Matthew 5:13-48 Questions and Answers, Jesus expains His relationship to the Law

Day 1

1. Read Matthew 5:13. people who are living the lifestyle mentioned in the beatitudes will be _________. Why do you think this is mentioned right after being told that we will suffer persecution?

• Christ does not want us to let persecution forfeit our saltiness and thereby alter our function in the world.

2. What is the value of salt?

• The Greeks considered salt divine. Romans were paid with salt.
• In Arab countries salt was a sign of friendship and there were salt covenants to bind friendships.
• God prescribed salt as a necessary part of the sacrifices. Leviticus 2:13
• Salt is a symbol of purification in Japan

3. What useful qualities does salt have?

• In order for salt to be effective, it mingles with the substance it's affecting, and yet salt is distinct from that substance.
• Salt adds flavor, retards decay, preserves meat, creates thirst, has antiseptic power, and was used as an insulator under tiles of an outdoor oven. Could also be used as a weed inhibitor.

4. What happens when salt loses those qualities?

• It is good for nothing and is thrown out to be trampled on. But that is useful too, for it keeps the dust down on the road.

5. Read Matthew 5:14 - 16. What are useful characteristics of light?

• Light is to dispel darkness. It must shine upon the darkness, yet be distinct from the darkness.
• Can be seen - not hidden
• Guides people in the dark
• Darkness is the absence of light. Darkness cannot destroy light but light can destroy/remove darkness.

6. What are people supposed to see in our life?

• Our good deeds, which should be attractive but not draw attention to ourselves but to God

7. What should happen when they see our good works?

• Glorify our Father in Heaven

8. How can we be salt and light? What will happen when we are salt and light?

• When it says 'you' are the salt and 'you' are the light, it is plural, talking about the collective body of believers. You don't put one grain of salt on anything. Salt only functions in combination with other grains of salt, and the church, to influence the world, must be collective salt. The same is true of the light. It is many lights that light a city, and many grains of salt that affect a substance.
• Our presence in the world is to hold back crime and retard corruption, change certain kinds of conversation and affect our kids. We've got to be in the world, rubbed into the society, like salt dissolves into the meat, and yet different and separate because we do not live the way the world lives and are not of the world.
• We influence the world by bringing the light of God's truth to the darkness. Cities put up street lights to deter crime and guide people in the night.
• Salt is unlike the medium in which it is placed. Light is unlike darkness. We are to have influence in the world without being part of it. We are sent to it but are not to love it. However, often the church is influenced by the world rather than the church influencing the world.
• As Christians we are salt - The only question is whether we're salty. We are light - the only question is whether our light is hidden or not.
• Salt is hidden; it just melts away into whatever it flavors or preserves. It works secretly to preserve from the inside, but light shines on the outside, and light is open and working visibly. In other words, salt is the influence of Christian character; it is quiet but powerful. Light is the communication of the content of the Gospel. On one hand, from the inside, we affect society's thinking and living by the power of our lives. On the other hand, we turn on the light so that everyone can see the message we want to give.
• We are not to be just a subtle influence like salt, but we are to be a very open and visible influence like light. Salt only holds back the corruption; we have to turn on the light of the Gospel to transform that corruption into pure living.
• We are salt and light, but if sin enters our lives, and we don't walk in the Spirit, then we will stop being effective as salt and we will be useless as light.
• There is one single reason why you should be salt that is salty and light that is shining, and it is this: that God might be glorified.

9. Are you the kind of salt that retards corruption and the kind of light that dispels the spiritual darkness around you and reveals the truth and life of Jesus? Do you ever cover your light, or do you let it shine so that God can be glorified?

Day 2

10. Read Matthew 5:17-18. What was the purpose for Jesus coming to earth?

• He came to fulfill (obey and complete) the Law and the Prophets - (the Old Testament or Scriptures).
• Jesus didn't add new laws. He just clarified God's original meaning. Jesus summed up the whole law and reduced it to one thing, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."
• When God gave His Word in the original manuscripts, even the smallest letter, and the least stroke of a pen, was inspired by God. Heaven and Earth won't pass away until every single element in the Law & Prophets is accomplished/comes to pass. Therefore, it is still relevant even in this age, except for the sacrificial law because Christ became the sacrificial offering to take away our sins.
• Instead of Christ being opposed to the law of God, He came to earth to magnify it, to present it as honorable, and rather than His teachings undermining the law, they confirmed and enforced it.

11. Read Matthew 5:19. What did Jesus say we should do about the law?

• Practice and teach God's commands - important for parents or teachers to teach our children these standards.
• Honor it and get it up there where it belongs. God says, "I have exalted My Word above My Name." Psalm 119:103 says, "How sweet are Thy words." Do you have an attitude of love and honor toward the Bible? Do you lovingly submit to the sweetness of its words?
• Study the Word of God. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Be diligent to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." Jeremiah says, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them." Take it in and make it your own, allowing, "The word of Christ to dwell in you richly." Colossians 3:16
• Defend it. Jude 3 says, "Earnestly contend for the faith, once for all delivered to the saints." That means fighting for the integrity of the Word of God and its purity and authority against the onslaughts of those who would undermine it.

