sins related to our marriages.
- 7:32Mark Davis: And at the same time that Jesus is giving grace, you know what else he's doing.
- 7:37Mark Davis: He's calling us to take the covenant of marriage seriously, meaning we aren't to treat it like a contract that can be easily broken, but rather we ought to lean into it.
- 7:49Mark Davis: We ought to take his vision for faithfulness in marriage, his vision for what sacrifice looks like in marriage, his vision for what forgiveness should be in our marriages.
- 8:01Mark Davis: So, as we wrap this up today, I want us to take a few practical applications from this passage, and the first is this what do we do with this truth In the 21st century?
- 8:13Mark Davis: How do we handle this.
- 8:14Mark Davis: What do we do with it?
- 8:15Mark Davis: Well, first off, here's something to consider If you're married, let this passage be a call to invest in your marriage relationship.
- 8:23Mark Davis: I want to challenge you to choose forgiveness, to choose patience, to choose love, and don't look for loopholes, but rather look for ways to serve.
- 8:33Mark Davis: So make your marriage your priority.
- 8:36Mark Davis: Another thing would be this If you're considering marriage, remember that marriage is not just about compatibility.
- 8:44Mark Davis: It's not just about finding someone that you can get along with.
- 8:47Mark Davis: Rather, it's a holy covenant before a holy God, and you need to enter it with prayer, wisdom and counsel.
- 8:54Mark Davis: You need to see God's face about this individual that you're planning on spending the rest of your life with.
- 9:00Mark Davis: And then, for those that are listening today, that are divorced, can I just remind you don't let shame be the final word.
- 9:09Mark Davis: Rather, take your story to Jesus, because from it he can bring healing, and he still wants to write a story filled with grace.
- 9:17Mark Davis: So this isn't the end.
- 9:20Mark Davis: And then, for all of us today, whether we're single, married, divorced or even remarried, jesus is inviting us to value faithfulness like he does, to live our lives marked by his covenant of love, because that's how he loved us and he wants us to show that same love to others.
- 9:41Mark Davis: So remember, as we wrap this up today, that Jesus never uses truth to crush us, but rather to free us, because he comes to free us from our cultural lies about relationships, to free us from a shallow love and to free us so that we might reflect God's covenant heart.
- 9:59Mark Davis: Hey, can I just say thanks for joining me today on Gospel Explorations, and if this episode blessed or challenged you, I would be really appreciative if you would take a moment to share it with someone who might need to hear it.
- 10:12Mark Davis: And remember this God's heart for you is full of truth.
- 10:17Mark Davis: It's full of grace and always calling you deeper.
- 10:20Mark Davis: Until next time, keep exploring the gospel.
- 10:24Mark Davis: Thanks for listening.
- 10:28Mark Davis: I hope that you've been both encouraged and challenged today.
- 10:31Mark Davis: If you want to connect with us further, please be sure to check us out on the web at gospelexplorationscom.
- 10:37Mark Davis: We look forward to having you join us again next time.