Read Along
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used with permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’
Jesus could have said that to anyone. But He said it in a world that had worked out which promises counted. Swear by the temple, and it meant nothing. Swear by the gold of the temple, and you were bound. Jesus quotes their rule later in Matthew: “If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.”
So a careful speaker could sound completely sincere and still leave himself a way out.
And just before the oaths, Jesus takes on the biggest promise most people ever make, and the paper that let a man walk away from it. “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’”
This is episode five of twelve on the Sermon on the Mount. Last time, Jesus took two commandments, murder and adultery, and followed them from the hand down to the heart. This time, Matthew five, verses thirty-one to thirty-seven. Two cases, divorce and oaths. And underneath both is one question: what does it mean to keep your word?
Start with the marriage promise.
That certificate comes from Deuteronomy twenty-four. If a husband finds “something indecent” about his wife, “and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,” and she marries again, he can never take her back. Notice what that law actually does. It doesn’t command anyone to divorce.
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