12. What is the Christian's relation to the law of God?

• We've been saved by faith; the Bible talks about being free from the law, but what does it mean when it says we are still obligated to obey? What is the believer's relationship to the law? Are we free from it or are we not free from it? Matthew 5:19 gives the answer. "Anyone who sets aside (release yourself from an obligation to obey) one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. " Another way of saying that would be: anyone who dulls the sharp edge of God's law, of God's holy Word, and teaches others a watered-down sense of obedience, or a watered-down set of principles, will be called least in the Kingdom. But whoever takes it at face-value and obeys it will be the greatest.
• How we deal with God's law will directly affect us. There are two categories; those who break even the least command and teach others to do it will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. (not kicked out) Those who keep the commandments and teach them will be called the greatest, or great, in the Kingdom of Heaven. So what you do with the law, will affect whether you are the least or the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

• It appears so. However, Jesus is saying, "If you take one of the very least of these, one of the very minor ones, and openly set it aside and loose yourself from the obligation to that law, you will be called the least in the Kingdom." Jesus upheld every single part of God's law in its proper place.

Are there degrees of commandments?

• It appears so. However, Jesus is saying, "If you take one of the very least of these, one of the very minor ones, and openly set it aside and loose yourself from the obligation to that law, you will be called the least in the Kingdom." Jesus upheld every single part of God's law in its proper place.

13. Read Matthew 5:20. Why did God give us all of these standards and laws? What is the purpose?

• The purpose of God's law was to show us that we had to have more righteousness than we could come up with on our own. Galatians 3:24 says: "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The law was the perfect standard which would show us our sin, that we couldn't do it on our own, that even the best - the scribes and the Pharisees, with all of their religiosity - could not gain the righteousness required to enter the Kingdom. In other words, the law was given with the purpose of frustrating us, showing us our inadequacy. The law wasn't to tell us how good we are, but to show us how rotten we are.
• We can never be good enough or obey the law well enough to make it to heaven on our own merit. We need God's grace and forgiveness.

14. Did the pharisees and scribes (teachers of the law) understand the purpose of the law? (Luke 18:9-14)

• The man in the corner in Luke 18, beating on his breast and saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," went home justified, because he responded to what God's law intended to show him: that he was a sinner. Whereas, the other man, who was so self-righteous, did not see at all the meaning of God's law, for he never responded to it in the way that God had intended.
• God wanted people to be poor in spirit, but the Pharisees were proud, boastful, arrogant, feeling that they had arrived spiritually. They weren't mourning but blowing the horn of their own self-sufficiency and announcing to God their greatness. They weren't meek or hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness. They were not in the habit of showing mercy to anyone, they were merciless. They were not pure in heart, they were white on the outside and filthy, vile, and wretched on the inside. They didn't make peace, they took away peace. They set themselves up above everyone else and created division among the people. In verses 13-16, they were neither the salt of the earth nor the light of the world. Pharisaical legalism said, "A man gets to Heaven, to the Kingdom, on the basis of his own goodness." Jesus says, "No! It is on the recognition of your own wretchedness. The law is not established to show you how good you are; it is established to prove to you how bad you are because of your inability to keep it."
• The law is not an end in itself. It had a purpose - to glorify God. It's not a question of asking yourself, "Have I kept all the laws today?" but rather one of, "Have I glorified God in my spirit today? Have I been free from phoniness? Have I had a pure heart that had no thought of evil, anger, hatred, bitterness, lust, or unrighteousness...to the glory of God?"

15. Who were the scribes (teachers of the law) and pharisees? If we have to have a righteousness that exceeds them, we ought to know who they were. We studied about them a little in Matthew 3.

• were those who dealt with the letter of the law, the interpretation of the law, the recording of the law.
• They copied the law, studied the law, were authorities on the law, scholars of the law.
• They struggled with the fine points of the law.
• The term 'scribe' refers to an office; they were official scribes.
• They literally gave their entire lives to copying and studying the Old Testament and amazingly enough, they came up with the wrong conclusions. Pharisees
• was not an office, it was a religious group.
• 'Pharisee' comes from a root word which means 'to separate.' They separated themselves from all unclean things - Gentiles, dead people and unclean animals lest they become defiled so they could not participate in worship. So the Pharisees kind of lifted themselves out of Jewish society as a super-elite group who believed they alone knew what it was to really walk with God.
• They convinced themselves that they were the real spiritual hot-shots.
  The Pharisees took the Word of God and developed a rigid, ceremonial, ritualistic system, not so much based on the law of Moses as it was on tradition. The problem was, they really couldn't keep the law of Moses.

16. What was the nature of the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees? If we're going to find out what true righteousness is and it has to be more than theirs, what was their qualifications for righteous?

