Is Divorce a Sin? - Jeff Durbin of Apologia Church (Part 1)

Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter 5, Jesus here is in the famous Sermon on the Mount. We've been in the series The Kingdom of God for some time, and we're in the most popular sermon in the history of the world, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus has already pronounced blessings upon His people, divine happiness upon His people. He explains His position on the law of God, and then He begins now addressing pop culture conversation, conversations that were on the front cover of the newspaper.

These were important issues then, and they remain important issues now. Let's get to Matthew chapter 5. I'll read the text, and we'll begin to unpack it together as a church. Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 31, hear now the words of the living and true God.

It was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery.

And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as a church. God, Father in heaven, I just want to pray for Your blessing, God, upon this service and this time together, where we worship You together, coming before Your Word, Lord, listening to Your revelation, Lord Jesus, we submit ourselves wholly and completely to You.

Lord, You say things to us that cut, that challenge, that lift up and bless and encourage. And I know, God, even based upon Your disciples' response, that we will have difficulty in hearing Your words and receiving Your truth.

And so, God, I pray by Your Spirit that You would instruct us today, teach us today. Lord, open our eyes. Help us, God, to understand Your purpose in marriage. Help us, Lord God, to glory in You and to celebrate what You have made.

Help us, God, to understand Your purposes in creation and in marriage, so that we bring You praise in how we walk this out. God bless us with understanding from You, God. Get me out of the way, protect my lips from error, God.

Teach Your people today in Jesus' name, amen. All right, this is big. It's very, very important. Matthew is chocked full of beautiful things. Oftentimes in our culture, I've said this before, we are slaves to the whim of the pastor, and so you have topical sermons, you know, really, what is the pastor's fancy for the next twelve weeks or six months?

You know, you become a slave to the pastor in the sense of what he thinks is important, and you may not get the whole counsel of God because you're focusing it upon what the pastor is thinking about or what's most important to him in that season or that time.

And here's the thing, topical sermons are good and necessary at times, but at Apology at Church, it's been our M .O., it's been what we want to do in teaching, to do expositional Bible teaching, and that is go through the Bible verse by verse.

And when you do that, the glorious thing about verse by verse Bible teaching and going through a text like this, although it takes a long time to do, if you do it right and do it faithfully, the glorious thing is you get so much.

You get to learn about the entire Bible. You get to go from cover to cover because you begin to unpack the Word of God, see what's being quoted, go to something else. When a topic is brought up, you've got to go to the other parts of the Bible to learn about what was God saying then to those people, and you get the whole counsel of God.

So in Matthew, you get to see God's covenant faithfulness, Him keeping His promises to the Old Testament people of God. You get to see the historical narrative come to life of Jesus walking with His people.

You get to get a flavor of what it's like when God becomes a man and walks among us. You get to learn about Jesus telling you not to worry, commanding you actually not to worry, promising you that your needs will be met, that God will take care of your needs.

You get to see Jesus dissing hypocrisy, talking about prayer, talking about fasting, talking about giving. You get to see Jesus talking about the coming tribulation upon that generation. You get to see so much about God.

And you get to hear from Him on so many things, like about lust, and you get to hear from Him about how we should treat others and about vengeance, and you get to hear about adultery. You get to see what God has to say about His purpose in creation, His purpose in marriage, the uniqueness between male and female.

You learn so much. But here's the challenging thing. When you go verse by verse through the Bible, you get to places where you're not allowed to skip. You get to teachings where you see Jesus saying some really hard things.

For example, we were just in this, right? Jesus saying very hard things about lust. You see Jesus talking very directly to His people, talking to them about the fact that, look, you know, adultery, it says you should not commit adultery, but that is not what they were making of it in their day.

It is not simply the external act of adultery, it really begins at a deeper place right there in your heart. And Jesus says this. Hey, look, if this is your sin, if lust is your thing, and if you don't cut out or pluck out your eye and throw it and cut off your hand and throw it, He says, then you will end up in Gehenna with your sin.

Hell.

