Kingdom Righteousness Lived Out!
Matthew 5:31-42
Harry Stoliker
June 15, 2008 EBC
In his powerful new book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,
Dr. Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY,
answers tough questions that NYC hardened skeptics ask about Christianity.
Chapter titles: "There Can't Be Just One True Religion"; "How Could a Good God Allow
Suffering"; "Christianity is a Straitjacket"; "The Church is Responsible for So
Much Injustice"; "How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell"; "Science Has Disproved
Christianity"; and "You Can't Take the Bible Literally." He begins each chapter
with a couple of quotes from people he's encountered. One of the quotes is
as follows: "I have to doubt any religion that has so many fanatics and hypocrites,
insisted Helen, a law student. There are so many people who are not religious
at all who are more kind and even more moral than many of the Christians I know."
Skeptics and critics ask hard questions and make hard observations about
Christianity. That is a very good thing! Why? Because we deserve it in many
cases and definitely need it to examine the reality of our claim
to have really changed lives because of the Gospel of Jesus. Helen, the law student,
obviously has had some bad experiences with people who claimed to be genuine
Christians but weren't applying the teaching on kingdom righteousness
that we are now studying in Matthew 5. If Helen the law student met you would
she remain skeptical about Christianity, or would your life perhaps turn the
tide of her opinion?
Last week we looked at how Jesus challenged the religious hypocrites of his
day to stop hiding their sin behind a religious exterior. He called
them murderers if they hate people in their hearts, adulterers
if they look lustfully at someone and told them to prioritize spiritual
reconciliation above attending yet another worship service. The point is
that if you are going to represent true Christianity to Helen the law student
or other hard-nose skeptics, you better be truly living out kingdom righteousness
starting deep in your own heart. You know what we all need in our
lives? We need a few Helens! We need a few people who are really looking close
at our lives with skeptical attitudes and just waiting to see if Jesus
Christ actually does more in someone's heart than just make them religious and judgmental.
What affect does the quality of our life with Jesus have on people who are
skeptical about the Truth of Christianity? Keller puts it this way:
"Many people who take an intellectual sand against Christianity do so against a
background of personal disappointment with Christians and churches. We all bring
to issues intellectual predispositions based on our experiences. If you have
known many wise, loving, kind, and insightful Christians over the years,
and if your have seen churches that are devout in belief yet civic-minded and generous,
you will find the intellectual case for Christianity much more plausible.
If, on the other hand, the preponderance of your experience is Christians
who bear the name but don't practice it, or with self-righteous fanatics,
then the arguments for Christianity will have to be extremely strong for you to concede
that they have any cogency at all." (p.52)
Let's pick Jesus teaching about living out kingdom righteousness
again in Mt. 5:31…
I. Divorce 5:31-32
A. What is going on here? Jesus is putting the breaks on the "divorce-on-demand"
attitude of many in his day. It had degenerated into a "whatever-excuse-you-want-to-make
up" divorce policy. What a disgrace to God, who clearly
hates divorce. Marriage was created by God to demonstrate Christ's love for
His blood-bought people. Marriage is a living picture painted by God for
His own glory. Divorce shatters that divine illustration of Christ's perfect
love. Before we plunge into the details about divorce, we need to understand the
big picture of what Jesus is saying. He's saying: Divorce is NOT
living out kingdom righteousness any more than spiritual murder, spiritual
adultery, or refusing to reconcile with a brother. Divorce is the acting out
of spiritual murder, spiritual adultery and refusing to be reconciled!
B. The argument centers on the interpretation of Dt. 24:1-4 concerning
the "certificate of divorce" that Moses required. The 1st century
debate that raged was between two schools of interpretation, led
by two rabbis: Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai. R. Shammai took the
strict line of interpretation for divorce in Dt. 24:1. He interpreted
the word "indecent" or "unseemly" as a grave, serious
and probably sexual offense as the reason to permit divorce. Rabi Hillel
said Moses was permitting divorce for nearly any reason. He interpreted the
words in the widest possible way to include a wife's most trivial offenses,
like burning the husbands supper, or if the husband just lost interest
in the wife because of her plain looks. It was this laxity in being committed to
God's original design for marriage that Jesus was attacking.