• Their righteousness was external. They didn't get involved in adultery, theft, murder, idolatry, but they had a lot of impure and rotten thoughts, and they coveted, and they hated, and they were cold in their hearts toward God. The inside was all fouled up, but the outside looked good. They were hypocrites, in that they were more concerned about outward appearance and not concerned about having a pure heart. Matthew 23:25.
• Their righteousness was partial. Matthew 23:23 says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." The Pharisees were really big on the little things, the external things, and ignored justice, mercy and faith. Keeping the traditions was more important than following God's standard. In Mark 7:7, Jesus said, "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, such as the washing of pots and cups, and many other things that you do. You full well reject the commandment of God that you might keep your own tradition." What they really had done was, they abandoned the law of God that they couldn't live up to, invented their own, and then convinced themselves that they were spiritual.
• Their righteousness was redefined. They made up their own rules, and what they wound up doing was redefining everything. They knew what God said, but they gave it a new meaning. They redefined it in terms of their own comprehension, taking an internal thing and making it external. They redefined it and made it a system they could maintain. They knew they couldn't be that if they took the Bible at its face value, so they redefined it to accommodate their own unholiness, lowering the standard.
• Their righteousness was self-centered. They gained their own righteousness on their own. They figured they didn't need God to make them righteous because they were righteous already.

Day 3

17. Have you ever, or do you find yourself living a superficial religious life, going through the motions but it's not for real inside?

• It is very easy to get wrapped up in a superficial kind of religion. It is easy to go through the motions of prayer, reading the Bible, attending church, going to a Bible study, but there's nothing happening on the inside. Life can be superficial.
• The people Jesus was talking to had it all on the outside, but not on the inside, and that's why when they said to Him, "What is the greatest commandment?" He didn't give them some external thing, He said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. This is the first and greatest commandment." In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul said, "If you just keep that one commandment, you'll be able to keep all of them, because it's internal."

18. What is the nature of the righteousness that Christ requires?

• He requires absolute holiness, absolute perfection, internal and external righteousness.

19. How is the righteousness that Christ requires obtained? Where do you get that kind of righteousness?

• I can't obtain that righteous on my own.
• By faith. Galatians 2:16, "A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified." We are justified and made righteous by faith in Christ.
• When God looks at us, He sees us as righteous as Him, as holy as Him, as perfect as Him…. Because when we put our faith in Him, Christ assigned to me His own righteousness, and I stand as pure as Christ, as undefiled as Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin."
• By believing God. Romans 4:3 says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Even though Abraham committed a lot of sin, because he believed God, he was counted as righteous."
• We have to be as good as God, and how do we get to be as good as God? Only by one way: God giving us His goodness. When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Bible says the righteousness of Christ is applied to us.
• The Pharisees righteousness was external and based on the traditions of men. Christ said his righteousness was internal, based on the eternal law of God. The only way to have a true righteousness is to go beyond the phony externalism of the scribes and Pharisees to an inward righteousness that is only created in a person by the power and authority of the Word of God. So the Word of God is the basis for a righteous standard, and God never changed it. When Jesus came, He didn't cancel or put down the Old Testament, He just restated its absolute, binding character.

20. What happens to people who do not obtain the righteousness that God requires, who don't ever take God's righteous gift, but who religiously work hard to get into God's Kingdom?

• Matthew 5:20 - you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It doesn't matter how religious you are, how good you are, you will be excluded from God's Kingdom.
• Jesus is saying, "Here is the standard of righteousness. You reach the standard by faith in Me, and you'll enter My Kingdom. If you try to achieve righteousness on your own, and be very religious, you'll never get there." Negotiating won't work; you need to enter on God's terms.

21. When Jesus said 6 times in Matthew 5, "You have heard", who do you think the speaker was that they had heard these statements from?

• Rabbis who taught in the schools and in their places of worship (synagogues).

22. How was Jesus' teaching different from those they had heard from previously?

• Jesus was saying, "Your standard is too low. You only worry about murder, while God looks at the heart and says if there's hate there, it's the same thing. You only worry about fornication/adultery, while God says that if there's lust in the heart, it's the same thing. God's standard is an attitudinal standard--yours is only dealing with action. That's the difference."
• Jesus is saying that God has standards, such as those regarding murder and adultery that affect the very foundation of a society-- from the individual, to the family, to social relationships, to the wider world of our enemies, we should be characteristically righteous on the inside--a righteousness that affects not only behavioral standards in terms of what we do, but also in terms of what we think.
• The new standard Christ presents kills all pride, and forces us to Jesus Christ who alone can enable us to rise to that standard which he himself has set before us.

23. Read Matthew 5:21-22. What is the difference between what man sees as murder and what God sees as murder? What is the relationship between anger and murder?

• It wasn't enough for one not to murder; God was concerned about what was going on inside. Jesus was saying that you cannot justify yourself because you don't kill, because if there's hatred in your heart, you are the same as a murderer. Jesus taught that anger is the root of murder and consequently merits equal punishment. What goes on inside of you is what God judges.
• From God's perspective, there is no difference between your anger and the man who goes out and commits the crime.
• Do we think that because we don't commit these kind of external crimes, we are righteous before God? Jesus says that if you have ever been angry or hated someone, then you are a murderer.

