Is this a teaching on self mutilation in order to get to heaven or is it about divorce?
Thank you for your question. One thing is for sure, that if one was a thief, cutting the hand off, might deter a person from stealing again, while his heart may still remain that of a thief. Matthew 5:27-32 has a deeper meaning than what is seen on the surface. The passage is a deeper lesson on a need to do away with anything that separates one from God, be it a habit, association, relationship and in this passage, even putting away a spouse. Nothing is able to separate us from God Romans 8:35-39 KJV
In Matthew 5:27 KJV, the Lord Jesus begins the narrative: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
He concludes that narrative in verse 32: “But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”
Let us analyze a few things, in this scripture line by line.
“BUT I SAY UNTO YOU” — SAME GOD, REVEALING MORE. Remember Jesus was the Lord, God of the Old Testament revealed in the flesh. Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, Isaiah 35: 1-6, 40:1-1-5, John 10:30, Zech 2:10-13, 9:9, Col 1:14-18, Heb 1:1-3 KJV
“Ye have heard… by them of old time” is a reference to the Law of Moses.
“But I say unto you” sets a new tone, not for God but for man, for God never changes. He is immutable and omniscient. God gave the law to Moses, and when He says “I say,” He is declaring what He was saying even in the Law of Moses, which people then did not understand. Jesus told the Pharisees, “Before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58
Hebrews 10:1 KJV
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…”
Adultery in the Old Testament had one defining element: the married woman. If a single man slept with a single woman, by consent or by force, without marital commitment, it was addressed as a wrong but not as adultery. If a married man, slept with a single woman by consent or force, it was addressed as wrong needing redress, but not as adultery. If a single man or a married man slept with a married woman, it made them adulterers and the married woman an adulteress.
This understanding is that, in this passage, Jesus is dealing with marriage, and ultimately using it as a shadow for the true image: marriage between each man with God, and the church as the wife of God.
The other guiding light is Matthew 5:31 KJV: “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.” This is God talking here, who refers to a “wife,” and to God, there is only one kind of wife.
Proverbs 18:22 KJV is God’s woman called a wife.
“Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the LORD.”
So a wife in the eyes of God is not a woman who has a child with a man, or a woman who lives with a man in the name of being married, not even under a marriage license, but a “good thing”from the Lord — a “help meet” for a a good man to execute God’s blessing on him: to be fruitful and multiply and dominate the world. This is not just any increase, but a godly increase.
Malachi 2:14-15 KJV
“Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.”
So a wife is a gift from God to a godly man to raise up a godly seed. Among such were Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Ruth. On the other hand, women who, though supposedly married and called wives by men, were a hinderance to godliness to their husbands are Potiphar’s wife, Jezebel, Michal, Saul’s daughter married to David, Delilah to Samson. These were not wives but destruction to their husbands.
One other guiding cue is the word fornication in verse 32. It is the same word used in the Old Testament when Israel sought other gods instead of the true God, sometimes called whoredom or harlotry.
Marriage, both physical and spiritual, are in view in these scriptures. The view is that of a good husband and good wife. We have to qualify “wife” in the eyes of man, but with God, there is only one kind of wife — a good woman God gives to a good man. The spiritual church is a believer, the wife of Christ, the husband.
Genesis 3 says a man would be one flesh — a prophecy and a pattern of a marriage to be followed: that a husband and wife should be of one body. This was already true of Adam and Eve, because they were descended from the same body.
We are already primed to believe that we are dealing with a body: that of marriage and the church, who are members of one another.
Those facts having been established, we have to use the natural to explain the spiritual. In the event that a part of the body becomes infected or gangrenous, we try to nurse it to recovery. But should it be so poisoned that it poses the risk of poisoning the rest of the members of the body, we amputate it to save the rest of the body.
In the light of the above, we then understand the meaning of verses 29 and 30. They are about, first in marriage, getting rid of a spouse within the ambit of marriage who is causing the other to forsake God. This would be evidence that God did not have a hand in their being together.
In church we see the application of the above spiritually in Matthew 18:14-18 KJV:
“Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.”
We have therefore established that though God said brethren should not forsake the assembling together, that was the assembling of believers and not with unbelievers. Truly in marriage, what makes a marriage recognized by God is that of two godly people for the purpose of raising a godly seed.
With all this background, it becomes easier to understand verse 32 where a man is not supposed to put away his wife except for fornication. This fornication is not adultery, but spiritual adultery — meaning engaging in an ungodly lifestyle that affects the other spouse’s walk with God. This word is the same used by the Pharisees, meaning just that, in John 8:41 KJV. We are assured that if it were adultery, in the kingdom of God there is forgiveness of sins, even adultery. John 8:11 KJV. All sins are the same except that of rejecting the Holy Spirit. James 2:10-12 KJV
Deuteronomy 13:6-10 KJV
“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”
So we see here that the right thing to do is to separate from a wife or husband, for that matter, who is intent on committing to the devil, causing the other spouse to sin before the Lord. God would have approved of Ahab putting away Jezebel; Samson, Delilah, etc.
So how do we understand verses 31–32, which forbid a husband to “put away his wife”? In the very beginning we pointed out that a “wife” in the eyes of the Lord is not just any woman living with a man over a marriage license, but a good thing given to a good man. Now if a man has this kind of wife, God forbids him from putting away his wife because he is not putting her away because she is evil, since by referring to her as a wife, the Lord God testifies to her goodness for the purpose of marriage. What would a man be wanting from any other woman when he forsakes a good thing from God, except that he would be working with the devil? Any husband who for some strange reason wants to put away a woman approved of God could only be doing so under the influence of the devil. He should not have another wife because there is no other wife — or rather, no other good thing from the Lord — for him.
Prov 30:5 KJV “Every word of God is pure, that’s saith scripture.