Matthew 5.31-32 'Attitude in Marriage...'

R&R Devotional Bible Study
040 - Matthew 5.31-32
'Attitude in Marriage...'

'31-Now it was said, 'Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce'; 32-but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.'

First off, let us determine if we are looking at whether or not The Lord Christ Jesus is affirming divorce here or not...

Remember, the context of what we have been being told thus far in the sermon on the mount:
-It starts out with the fact that we are told the attitude and the demeanor of those who are truly in the kingdom...
-Then we are told that we are to be light and salt in the world...
-Then we are warned of the issue of our heart, and in that shown how we are to act amonst one another [which is the section we find ourselves in]...

Here in our current section, we have been considering:
-Harboring ill will/contempt toward someone is murder in the heart...
-Lusting after a woman is adultery In the heart...

Pleasure is not a primary focus for anything at all...

Thus, it seems that we are not necessarily looking at Christ affirming divorce here, or not...
-That would be more in Matthew 19.8-9...
-We might still glean a couple things here, though...

Matthew 19.8-9 tells us:
'8-He said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9-And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.'

Which ties back into how we are to treat everyone in purity in Christ...
***
So, if this particular passage is not a passage for divorce, what are we being told then?

In remembering that we are not to harbor ill will/contempt toward our fellow man, well even in the most intimate and closest of inner-personal relationships we must not harbor contempt there either...
-We are to treat even the closest person in our lives in purity just as the rest of mankind...

Once again, as we are told in 1 Timothy 5.1-2 :
'1-Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather plead with him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 2-the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.'

Purity in any and all relationships is what we are looking at...
-Which ties into the beatitudes, the very beginning of the sermon on the mount...

If we look at a woman with lust, we have already committed adultery with her in our heart...
-If we act this out, then we actually commit adultery in the physical...

This actually ties into the deeds of the flesh, as well as what we are told in 2 Timothy 3.1-7:
'1-But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come.2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good,4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,5 holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Keep away from such men as these.6 For among them are those who enter into households and take captive weak women weighed down with sins, being led on by various desires,7 always learning and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.'

In focusing on ourselves, and taking pleasure from what others can do for us, and taking from them in order to satisfy our own lusts and desires, we are no longer functioning in a give-give relationship, we are then taking from others...

It starts with lusting after someone whom we have no right to, to then, if we get into the deeper relationship of marriage, not having a proper attitude, which then leads to us wanting to divorce from them cause they do not satisfy our lusts and desires and pleasure anymore...

We are also seeing that there are consequences for actions taken...
-If a man divorces, and the ex-wife remarries, she is an adulteress...
-It would stand to reason that the man, at the very least, is committing sexual immorality...

What we can glean from this, to just touch on it:
-If the woman has committed adultery [or sexual immorality of some sort], she is an adulteress and divorce...

This is relationships tainted by sin...

***Deuteronomy 24.1-4:
'1-If a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, 2-and she goes out of his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, 3-and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, 4-then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before Yahweh, and you shall not bring sin on the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.'

2026 Research & Reference Devotional © All Rights Reserved