24. What are the consequences of murder according to the Bible?

• Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind." God instituted capital punishment as a penalty for murder, because to take the life of a human being is to assault the image of God He created in man.
• You will be subject to God's judgment and therefore excluded from Heaven - Revelation 22:14-15

Day 4

25. What kind of anger is Jesus talking about in Matthew 5:22? What is the consequence?

• The anger Jesus is talking about here in verse 22 is selfish anger. It is a brooding, nursed anger that is not allowed to die--it's a smoldering, long-lived kind of anger. When you bitterly hold a grudge against somebody, no matter how small, Jesus says that you are as guilty as the person who takes a life, and consequently, you deserve the same judgment. This forces us to evaluate our attitudes.
• A civil court wouldn't give the death penalty to somebody for getting angry but since God is the One sitting on the throne and calling the verdicts, then we had better accept the fact that the one who is angry and refusing to forgive is as guilty as the one who kills.
• Then Jesus goes on to speak of 2 cases where anger turns into insulting speech. Anger in a person's heart and anger in a person's speech are equally forbidden.

26. What kind of sin is Jesus talking about when he used the word "Raca", and what is the consequence? (v. 22b)

• "... anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'Raca,' is answerable to the court." This kind of a person is condemned as a murderer, who needs to go before the court and get the same death penalty.
• "Raca" was a verbal expression of slander against a person. So Jesus says that contempt is murder committed in the heart, for which the death penalty is equally deserved.

27. What sin is Jesus talking about when a person calls someone a "fool" in Matthew 5:22c? What is the consequence?

• The sin of cursing (v. 22c) This was not to criticize a person's mental ability but to destroy his name and reputation, branding him as a loose-living and immoral person.
• Jesus says that even if you are angry and go so far as to speak malicious words and unjustified curses against others, then you are as guilty and as liable of eternal hell as a murderer is.
• "...but whosoever shall say, Thou fool [Gk. moros], shall be in danger of hell fire." (a fool says in his heart that there is no God. Psalms 53:1) NIV says hell fire but the word is Gehenna which became identified in people's minds with all that was accursed and filthy, the place where useless and evil things were destroyed. That is why it became synonymous for the place of God's destroying power, hell.

28. Read Matthew 5:23, 24. What does God want us to do before we give gifts to Him? What kinds of gifts could we be bringing to God?

• If we remember that someone has something against us, we need to go and be reconciled to them first before offering our gift to Jesus. This has to do with us having caused someone to be upset or angry with us.
• Jesus says that reconciliation comes before worship. He is not interested in our worship until the conflict is resolved. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
• God wants our obedience - I Samuel 15:22-23 "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice…
• When we know somebody's angry with us we need to try to reconcile with them, and do our best to make things right, asking their forgiveness. But if they don't forgive us, there's nothing more we can do and we are free to worship God. Romans 12:18
• The Jews understood that we cannot be right with God until we are right with men. We cannot hope for forgiveness until we have confessed our sin, not only to God but also to men. Could it be that we sometimes have a barrier between us and God and our prayers aren't answered because we have wronged someone and have done nothing to put things right?

29. Read Matthew 5:25, 26. If we have a conflict with someone or owe someone money, what should our approach be?

• Immediately resolve the problem before we continue our worship. Don't just wait until the "right time" for reconciliation to come, because tomorrow may be too late...you may be thrown into prison, where you will never be able to pay that debt back.
• Here Jesus focuses on the guilty party as the one who is worshiping. He is saying, "Settle your case out of court. Don't let this thing continue to the point where reconciliation is impossible.
• In Jewish law, when a man was in debt, he was handed over to the court officer, who would then try to get from the individual the payment to give to the creditor. If he couldn't collect it, the officer would take the man who owed the money and throw him in prison until he paid it back. The point is if you were in prison, you couldn't ever pay it back. Consequently, it was important to reconcile before a severe judgment was determined which would render one unable to reconcile at all.
• The main point is simply that we can't worship God unless our relationships with others are right, so hurry and make them right--don't let them go to the place where there will be a civil judgment made and somebody loses in the end. Don't let it go too far. Don't let it go to the place where God, in judgment, moves in. Act before then.
• In the final analysis, Jesus is saying that God is the real judge and hell is the real punishment. And if you don't make things right, you may find yourself in an eternal hell with a debt that could never be paid.
• Jesus is saying that if you want happiness now and in eternity, never leave an unreconciled quarrel or an unhealed breach between yourself and another person. Act immediately to remove the barriers which anger has raised.

30. Have you ever come to church to worship while you had bitterness in your heart? Is your worship ever hypocritical because you are holding grudges or someone has something against you? If yes, what needs to be done?

• If you have ever come to worship God and had something against your brother, you are in danger of judgment for such hypocrisy. You are obligated to postpone your worship and to immediately seek reconciliation. If you have grudges that you've never settled, you worship in hypocrisy. I John 4:20
• Jesus wants us to realize that we cannot be righteous on our own, which should bring us to our knees for the righteousness that only He can give to us as a gift.

31. Read Matthew 5:27-30. How was Jesus' standard on moral purity higher than that of the pharisees?

• The Pharisees were only concerned about the outward act; God was interested in what was in the heart before the act.

