Matthew 5:25-32

The Sermon on the Mount continues.

Jesus had just commanded us not to be angry with our brothers. He continues, telling us to…

“Agree [GR Quickly have kind thoughts for, or be well disposed toward] with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison

“Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing [GR the last penny]” (Matthew 5:25-26).

Jesus is warning them to “avoid getting entangled in the legal system. ‘[A]gree with thine adversary quickly’ … meant, in today’s legal terms, ‘settle out of court.’ Becoming entangled in the legal system with ‘the judge’ and ‘the office’ down to ‘the uttermost farthing,’ often resulted in financial disaster. This is as true today as it was two thousand years ago.”[1]

He then referred to the 6^th commandment – Thou shalt not commit adultery. He then warned them it is not enough to not commit adultery, they were to avoid even the thought or desire to commit adultery.  A man who looks upon a woman, or a woman who looks upon a man, with lust has already committed adultery in his/her heart. “A higher standard of behavior and elevated level of thought were now restored to Israel’s consciousness.”[2] “If we do not look on other persons to lust after them, sexual misconduct cannot occur.”[3]

“And if thy right eye offend thee [GR cause to stumble], pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell[4]” (Matthew 5:29-30).

“Employing the time-honored device of hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration), Jesus taught that it was better to pluck out a diseased eye or cut off a diseased hand rather than let the disease claim the whole body. In other words, as he reworded the idea for the Nephites (who may not have understood Jewish hyperbole), it is better to deny one’s sexual temptations than to commit the impure acts and risk ‘that ye should be cast into hell’ (3 Nephi 12:29-30).”[5]

He warned them about divorce, He told them if they were to get a divorce, it should be done legally. “Touching the matter of divorcement, in which great laxity prevailed in that day, Jesus declared that except for the most serious offense of infidelity to marriage vows, no man could divorce his wife without becoming himself an offender, in that she, marrying again while still a wife not righteously divorced, would be guilty of sin, and so would be the man to whom she was so married.”[6]

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[1] Life and Teachings of Christ – From Bethlehem through the Sermon on the Mount, What Jesus Taught the Jews about the Law of Moses, Jeffrey R. Chadwick.

[2] The Life and Teachings of Christ, Vol. 1: From Bethlehem through the Sermon on the Mount, A Reading of the Sermon on the Mount: A Restoration Perspective, Andrew C. Skinner.

[3] Life and Teachings of Christ – From Bethlehem through the Sermon on the Mount, What Jesus Taught the Jews about the Law of Moses, Jeffrey R. Chadwick.

[4] And now this I speak, a parable concerning your sins; wherefore, cast them from you, that ye may not be hewn down and cast into the fire” (JST Matthew 5:34).

[5] Life and Teachings of Christ – From Bethlehem through the Sermon on the Mount, What Jesus Taught the Jews about the Law of Moses, Jeffrey R. Chadwick.

[6] Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage, Chapter 17.