Let's turn to Mt. 19:3-9 to get a larger picture of Jesus teaching
on divorce. This passage in chapter 5 is a brief summary and not the sum total
of Jesus teaching on this. Matthew 19:3-6 "And Pharisees came up
to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?"
4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from
the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore
a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
C. The contrast is clear here, between the liberal, self-serving, unbiblical
view of marriage and divorce and God's original and permanent and exclusive
design for marriage. In both places Jesus lays down the strictest regulation
for divorce: ONLY in the case of marital infidelity! Man has no right to
destroy what God has joined together out of his own selfish motives! The Pharisees
of the day were focused on ways to get out of the commitment and rigors of a
God-glorifying marriage and Jesus told them to be focused on how to stay
married in a God-glorifying way! A modern preacher said it this way: "Instead
of trying to find loopholes in God's commandment or trying to convince ourselves
that our spouse is not a Christian or is at least not behaving as one and therefore
divorceable, we ought to be shouting the holiness of marriage from the housetops.
It is better to endure much personal unhappiness than to treat as expendable
the solemn vows of the wedding service."
James Montgomery Boice
I love the policy John Stott has adopted for his pastoral counseling. He says:
"I have made the rule never to speak with anybody about divorce, until I have first
spoken with them about two other subjects, namely marriage and reconciliation. Sometimes
a discussion on these topics makes a discussion of the other topic unnecessary."
D. Marriage is a life-long covenant or promise between a man and a woman
to glorify God through their lives together as they reflect Christ's love for His
Bride, the Church. God HATES divorce and it is a disgrace to His holiness
and righteousness. It is a denial of His power to bring about reconciliation
in marital conflict. It is a terrible witness to the world of the everlasting
love of God. It wrecks the lives of all the people involved. Sinclair
Ferguson exhorts us to "Failure to keep that covenant is to live a lie before
God and man. Bind it, therefore, on your heart. Decide that nothing will breach
it. Strengthen it by genuinely 'having and holding' your partner, loving and cherishing
them by God's grace. And gouge out from your heart anything that might destroy the
joy of your relationship with your spouse."
E. Here's another powerful quote on marriage as a covenant: "When God stands
as witness to the covenant promises of a marriage it becomes more than a merely
human agreement. God is not a passive bystander at a wedding ceremony. In
effect he says, I have seen this; I confirm it and I record it in heaven.
And I bestow upon this covenant by My presence and My purpose the dignity of being
an image of My own covenant with My wife, the church." John Piper
This is kingdom righteousness worked out in life!
II. Swearing Oaths 5:33-37
A. What is Jesus telling the people in this section? In the last section
he told them to stop destroying their marriages by twisting and circumventing
God's original design, and here he is telling them to stop destroying their integrity
by masquerading their lying behind high sounding oaths. Be faithful and truthful
with your wife and be faithful, truthful, straightforward and honest
with your words. This is simple kingdom righteousness.
B. It is only unreliable people who need to back up their word with some sort of
oath. "I swear by heaven! I swear by Jerusalem! I swear by the hairs on my head…that
I will be reliable in what I'm promising you!" Someone called oaths
a "pathetic confession of our own dishonesty." "Oaths arise because
men are so often liars!" R.T. France said: "As soon as it is necessary
to bolster it with an oath in order to persuade others to believe what
is said, the ideal of transparent truthfulness has been compromised."
C. Jesus doesn't give an exact quote of any one law of Moses in V.33.
He gives a summary of the general tenor of the OT teaching on making vows
and not swearing falsely. Leviticus 19:12 "You shall not swear by my name
falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord." Numbers 30:2 "If
a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he
shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his
mouth." Deuteronomy 23:21 "If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you
shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you,
and you will be guilty of sin."
D. What was happening was that the Pharisees acted as though they
were obeying Lev. 19:12 and not using the Lord's Name in their oaths, but
rather used "heaven" or "Jerusalem" or the "altar" or the "sacrifice on the altar."