32. At what point is adultery committed?

• When a person looks lustfully at a woman, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

33. How can we keep pure?

• By hiding God's Word in our heart Psalms 119:9-11
• Focusing our attention on God and not people.

Day 5

34. It has been said that women do not have difficulty with immoral thoughts? Is that true? How can we keep our thoughts under control?

• Focus in on Jesus, be in love with Jesus
• If married, thank God for the husband you have and pray for him.
• Fill life so full with Christian service and think so much of others that we don't have time to think about forbidden thoughts
• Fill our minds with good thoughts instead. Philippians 4:8
• If a wrong thought crosses our mind, we need to get rid of it as soon as possible. Dwelling on that wrong thought is sin

35. How important is it to control our thoughts and actions? Vs. 29

• It is our thoughts that God judges. We become an adulterer in our thoughts, even before we do the action of adultery. God is always examining the sin of the heart, which breaks the relationship between Him and man. So Jesus is concerned about what's on the inside.
• You need to take adultery so seriously that you're willing to do anything to stay pure.
• An adulterer cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven - will be thrown into hell.
• Anyone who looks..." - conveys the idea of a continuing process of purposeful, lustful looking. It isn't the inadvertent, accidental glance that Jesus is talking about. The man who is condemned is the one who looks in such a way that passion is awakened and desire deliberately stimulated.
• "has already" - Jesus doesn't say that the one who lusts after a woman commits adultery at that point. Rather, He says that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart, because it is the vile, adulterous heart that results in the uncontrolled look. The sin has already happened in the heart...the adultery is conceived and thus the look is prompted.
• "to lust" - A strong desire. The heart is filled with adultery wanting to find an object to attach the fantasy to. Jesus is saying that the heart is the problem, because when a man purposefully looks on a woman to lust after her, he gives evidence of having a vile, lusting, and adulterous attitude. Therefore, it is the heart that has to be transformed because the heart is the root of sin.

36. Does Jesus mean literally we are to cut off our hand or pluck out our eyes if they cause us to sin?

• Anything which helps to seduce us to sin is to be ruthlessly rooted out of life. Eg. What you see, places you go, etc. that would cause one to sin.
• Not to be taken literally but it is so important that Jesus even says that there is nothing too precious to eliminate from your life if it is going to cause your heart to indulge in its adulterous desires. If it means getting rid of your most precious possession, then get rid of it, even if it's your right eye or your right hand.
• "If your right eye catches you in the trap where your adulterous lust is fulfilled, then pluck it out. If your right hand causes you to be trapped, then cut it off. Whatever it is in your life that causes these vile, evil thoughts, get rid of it."
• The Jewish people had 2 sayings: The eyes and the hand are the 2 brokers of sin. Eye and heart are the 2 handmaids of sin. Sounds like this is what Jesus is talking about.

37. Read Matthew 5:31, 32. What was Jesus standard for marriage?

• Jesus was speaking at a time when the women in the eyes of the law was a thing and had no legal rights, the national morals were very lax and divorce simple. Bill of divorcements would say something like this: "Let this be from me thy write of divorce and letter of dismissal and deed of liberation, that thou mayest marry whosoever man thou wilt." All that had to be done was hand that document to the woman in the presence of 2 witnesses and she was divorced. A woman may be divorced with or without her will; but a man only with his will. The woman could never initiate the process of divorce; she could not divorce, she had to be divorced. A man might be pressured to divorce his wife if he refused to consummate the marriage, of impotence or inable to support her properly. A wife could force her husband to divorce her if he contracted a loathsome disease like leprosy or if he proposed to make her leave the Holy Land. The one safeguard was that unless the woman was a notorious sinner, her dowry must be returned.
• For the Greeks the women were expected to pure but the men demanded for themselves utmost immoral licence. He could dismiss his wife in the presence of 2 witnesses but had to return her dowry intact.
• Christ's teaching on purity and loyalty in marriage would have been quite unique at this time.
• For the Romans marriage became nothing more than an unfortunate necessity. They would jest that marriage only brings 2 happy days - the day when the husband first clasps his wife to his breast and the day when he lays her in the tomb.

God's ideal

• Genesis 2:24Marriage is an institution of God bringing a man and a woman together spiritually and physically. They become one (physical oneness and spiritual oneness). It is the commitment of two wills, it is the blending of two minds, it is the mutual expression of two sets of God given emotions, so that the two become one, and the goal is a perfect oneness, both in the intimacy of the physical and the intimacy of the spiritual and the sharing of those things in life that cannot be shared and are not shared with any other human being. The ideal of the marriage relationship is that 2 people find the completing of their personalities. Marriage should not narrow life but complete it. Marriage is more practically a sharing of all the circumstances of life. The basis of marriage is togetherness, and the basis of togetherness is considerateness. If a marriage is to succeed, the partners must always be thinking more of each other than of themselves. Selfishness kills any personal relationship.
• Ephesians 5:25-33Marriage is a symbol of the relation between Christ and His Church. Marriage is not an end in itself, nor was it designed primarily for our happiness. God is the key to human happiness. Marriage was designed primarily to be an illustration on a human level of a divine relationship. If a person has ever thought of divorce they've missed the whole point of marriage.
• Revelation 19 and in Revelation 21, the church is seen as a bride and the city where the church dwells is seen as a bride city, and joined together with the bridegroom, Jesus Christ pointing up to the fact that marriage is a symbol. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honorable in all" because its greatest honor is that it proclaims to the world that symbol of the union between Christ and His own Church. As Christ's relationship to His Church is permanent, full of love, absolutely binding and wonderfully unique so is to be our marriage.
• Marriage is permanent. "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate (divorce)." Matthew 19:6
• Adultery is so serious that not only is it forbidden to engage in it, it's forbidden to even think about it, because God has such a high view that marriage is monogamous, life long, permanent, relationship between one man and one woman.