And so it's tough stuff when you go expositionally. You can't skip stuff. You've got to make sure you address it and you address it head on, but the glorious thing is you get the entire counsel of God.

And I want to say this, as we approach this text, we've already talked about anger in our hearts and how that makes us murderers. When we have anger in our hearts, not just the act of putting a knife into somebody or a bullet into them, it's actually deeper.

It starts in your heart. All murder begins in a different place in your heart, and then you begin to see Jesus talks about adultery. We've addressed that issue, and Jesus says, look, if you don't cut it off and pluck it out, then you end up in Gehenna.

We've already touched that. Now we get over here into divorce, and we see that this is important stuff because so many of us have been affected by it, and it's important at least in two ways. Listen, here's why this is important for me.

Number one, the issue of divorce in our culture, in Christian, popular Christian culture, divorce is oftentimes never even a subject in our churches. It's never even a topic. We don't talk about it. You can have churches that are filled with people, and you've got people getting married and remarried, and nobody even asks a question.

Is it an appropriate thing to get remarried? Should you be getting remarried? Is it lawful at this point before God for you to get remarried? We don't address it. We have large churches where people just sort of do their own thing and never really talk to the ministers, the pastors, and really get counsel, and what does God say about my marriage, and what does God say about maybe even a remarriage?

And I think oftentimes we're afraid to do the right thing, and so we fail in Christian culture today in not asking the important questions, and we just say, oh, God will redeem.

It.

It's fine. It's not the unpardonable sin, and so it's fine. God can redeem it. We don't ask tough questions. We get too lax on the issue because we say, oh, well, God will forgive us. And the second reason it's important is because oftentimes you do see Christians have been abused by a misapplication of these very texts.

I was listening to a debate this week between two Christians. One was more really in line with what we're thinking as a church, and that is that God's law stands. And if God said divorce was permissible under certain circumstances, then divorce is permissible under certain circumstances.

And the other guy was holding to a position that said, no, no, no, Jesus essentially was throwing away the law of God and the Mosaic law, and He was really saying this, that divorce is only permissible because of adultery.

And He says this, even if there's adultery and you're the victim of it and the divorce ends and you didn't have a hand in it, the person committed adultery against you, the pastor said this, if you're the victim of the adultery and the divorce happens, he says this, you still can't get remarried.

You have people, women, women who are in situations where they're the victims of spousal abuse, they're verbally abused, they're physically abused, maybe even sexually abused in a marriage, and if you mishandle this text, if you get it wrong and you don't read the whole of God's Word, you may end up saying to that woman, well, God says it's only permissible because of adultery.

And so you're stuck in that marriage, you need to remain in that marriage. And so what's important here for us to understand is this, is that God's Word cannot be handled in such a way where we simply grab a text out of its context, we rip it out and we fling it around and hurt people with it.

God's Word must be handled with a reverent awe and fear. And we must not come to texts in the Bible and begin to mishandle them because when we mishandle God's Word, we end up mishandling God's people.

It's very, very important to get this right. On the one side, we don't want to be in a position where we actually say, no, it doesn't matter, God will forgive you, so whatever the cause, it doesn't matter, God will forgive you and redeem it.

And we don't want to be in a position where we abuse people and the Word of God when we mishandle it and don't understand the whole of God's Word. This is a very important issue. The first thing we need to do as we unpack this is lay some foundations.

Are you guys ready for this?

Yes?

Let's lay some foundations from the Scriptures and let's talk about the text itself. Let's read this text real fast. Again, Matthew 5 .31, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce, but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Now, oftentimes, people come to this text and they say this, okay, Jesus says, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce, he's referring there to the laws in Moses, but Jesus is saying this now, but I say to you, and he's now changing the law.

Many times people say that, that Jesus is saying, I know Moses said that, but I'm saying to you this, therefore, we're going to abrogate Moses and give you a new thing. Thus, within a space of a few verses causing Jesus to utterly contradict himself.

