Matthew 5:27 and 28 say, “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, that every one who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The old law, the commandment not to commit adultery (Exo. 20:14; Deut. 5:18), is in verse 27. The new complementing law regarding adultery is in verse 28. The law of the old dispensation deals with the outward act of adultery, whereas the new law of the kingdom deals with the inward motive of the heart.
In Matthew 5:21-22 the Lord Jesus speaks about anger, and in 5:27-28, about lust. Our temper and our lust constantly damage us and trouble us. In order to live up to a moral standard higher than that of the old law, we must overcome our temper and our lust. In order to do this, we need Christ, and we need another life-the divine life. How we need to stay with Christ! We must contact Him not only day by day but even hour by hour. Because of the anger and lust within us, we need to remain in constant fellowship with the Lord, continually experiencing the dispensing of the processed Triune God. Then we shall experience and enjoy the divine life, a life that can fulfill the highest standard and that overcomes our anger and lust.
We need to be very clear concerning the fact that actually we are not keeping the law. Rather, we are walking according to the spirit. Romans 8:4 tells us that when we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. We are not trying to keep the law, for the more we try to keep it, the more we break it. This is fully revealed and recorded in Romans 7. Today we are neither under the law nor obliged to keep the law. We are free from the law, and now we are walking according to the spirit. Within the spirit there is Christ, who is our resurrection life. As we walk according to the spirit, we fulfill the requirements of even the highest law. Therefore, we do not need to keep the law in the sense of striving in ourselves, but we must walk according to the spirit. When we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously fulfill all the requirements of the law, overcoming our anger and our lust, and have the highest standard of morality.
Matthew 5:31 and 32 say, “It was said: Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a divorce. But I say to you that every one who puts away his wife, except in a case of fornication, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries one that has been put away commits adultery.” What the Lord Jesus decreed in 5:21-30 as the new law of the kingdom complements the law of the old dispensation, whereas what He proclaimed in 5:31-48 as the new law of the kingdom changes the law of the old dispensation. According to the old law, a man could divorce his wife simply by giving her a writing of divorcement. The law of the old dispensation concerning divorce was ordained because of the people’s hardness of heart; it was not according to God’s design in the beginning (Matt. 19:7-8). The Lord’s new decree recovers marriage back to the beginning designed by God (Matt. 19:4-6).
The marriage tie can be broken only by death (Rom. 7:3) or fornication. Hence, to have a divorce for any other reason is to commit adultery.
In His original design for marriage, God ordained one wife for one husband. But due to the weakness and hardness of heart of the children of Israel, when the law was given, Moses gave a man permission to divorce his wife with a writing of divorce. But in Matthew 5:31-32 this law regarding divorce is changed, and the matter of marriage is recovered to God’s intention at the beginning. Now only two things can break the marriage tie: the death of one of the parties or adultery. Therefore, not having divorce surpasses putting away the wife with a paper of divorce.
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