38. What does the Bible say about divorce?

• In this passage Jesus is defining "indecent" from Deuteronomy 24:1 which is fornication and adultery only.
• Matthew 5:32 "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• Matthew 19:8-9 "He said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." This is never God's intention. And I tell you this, whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery-unless his wife has been unfaithful."
• Mark 10:11-12"Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
• Luke 16:18 - "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• 1 Corinthians 7:10-15 - To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
• Divorce is never God's way to resolve a conflict. That's why God never commands divorce and God never really condones divorce in the Bible. God knows it'll happen, and God tries to regulate its consequences, but He never commands it because it's never the solution. Eg. Hosea was to marry a woman by the name of Gomer, and having married her, discover that she had become a prostitute or a harlot. And in spite of that he was to be faithful to his vow, no matter what the pain, the unfaithfulness, the excruciating agony, or the price he was to be faithful to his harlot, prostitute, debauched, vile wife, no matter what she did. Why? Because this was to demonstrate how faithful God would be to His wayward wife, Israel. And it sets for us the standard of relationship in a marriage as it is the image for God's relationship to His people.
• God hates divorce. Malachi 2:16 Because divorce breaks a covenant, and then it breaks the marvelous illustration of marriage between Christ the bridegroom and the church, His bride.
• Malachi 2:15-16 could mean Malachi is referring to the spirituality of the person, and saying a person who has the Spirit wouldn't get a divorce. In option two, Malachi is simply saying that since God made you one in flesh and in spirit to produce a godly seed this is how He expects you to remain.
• Divorce is destructive, never a righteous act under any circumstance. It hurts everybody involved; it does irreparable damage to everybody. But most of all it goes against God, who never ever planned that as a part of human life.
• In Matthew 5:32 Jesus is trying to stop people from adding adultery to the already sinful act of divorce. But the point is, adultery/fornication was the only just grounds for a writing of divorcement.
• In Matthew 1 we have an example of Joseph, a righteous man, planning to quietly divorce Mary because it appeared that she had been unfaithful. So technically speaking a person could divorce, but God always hates divorce because divorce is never the best solution to anything - To love and forgive and take back the guilty party.
• The Old Testament recognized that divorce would occur but it tolerated it only as an alternative to execution. And, by the way, a better option than divorce would be to forgive and redeem the guilty partner as Hosea indicates.
• Jesus uses the word fornication, because a divorce is technically allowable when your spouse has any kind of unlawful sexual relationship with a man, a woman, a child or an animal.
• So Jesus sets the record straight. God still hates divorce. His ideal is still a monogamous, life-long marriage.

What was the purpose of a certificate of divorce that Moses writes about in Deuteronomy 24?

• It was a testimonial to the woman of her freedom from the marital obligation to the husband who divorced her. The certificate of divorce was a statement that the woman was set free by the man so that she wouldn't be accused of being a harlot, or of having forsaken her home, or run off from her husband. It was a protection of the woman's reputation.
• In Deuteronomy 24 a man takes a wife and decides to get rid of her. He writes her a bill of divorcement, puts her out of the house, and she goes and marries somebody else. The latter husband hates her, gives her a certificate of divorce, and sends her out of his house, or else if he dies, she cannot come back and marry her first husband. Why? Because she's been defiled, by consummating a new union when she had no grounds to get out of the first one. And you can't marry someone who's defiled.
• The writing of divorcement was evidence for a new husband of her legal freedom to remarry.
• As far as God was concerned such a writing of divorcement was only legitimate in one case, and that was a case of adultery/fornication. But that is not to say that it was necessary. When Hosea had an adulterous wife, he didn't divorce her. When God had an adulterous nation, He didn't divorce them? When Christ has an adulterous believer in His Church, does He divorce them? No. Nor is it required that that be done in this case, but where there is adultery Jesus recognizes and God recognizes divorce will happen. It's never God's solution, because if both people would get right with God the marriage would be right too.