Jesus exposes them by saying heaven is God's throne; Jerusalem
is God's city; the Temple is God's house, so you are in fact being
hypocrites!
Matthew 23:16-22 "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by
the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is
bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple
that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is
nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his
oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the
gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever
swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it."
E. Oaths became a mask for their evil hearts. That is why Jesus said his
disciples shouldn't use oaths AT ALL. Someone might object: "Hey wait a minute, God
himself used oaths in making his promises to Abraham and David!" That is
correct for sure.
Hebrews 6:13-14 "For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one
greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you
and multiply you."
Acts 2:29-31 "Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch
David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being
therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he
would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection
of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption."
What's the difference? The difference is that when God makes an oath he isn't
trying to hide his unreliability, but give us extra confidence
in His own complete truthfulness!
Heb. 6:17-18 "So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of
the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an
oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the
hope set before us."
F. So, the application is DON'T promise your kids something and not do it.
Don't tell your wife you'll take her out to dinner and then just forget about
it. Don't make commitments to serve in the church and then change your mind
just because something comes up that you would rather do. Don't say you'll be there
at 9:00 o'clock and get there at 10:00. Don't promise God you will serve
his Kingdom and then forget it when you get out of danger. Never say:
"Honest to God…" Never say: "I swear on my mother's grave…or some such nonsense.
Never hide any tricky little falsehood under the mask of an insincere promise.
G. Why not? Because God sees your heart, knows your motives, exposes your
lies. Be a man or woman of integrity and truth. Say what you mean and
mean what you say. Keep your word. Don't forget what you promise.
That's the stuff of kingdom righteousness.
III. Non-retaliation against the Evil Person 5:38-42
A. Do these verses sound virtually impossible to fulfill?! Who among us would
find it easy to turn the other cheek when severely insulted by the first back-handed
smack across the face? Would you give someone who is suing you even
more than the judge awards him? Would you extend yourself 100% more than
what an evil person might force you to do? What is going on here?
B. These 4 "little cameos" (Stott) drawn from life situations – someone
hitting us in the face, someone taking us to court – someone compelling
or forcing us to service – and someone begging money from us – all
injure us and show the lengths to which "Christian non-retaliation"
must go, as commanded by Jesus' kingdom righteousness. (Stott)
We can immediately see Jesus as our example in all these cameos. Isaiah 50:6
"I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the
beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting." Matthew 26:67 "Then
they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him." "And
Jesus, with the infinite dignity of self-control and love, held his peace.
He demonstrated his total refusal to retaliate by allowing them to continue
their cruel mockery until hey had finished." (Stott)
C. What is important to understand here is that Jesus is talking about personal
retaliation for personal injury – personal ethics. He's talking about
selfless love that refuses to satisfy selfish revenge. He is talking about
overcoming evil against us with good, rather than giving in to the impulse
for revenge. Jesus is saying: "Don't have a vindictive heart, don't be a man
who schemes to get revenge when insulted, hurt, subjugated or taken advantage of
Don't be a man who always demands your rights rather than showing divine care for
your offender." Jesus is putting an end to "the relentless perpetuation of the
traditional blood-feud that had no hope of escaping the cycle of reciprocal
violence" (R.T. France). This is the only ethic that can end cycles of hatred
in so many places in our world!
D. And by the way, it is the only real way to stop fights and bitterness
in your family and church too. If every disciple of Jesus Christ truly had
this ethic, this attitude, churches and marriages and families would be healed
and become havens of peace, joy, rest, and ministry.
Kingdom Righteousness demands much of you. God supplies the grace
through His resurrected Son Jesus Christ. It demands a lifetime, heart commitment
to marriage, it demands truth and integrity in what you say and promise
and it demands a radical refusal to be revengeful when insulted and injured
by evil people. Only a true, Holy Spirit, Blood-bought Christian will have the power,
strength, and desire to live like this! Do you?
Let's pray,
H.