Tag Archives: you have heard

ANOTHER INWARD LAW

Christian Life, ,

ANOTHER INWARD LAW

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27, 28.

If murder is more than taking someone’s life, what did Jesus have to say about adultery?

First of all, what is adultery? Is it just about having an intimate relationship with someone who is married to someone else or is it more than that?

Before we can answer that question, we have to ask another one. What is marriage? If we try to answer that question by looking at the way people interpret and experience marriage today, we will have a wrong idea about what it is.

Jesus answered questions like these by going back to God’s original purpose. When the Pharisees asked Him what the legitimate reasons were for divorce, He replied, “Divorce was not in God’s original plan. It was permitted because of your hard hearts. God’s plan from the beginning was that marriage was to be the permanent union of two people, a man, and a woman, to show the world that God is one and that He created man in His image.

“So, God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27.

“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24.

God is one. That does not mean than the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all one person. It means that they are three persons in complete unity, in who they are and in what they do. God made the whole universe to function as one – like a well-oiled machine with every part working in harmony because He is one. That’s how it functioned in the beginning until Adam and Eve destroyed the unity by disobeying God and setting up their own rules.

God’s first action after He created Eve out of Adam was to bring them together in marriage so that they could be one again. This was to be His pattern for marriage from then on. When sin interrupted and spoiled God’s plan, it also brought disunity into marriage. People are selfish. Instead of submitting to one another in love, they want their own way. This destroys unity and causes marriages and families to break up.

When someone starts looking around and sees another woman whom he thinks would be better than his own wife, he has already destroyed the unity with his wife long before he has slept with another. Adultery is much more than having sex with another person’s husband or wife. It’s about destroying the unity between oneself and one’s spouse by one’s words, actions, or attitudes.

The Apostle Paul pointed to Jesus and His church as the model for the attitudes of husbands and wives towards each other.

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church which is His body of which He is the Saviour. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also should wives submit to their husbands in everything.

“Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of His body.

“‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you must also love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband.” Ephesians 5:22-33.

Marriage is intended, first to be a declaration and demonstration of the unity in the Godhead. When that unity is destroyed by unloving attitudes or actions, adultery has already happened, and the rest is inevitable.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

MURDER REDEFINED

Christian Life, ,

MURDER REDEFINED

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ (Matt 5: 21).

“This is a “halakhaic” formula.

By making this statement Jesus was asserting that there is more to the requirements of Torah than meets the eye.

What is halakhah?

The word “halakhah” is usually translated “Jewish Law” although it should more accurately be translated as “the path that one walks”.

Judaism is much more than a set of beliefs about God, man and the universe. It is a comprehensive way of life governed by rules and practices that affect one’s whole life from morning until night and from life to death and, more especially it is about how you treat God, man, animals and the earth. This set of rules and practices is known as the halakhah. Halakhah came from three sources; the Torah; laws instituted by the rabbi; and long-standing customs.

The ancient rabbis had made many pronouncements additional to the 613 laws of Torah in an attempt to interpret what Yahweh meant by His instructions. The result was a confusing conglomeration of rules and prohibitions which focused on external behaviour, but which often ignored the spirit of Torah or what Jesus called “the more important (or weightier) matters of Torah” (Matt. 23:23). 

When an “expert” in the law asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life, Jesus threw the question back at him.

‘What is written in the Law?’ He replied. ‘How do you read it?’ (Luke 10:26)

The man responded by quoting from Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18.

Love the LORD you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength . . . Love your neighbour as yourself.

Jesus commended him for his answer and counselled him to do as the Torah said. But what was Torah saying?

The essence of the Torah was threefold: to protect love; to preserve unity; and to promote contentment.

All the regulations written in the Torah were detailed instructions for working out these three principles in their everyday circumstances. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus highlighted six areas where “halakhah” pronouncements had clouded the issues and made them problems of behaviour and not of attitude.”

(Quoted from “Learning to be a Disciple” © 2104, Luella Campbell, Partridge Publishing, page 111-112)

The first area of concern was the issue of murder. According to halakhah, the commandment not to murder had only to do with the actual act. However, Jesus examined the attitude which led to the act. If the attitude of the heart was wrong, it was as though the person had already committed murder even if he had not actually done the deed.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca’, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool,’ will be in danger of the fire of hell (Gehenna).(Matt. 5:22)

“The issue is the dignity of another person. The question is not about taking someone else’s life. It’s about stripping the dignity off of someone else, looking down on him, treating him with contempt.  Jesus deals with this.