39. What is adultery? What is the difference between fornication and adultery? Why is it such a serious thing?

• Committing adultery (sexual involvement outside of marriage with a married person) or fornication (voluntary sexual involvement between 2 people not married to each other. E-sword definition is any kind of unlawful sexual activity) was so serious to God that the consequence was death (Leviticus 20)
• Adultery is so serious that not only is it forbidden to engage in it, it's forbidden to even think about it, because God has such a high view that marriage is monogamous, life long, permanent, relationship between one man and one woman.
• The Pharisees were saying, -We don't commit adultery. Jesus says, you are committing adultery in your heart and you're proliferating adultery by divorcing your wives indiscriminately. Every time a divorce occurs you force her into adultery which makes you guilty of adultery, whoever marries her is guilty of adultery, whoever marries you is guilty of adultery, you've got adultery all over the place. Divorce, then, leads everybody into sin.
• In KJV it uses the word fornication, NIV says sexually immoral, and NLT says unfaithful - fornication is every kind of unlawful sexual sins that should technically result in death, harlotry (including adultery and incest).
• 1 Corinthians 7:11 - If something happens in a marriage and you leave when there's no adultery or fornication - you have two options, you can stay single the rest of your life or you can be reunited with your husband. (Even if you were married before you became a Christian) If you do remarry, you are committing adultery. The best thing a Christian spouse can do for an unsaved spouse and the best thing you can do for the children that are going to come through that marriage is to stay there and be Gods representative in the family.
• The believer is not to divorce at all Paul says. But if a believer is divorced and he/she is a victim of adultery or a divorce by somebody that doesn't want anything to do with Christ then and only then is he or she free and not bound in such circumstances. (I Corinthians 7:15)
• An act of remarriage is an act of adultery but the act can be forgiven. God recognizes the second marriage and if the adulterous individuals repent God forgives. If they don't repent they will not enter God's Kingdom.
• Divorce leads to adultery unless the divorce was as a result of fornication. " God will judge fornicators (all the sexually immoral) and adulterers " (Heb. 13:4b).
• The New Testament condemns adultery 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 2 Peter 2:14,Revelation 2:21-23
• Revelation 22:15 says that fornicators and adulterers won't even enter into God's Kingdom.

40. What is your standard for marriage (your marriage if you are married)? If someone is talking about wanting to get a divorce how would you counsel them?

• If there isn't marital unfaithfulness, work on your relationship and reconciliation.
• If there is, God's ideal would be how he treats us when we are unfaithful or Hosea to Gomer
• If there is danger and leaving is necessary, you don't need to get remarried and definitely do not get remarried unless it is for marital unfaithfulness, otherwise you add to the sin of divorce, which God hates, by committing adultery too. Who know, God may work in the spouse's heart and reconciliation may happen.
• If an unbelieving spouse wants to divorce you because you are a Christian, let him leave (but the Christian should not be the one doing the divorcing)

Day 6

41. Read Matthew 5:33 - 37. What is an oath? Is it ok to take an oath? What should the standard be for our promises and our word?

• An oath is simply making a statement and calling God to witness to the truth of that statement, and invoking a curse from God if, in fact, you're not telling the truth. People think that by invoking God others will believe their statement is stronger or more honest.
• Example of oaths - when you go to court and when you get married. Secret societies - Mormanism, Masons
• Jesus says, "Do not swear at all by heaven, or earth, etc," which really means, don't include God to make your words appear more honest especially if you are trying to cover up a deceit.
• God wants us to tell the truth - He says He hates lies.
• When we make a promise we need to regard all promises as sacred, because they are made in the presence of God. We should live such a godly life that no oath is required of us to guarantee its truth or fulfillment. If an oath is required from someone, it shows there is evil in that person and the evil one is the source.
• In our normal speech and in our routine conversation, we should just use a simple "Yes" or "No" If it's any more than that, you show the evil source of your heart.
• This shows that we need to be very careful with our words.

42. Read Matthew 5: 38 - 42. How are we to treat those that mistreat us, insult us, who are demanding of us, who trample on our rights or who ask for something that belongs to us?

• The law was never to be taken into the hands of an individual. God knew that would be utter chaos. So the intent of the Mosaic law was to control sin, in this case, the sin of anger, violence, and revenge in civil or law courts.
• Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is a just law. The punishment must fit the crime; no less, and no more. It is a merciful law. It was a restraint on the vengeance that is in an evil heart. An eye for an eye meant that when justice functions, let it never go beyond its bounds. It's a beneficial law - it protects the weak from the strong, and the peaceful from the violent.
• We must keep a distinction between the law court and the area of human relationships. In the law court, justice operates on an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth basis. In human relationships, love and forgiveness operate. In one, you're dealing with crime, and in the other, you're dealing with a human relationship. Those are kept distinct.
• We are not to resist an evil person - The one who wrongs you is not to be resisted or opposed. Don't fight someone who violates your rights. Where is the place of wrath and vengeance? "It is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." You just take it and give it to the Lord; don't be vengeful. Give it to Him. So what do you do with your enemy? If he's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. Turn back hate with love that brings shame. Overcome evil with good.

Jesus picks out four basic human rights: dignity, security, liberty, and property that can be trampled on and shows us how to deal with each.

