Daily Gospel Devotional: March 9

Matthew 5:31-32 …

Deeper than divorce…

Jesus operated on the higher plane because He spoke from the deeper truth. Instead of simply limiting or licensing certain actions, He looked deeper into the attitudes behind such actions. Legalism can be used to limit people where they should be free, and it can also be used to license people when they should be bound.

The Pharisees thought people had the right to divorce as long as it was qualified by the action of a written settlement (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). It was not that the action was always wrong, but that the attitude often was. If there is not a breaking of the vow by the other partner, like committing adultery, then you commit adultery by breaking the vow yourself. There are of course other qualifications about this matter, as Jesus Himself speaks of (Matthew 19:3-12 / Mark 10:2-12) and the Apostle Paul also elaborates on (1 Corinthians 7).

In these matters, we can be overly permissive or overly prohibitive. There is the legalism of license and a legalism of limitation. The point is about the heart. Why would we want to get a divorce? Indeed, marital infidelity gives us cause for concern but even then it doesn’t require divorce, it only permits it. They were looking for a legalistic license, as it were, but Jesus gets to the heart of the spiritual matter. If your heart has ambition for another then you are not aiming God’s way. Your evil heart will find some way to justify your actions, without regard to the other person, you know, the one with whom you made vows before God.

Yet Jesus wasn’t lacking in compassion for sinful people, He was stacking the deck against the self-righteous. The person who is faithful in their heart is to be protected against the person who is frivolous. If you think that this doesn’t apply to you, that you meet the standard, because you have always had a faithful marriage, or because you have never divorced, remember what Jesus had just said about looking and lusting in your heart. You may have not done the action, but you have had the attitude. In our hearts we are all guilty.

The eternal voice of our Victor strikes again. His sermons crackled like thunderbolts through the sky, His words landing like lightning in the self-righteous hearts of men. They still search out all who would stand up and say, I meet your standard at this one point.

You don’t, and to protest only proves your pride. If you have not found out that all your thoughts, words, and deeds are all worthless to garner the favor of God (Isaiah 64:6), then the seed of self-righteousness remains.

Your self-esteem must be slaughtered if you are to dive deeper than the Pharisees.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©