Where and how? Let's move backwards a little bit. That was Matthew 5 .31. Matthew 5 .17, Jesus says, do not think. The Greek says, me namasete, which means do not even let it into your mind, don't start thinking, don't get the seed of it started, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

Then he says, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

Now watch this, if within a space of a few verses our interpretation as Christians is that Jesus quotes the Mosaic code and then relaxes it or changes it, then you have Jesus now being the least in the kingdom of heaven.

So we have to ask ourselves the questions, can we handle this text as an isolated proof text and ignore what the Mosaic legislation said and what the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 7? So we need to talk about it.

Now let's lay some foundations once again, quickly, let me answer this quickly. So somebody says, okay, so you're saying Jesus says He didn't come to abrogate the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them, and He taught not to even relax the least of commandments.

Right. So does that mean there are no changes in the law of God? My answer to that, of course there are changes in the administration from the old to the new because the substance has come. So for example, the Old Testament had a temple, the people of God were to have a temple, you had the holy of holies, you had a high priest who offered sacrifices on Yom Kippur, got up in the morning, offered a bull sacrifice for himself, and then offered the scapegoat and the other goat sacrifice, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement every year.

You also had instances where you had the priesthood, you had the Passover, you had little rituals they had where they would remove leaven and they had to do this as a ritual before God. But I want to say this, are we bound by those laws any longer?

No, we're not bound in the shadow kind of thing. We are still bound in the substance kind of thing. For example, we don't have a physical temple anymore, but do we have a temple? Yes, a temple that now will never be destroyed ever.

Do we have a high priest today? Yes, but now we have the high priest in the meaningful, fulfilled sense, the sense it was always pointing to, we have Jesus now, our high priest who A, has no sin of his own, and B, will never die again.

And he intercedes for us forever. We also still celebrate Passover. Someone says, oh, so now Jesus has come, you don't obey the Passover laws. Well, actually, we do still celebrate Passover. But guess what?

I got the real Passover. I got the real Passover, Jesus who died on Passover, who is the Lamb of God, and his blood covers my house, and the judgment of God has passed over me, been diverted from my house.

I am now freed from my slavery and bondage, and I've entered into the promised land of relationship with God. That's my Passover. So is Passover irrelevant? It's completely relevant, but do I do it in the old way?

Not anymore. Is my high priest relevant? Completely, forever. Is the temple relevant today? Yes, but in the real, fulfilled sense. I'll give you an example of how this looks in Scripture and how the law does change, but the substance is still there.

Quickly go there, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and you're going to see in a moment why this discussion is so important to have in terms of Jesus' discussion about divorce. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 6.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the whole old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So Christians are still to celebrate Passover, but in the real, meaningful, fulfilled sense.

Jesus is our Passover, and now we are to get out the leaven of malice, clear it out of our lives. Do you see? So do Christians celebrate Passover?

Yep.

In the meaningful, fulfilled, real sense. Are there changes in the law of God and its administration under the new covenant? Without question. Are Christians under law as fallen sons and daughters of Adam and Eve?

Are we under law? No, we are under grace. Is the law of God now void because Christians are under grace? Do we now void the law of God because we're under grace? Let me show you Romans 3 .31. Very important text.

Go there, Romans 3 .31. The text says, after the big discussion, let's start in 3 .28, after the big discussion about Christ's perpetuatory sacrifice for us, Christ as the one we have faith in, in Romans 3 .28 it says this, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. Since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

I think most evangelicals today would say, yes, by all means. But the text says, by no means. On the contrary, are you ready?

We uphold the law.

In the new covenant, the Apostle Paul says, do we void the law now because of faith? He says, by no means. On the contrary, we actually establish it. We uphold it. Oftentimes I think Christians come to the text of God's word, particularly in Matthew.

We don't understand the context, we don't understand the controversies happening in Jesus' day. We don't understand the whole of Scripture. And we look at Jesus there as saying, out of one side of His mouth, I didn't come to abrogate the law of God, and then turning around in the other side of His mouth, abrogating the law of God.