Since anger is the start of the slide towards murder, the anger must be dealt with before it goes any further. Anger, a sustained feeling of anger, is as much a reason for judgment as the act itself.  To say raca replicates the sound of someone who is about to spit, indicating a feeling of contempt. To call someone a fool is to judge him as a morally corrupt person, someone whose life is completely dysfunctional and therefore not worth anything, and must be exterminated.

Jesus said that we are just as guilty if we do it in our heart as if we had done it with our hand. If something is true in your imagination it might as well as be true. Once you want someone dead, or believe they are worthless or degrade them by slander or sarcasm or make fun of them, you are guilty of murder.

The antidote to murder is to apply the “weightier matters of the law” – justice, mercy and faithfulness. The answer is to keep on the path, with our eyes fastened on the “landmark” – Jesus, whom we are to follow because He is God’s light, the shining of the star that shows us the path. He is the words of Elohim.

By applying His yoke of mercy, Jesus swept aside all the irrelevant provisions of halakhah, and revealed the spirit of Torah. In Him, we see mercy in action. There is no need to clutter God’s Torah with intricate details of interpretation because Jesus is the model of mercy and, by imitating Him, we will fulfil His requirements.”

(“Learning to be a Disciple,” page123-124)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Adultery Redefined

Christian Life, , ,

ADULTERY REDEFINED

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:27)

This is another halakhaic statement. Once again, Halakhah, or the way of life regarded as the acceptable norm of behaviour, focused on outward conformity to the Law but said nothing about the attitude of the heart.

This commandment also sounds simple on the surface but, like murder, it has a much deeper root. Let’s go back to the Torah to unpack its meaning. The roots of this command come from who God is.

The most well-known part of the Sh’mah prayer recited in the synagogue in the morning and evening services and at bedtime is found in Deut. 6:4-5:

Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength . . .

God created man in His own image and likeness,

. . . In the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. (Gen. 1:27b)

What is the image of God? Theologians enter into long and involved discussions about the image of God and differ widely in their interpretations. What does Torah say?

The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (Deut. 6:4)

God is one (echad), not one person, but three in one, unity in diversity.  God created the entire universe to be interactive and interdependent as a reflection of who He is. Everything God put into human beings that resembles Him – self-awareness, self-determination, morality, love, and the ability to commune with Him – all flow into God’s purpose that we should be one with Him, one with humanity and one with creation.

The world is echad – everything functions as a unit, e.g., the ocean currents affect the climate of the earth, the pull of the moon causes the tides, etc. God’s creation reflects His image. Therefore, we find our fulfilment in pursuing wholeness – echad – and anything that sabotages echad brings destruction.

The deepest cry in our heart is to be connected in oneness because God is one. A hypocrite is one who divided inside of himself.

For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Gen. 2:24)

Marriage is not just companionship for life, a cure for loneliness, or legalised sex.  At its core is a picture of God’s echad.

Sexuality is much more than just a physical act. To a Hebrew person, having sex constituted marriage. To rape a woman meant you were married to her. There is no sex in heaven because we won’t need the picture any more. Our sex drive is strong because of our need to be connected in an echad relationship.  Marriage is supposed to be a demonstration, not just an announcement of God’s oneness.

When Adam disobeyed God, he destroyed the unity between himself and God and threw the universe out of sync with Him, affecting all of the creation. This is evident in the natural world where creatures prey on creatures and the plant world is invaded by weeds and toxic plants. All of the creation awaits restoration as does redeemed mankind.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Rom. 8:20-21)

God is one and He keeps everything together in unity The force that holds the universe together is called echad – oneness.  If we do anything that sabotages unity, we go against the very power that holds the universe together. Since we are part of the universe, we are actually a part of what is tearing the universe apart.

Adultery leaves a person disjointed and fractured. Sex is only a part of adultery. Anything we do that sabotages unity is adultery. Division in the church is the opposite of echad. Whatever is in the atmosphere that destroys unity is adultery.

Therefore, to look lustfully at a woman is a symptom of echad already disrupted. Adultery does not break a marriage. It is a sign of a marriage relationship already broken. It has serious consequences because it is part of the force that tears lives, families, communities and nations apart.

Adultery is contrary to the spirit of Torah. It is also evidence that the marriage relationship is devoid of mercy. Where mercy functions within a family, that which is weightiest in God is at work, uniting and holding relationships together and contributing to the echad-ness of the family.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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