1. Turn the other cheek (dignity)- The Jews said that the most demeaning, contemptuous act was to slap someone in the face. To have a fight was to treat someone as an equal, but to just slap them was demeaning. Jesus is saying, when you are demeaned, dishonored, treated in a way that is less than you deserve and your dignity is tread upon, don't retaliate. Be slapped again before you would ever think to retaliate. Take as much as they want to give, but don't retaliate.
2. Give someone who is suing you more than they demanded from you (security)- "If someone has come to court and you have to give him your shirt, don't begrudge him. Don't be angry, bitter, retaliatory. Show him you're really sorry that it ever happened, and be willing to give all you have left to keep you warm, (your last little bit of security)." That will shock him; that will show him the love of Christ. That will show him what verse 44 means, to love your enemies and bless those that curse you and do good to them that hate you and pray for them that spitefully use you. A Christian will never stand upon his legal rights or on any other rights he may believe himself to possess.
3. If someone forces you to do something, do more for them (liberty) - that's the spirit of our Father in Heaven. If God only went the first mile with us, we'd be in real trouble. He's carried our burden far beyond that. Don't be concerned with your liberty and rights and so destroy the testimony that God wants you to be. Do it as a service cheerfully. The Christian is not concerned to do as he likes; he is concerned only to help, even when the demand for help is discourteous, unreasonable and tyrannical.
4. Do not refuse to lend to someone who wants to borrow from you and if someone asks you for something, give it to them (property) - Comes from Deuteronomy 15:7-11. If someone asks it must not be refused. We are to have a loose hand on our possessions. The gift given must be what the person lacks (have to be discerning) and remove the humiliation that poverty brings. Giving must be done privately and secretly. Even the way the gift was given was to help as much as the gift - his self-respect was saved. To give was a privilege and also an obligation - not something he chooses to do but something he must do. Giving must never be such as to encourage a person in laziness and in shiftlessness for such given can only hurt.

43. Read Matthew 5:43-47. What does it mean to love our neighbour?

• Matthew is using agape love here which means that no matter what a person does to us, or how he treats us or if he insults us or injures us or grieves us, we will never allow any bitterness against him into our hearts, but will regard him with goodwill which will seek nothing but his highest good. (5:11)
• Agape does not mean a feeling of the heart, which comes naturally but a determination of the mind to seek their goodwill even to those who hurt and injure us. Agape is the power to love those whom we do not like and who may not like us.
• We need Christ to help us to obey this command.
• Agape love means you meet another person's need. Your neighbor is anybody in your path with a need.
• When somebody loses something, you don't own it because you found it. You just keep it until he comes to get it. And then you give it to him.
• Psalms 7:3. It's wrong to be evil towards those that are good to you. It's even wrong to be evil towards those that are evil to you. (Romans 12:21)
• We are not only to love our enemy, we are to pray for them too. We can't pray for someone and hate them too. The surest way to kill bitterness is to pray for the person we are tempted to hate.
• A person who belongs to God's Kingdom doesn't hate - it doesn't even hate his enemies - I Corinthians 13
• It's so easy in our human world to become bitter, then we begin to be hostile and instead of reaching out in love to the people, instead of seeing them as our brother and our neighbor, we begin to see them as the enemy and we miss the point of what Jesus says and we fall to the low level of Pharisaic religion.

44. Why are we to love our enemies and pray for them?

• Show that we are sons of God - we are godlike people
• Our love is to exceed the love of our fellow men

45. Do you have an example where you have loved an "enemy" or has God shown you something you could do with a present enemy?

46. Read Matthew 5: 48 What is the ultimate standard that we are to follow? What does that mean?

• Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. It's a command.

• You need to have the same heart attitude Christ did in vs 45 - 47. God treats all the evil and the good alike here on earth, He loves His whole creation the same no matter what they do to Him. We are to reflect God's attitude towards others and if we do, we are reflecting God's perfection in us. (not our own perfection)
• Imitate our God - be perfect. But we say, "I can't be perfect!" And that's when He says, "Right. If you fall short of perfection, you need a Savior." That's where Jesus comes in and brings to you what Peter calls 'the divine nature' and makes you like God, a partaker of His nature. Then God, in a miracle of salvation, does for you what you could never do for yourself - be like God. When you came to Jesus Christ, positionally, you were made like God. You were given His eternal life, His righteousness, you became like Him in that sense. Now, you need to bring your behavior into harmony with your position.
• Another meaning of perfect is "that screwdriver was perfect for the job". It exactly fulfilled the purpose for which the screwdriver was brought to the job. So we can be perfect if we fulfill the purpose for which we were created. (Gen 1;26) We were created to be like God. And God's characteristic is compassion, loving everyone, seeking everyone's highest good, providing forgiveness for all and if we are like that, loving and care for others like God did, and forgiving others like God does, we are perfect in that we are fulfilling God's purpose for us.

The Ten Commandments are just a definition of love and about how to love God and our neighbour. Some say that the Ten Commandments are law: `Thou shalt not do this or that....'" No, they are simply a way to regulate the expression of love. First of all, redemption preceded the giving of the Ten Commandments: Israel was first called out of Egypt and redeemed and ordained as God's people. Then, once the relationship was established, the principles of behavior were laid out. God is always concerned with relationship so relationship preceded the law or the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments relate to our love for God, and the last six commandments relate to our love for our neighbor? In Exodus 2O, we find commandments:

a. Affecting Our Relationship with God

b. Affecting Our Relationships with Others