And any interpretation that makes Jesus look like He's contradicting Himself within the space of a few breaths ought to be rejected.

Amen?

Okay.

The Assumption of Continuity in the Law of God

So, what do we see in the word of God in the New Testament? This is very important. I want you to memorize this statement, this phrase. We see the assumption of continuity. The assumption of continuity.

The New Testament, Apostles and writers always assume the continuity of the Old Testament in the New, unless, get this, unless there is a specific part of the law of God that is changed under the new covenant administration.

Can I give you an example? The Holiness Code. We've talked about this a bunch, right guys? How many times have you talked to an atheist about, say, a particular social issue, like maybe abortion, or you talk about, say, homosexuality in our culture, and you point to laws in the Old Testament where God specifically says that a man is not to lie with another man as He does with a woman.

It is toleva. It is an abomination. And then that atheist friend of yours will say, what? Do you eat shellfish? Do you have mixed fibers in your shirt and your pants?

Got him! Right?

That's what they say, because we don't understand our Bibles. And as my friend says, being an atheist dramatically impacts your ability to read the Bible, apparently. When we look at the Bible, we see, and particularly in the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul specifically says, Ephesians chapter 2, that the Holiness Code contained in ordinances, the dietary restrictions, all those things like shellfish and the fibers in our clothing, all those things, he says those are all gone now because now God has taken Jew and Gentile and made them one new man.

And now that we have the mission of the Gospel going out to the ends of the earth, Jew and Gentile coming together and one people of God, all the dietary restrictions, the separateness of the code is gone because those things that separate Jew from Gentile now are abolished in Jesus Christ.

It's a glorious thing, but watch this. Does that mean that those dietary restrictions and all the Holiness Code were meaningless? Absolutely not. They meant and mean a lot because they pointed ultimately to Jesus and his holiness and his separateness and to the holiness and separateness that we're supposed to have as the people of God today.

They were a symbol. They weren't the thing. They were pointing to the thing. But now we see in the New Testament, the apostles have to actually tell you with the law of God, they don't assume it's now defunct and over and done with all those silly, stupid.

Little laws.

They actually have to tell you, oh, this particular thing in the Old Testament law, that actually was fulfilled in this way and here's why. And now you know why it's no longer practiced by us in the old way.

But you only see the assumption of continuity throughout the New Testament. We know that there's a change when the New Testament apostles under divine inspiration tell us there's a change.

Now ready?

I needed to get all out of the way. Okay.

We good?

Okay.

That needed to be said because so many people come to the text of Matthew and they see Jesus doing something that he absolutely was not doing. They don't understand the context, the background. They haven't read it really in full.

They haven't gone to those passages to even see what he's saying. And they say, well, Jesus here is giving us a new law. It's amazing how you can look at the same text and see two entirely different things.

But Jesus tells you, don't even begin to think that I have come to abrogate it. Is Jesus abrogating the law of Moses regarding divorce? Is that what he's doing? Is he saying, well, I know Moses said that, but I'm going to go ahead and do away with that now.

Well, let's look at a couple examples, shall we? I'm going to give you a couple examples. If you're writing notes, these you need to write down. I want you to go home and I want you to think about them.

I want you to go to the text themselves. I want you to go into a deep study on the Sermon on the Mount. First thing, was Jesus abrogating the laws of Moses in the Sermon on the Mount? First, he said, absolutely not.

Don't even think that he was. I'd like to say that we can stop there and just move on, but that's not enough. First thing, let's look at lust, or as a popular guy says, lost, okay? Lust.

Lost.

That's in Matthew 5, verse 27. You've heard that it was said, you should not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Does Jesus here change the law of God? Because he directly quotes from the law of God. Well, let's ask this question.

Are you ready?

Secondly, was lust permissible under the Old Testament? Was Jesus saying, okay, ready? It says you should not commit adultery, but I'm going to give you something new. Don't lust in your heart. Was he therefore changing the law and expanding it in some way?

