059: Divorce & Remarriage pt 7: The NT Teaching on Remarriage pt 1 - Mt 5 and how to interpret "adultery"

I have moved on to the NT teaching concerning remarriage. I begin with an examination of teaching in Matthew 5:31-32. The entire episode focuses on the critical question of how we should understand Jesus’ teaching that those who remarry following an unjust divorce are guilty of “adultery.” Was He speaking literally or hyperbolically? In isolation, the literal interpretation is to be favored, but based on the context of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, I argue that Jesus clearly meant for us to understand “adultery” as hyperbole. 

 Those who remarry after an unjust divorce are no more guilty of actual adultery than those who lust after a woman are guilty of actual adultery (or those who are unjustly angry at their brother are guilty of actual murder). Jesus’ point is that the spirit of the command against adultery includes our thought life and remarriages. He isn’t claiming that lust and remarriage are just as bad as adultery. They are sinful, but lesser sins, and as such, people who commit these sins be punished as if they had committed actual adultery. Those who remarry following an unjust divorce committed a sin when they contracted a new marriage, but it is a bona fide marriage nonetheless and it would be wrong to force them to divorce. 

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