No, because this is important to get. In the Old Testament, God judged lust in your heart in the same way he does in the New Testament. What Jesus is doing here in Matthew 5 is he's pointing out that their handling of the word of God is awful, because they were saying, ultimately, well, you should not commit adultery.

I haven't. I've given her a certificate of divorce. I haven't actually done the act, and Jesus is condemning their external obedience, and he's showing that obedience really begins in the heart.

Proof?

He does it throughout the Sermon on the Mount, like when he talks to the Pharisees that he calls hypocrites, when he tells them, you pray so people see you praying on street corners. He says, you go into your closet and pray so your father who sees you in secret will reward you openly.

Jesus condemns their external obedience when their hearts were far off. He says, when you give, don't even let your hand know what the other one is doing. Don't give and ring bells and blow trumpets so everyone sees.

He says, you give to your father in secret, and Jesus talks about fasting. He says, when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites, these people over here that want everyone to see him fasting. He says, essentially, if you're going to fast, you fast before God, you be hungry for God, and you don't let anybody know that you're fasting.

Don't brag about it. Don't boast about it. Jesus condemns their external obedience where their heart was far off. Let me say this, in the Old Testament, God was as concerned with the heart as he is in the new.

The problem was is they didn't get it, and they weren't doing it. Deuteronomy chapter 6, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Let's do it in Hebrew now, Shema Yisrael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Echad.

God says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and Jesus says, strength. God calls you to love God with your heart, and they had turned these laws into external codes of obedience where their heart was far from God.

Jesus comes in and says, I'm not going to have that. You're not going to lust in your heart because that's the same thing. Pluck your eye, cut your hand, or you end up in Gehenna. And Jesus also speaks in Matthew chapter 5 about, number two, murder.

Did Jesus change the law about murder? Is Jesus here in the Sermon on the Mount, is he giving them some new law? Well, let's look at the text itself. Go to Leviticus 19, 17. Leviticus 19, 17. Leviticus 19, and I want you to read verse 17.

This is from the law of God. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him. What is the law of God, the Mosaic legislation say about hate in your heart?

It says what?

Don't do it.

So is Jesus here giving us a new law that wasn't in the Mosaic legislation when he talks about anger and hate essentially in the heart? He's pointing out to them where they're failing, and he's showing them the true intention of the law of God.

Now the third point I want to make is in Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 43, go there. This is a big one. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Do you know there are many, many people with a cursory reading of the Bible who have gone to that text, assumed its validity, and they've flung that out saying, well, the Old Testament taught you to love your neighbor and to hate your enemy.

But do you know that that text right there in Matthew does not exist? So what is Jesus doing? He says you've heard that it was said, he did not say it is written. You've heard that it was said in their day they had so mishandled the Word of God that they were going around telling everybody this tradition that God tells us to love our neighbors and to hate our enemies.

Well, let's go to the text of God's Word, go back to Leviticus again 19, and let's read the next verse after the one I just showed you. Leviticus 19, verse 17, you read it a moment ago. You shall not hate your brother in your hearts, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him.

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord. God says you are not to hate somebody in your heart, and you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

They had in their day twisted and perverted the law of God, and they were saying God tells us to love our neighbors and to hate our enemies. And Jesus now in Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount, corrects them.

He's not giving them a new law that God hadn't said before. He is teaching them the true Word of God, the true law of God, and Jesus tells them you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Watch what Jesus says here.

But I say to you, verse 44, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. Jesus is telling us the truth about the law of God.

Amen?

Powerful stuff, guys. Next, this is a big one. Are you ready for this one? Matthew 5, verse 38. You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Oh, this is big. It's so big.

I was outside the abortion clinic doing evangelism with our church, and we have a board that says that God hates the hands that shed innocent blood. God hates the hands that shed innocent blood. Somebody said, you're telling people that God hates.

God doesn't hate anything or anyone. Now, notwithstanding the numbers of verses that can be brought up where God specifically says, I hate this and I hate that, the person finally said, when we got down to the bottom of it, that's what it says on the verse, on the sign, they said, well, that was Old Testament.

God also said there, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but Jesus changed all that. Where do you think they got that from? Matthew 5, because doesn't it say that? It says, you've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Was Jesus now saying, no more justice? Well, we have to look at what Jesus is quoting from. What is Jesus quoting from? He's quoting from Exodus 21 -24. Go to the text, Exodus 21 -24, Exodus 21 -24. By the way, what's in Exodus 20?

Say 10 Commandments, praise God, someone knows that, okay? Exodus 21 -24. Now, in Exodus 20, God gives us the 10 Commandments. They're not 10 suggestions, 10 Commandments. Exodus 21, God then begins to describe what justice is if you fail in His Commandments.

In Exodus 21, starting in verse 22, ready? When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.

But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Two things I'm going to say about this.

A, how does God feel about the child in the womb? So, when someone says, God hasn't spoken about abortion in the Bible, I want to say, you need to read your Bibles, because God does talk about the baby in the womb, and He says here that it's a case law.

By the way, the Old Testament gives you case law. It gives you an idea, and it says if this sort of thing happens, here's justice for that. That's how, by the way, our modern legislation system was set up.

It was built after the Mosaic legislation, case law examples. This is a case law example. If guys are fighting, they're negligence and the baby is lost, it's life for life, tooth for tooth, burn for burn, eye for eye, what's the principle?

Ready?

Justice. Harmony. In other words, if something happens, the justice for it has to be equal to what happened. Now, we can have long discussions about, does it literally mean you pluck the person's eye.

Out?

I don't personally believe so. It has to do with justice for the crime. But one thing I want to point out here is this.

Ready?

Very important. You need to grab this. The passage that Jesus quotes from there, when He says, you've heard that it was said eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but I say to you, do not resist an evil person.

If they smack you on the right cheek, turn to them the other. He quotes from a case law regarding the civil justice system.

So are you ready?

Who was eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burn for burn given to? Was it given to the regular person? It was given to the judicial system. What were they to do?

Justice.

If somebody stole, God says, this is justice for theft. If somebody was wounded in that way, this is justice for that. They were not to take eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and to turn it into personal vengeance.

Proof that Jesus is not abrogating justice, proof that Jesus is not saying, God is no longer concerned with justice, is the example that He gives. What does He give as an example? He says, if somebody strikes you on the right cheek.

Well, this culture, the Hebrew culture, was a right-handed culture. I need an example for this. Let me get... Let me get Jason. Come here, Jason. Come on up. Are you ready to fight? I absolutely am.

Okay.

Okay.

So, when Jesus says in His culture, you've heard that it was said eye for eye, tooth for tooth, but I say to you, do not resist an evil person. If somebody smacks you on your right cheek, turn to them the other.

The passage he quotes from is the judicial system. It has to do with justice in the case of crimes committed. But Jesus here talks in His culture to people who were taking eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and turning it into rights and privileges for personal vengeance.

Because the example He gives in a right-handed culture, the Hebrew culture is a right-handed culture. You look throughout the whole Bible and you see everything in reference to the right hand over and over and over.

He says, if somebody smacks you on your right cheek, well, let me ask you this. How in a right-handed culture do I smack Jason on his right cheek? I can't get his right cheek on this side, so if I want to smack him in his right cheek, I have to do a backhanded slap.

Now when you think of a backhanded slap, first of all, you're like, that's messed up, right? When you think of a backhanded slap, what are you thinking of if somebody gets you with a backhanded slap? Just an insult.

It's a cavalier backhanded slap.

Thank you, Jason.

If you think about how we would do that today, somebody gives you the finger. Somebody throws their fist up at you. Somebody insults you. They call you fat. They call you ugly. They talk about your mama, right?

If somebody gives you the backhanded slap, if somebody just insults you, then Jesus says you turn the other cheek and you don't retaliate because of a backhanded slap. But what they were doing is they were becoming a culture of people who are all about personal vengeance and they had said this, God says eye for eye, tooth for tooth.