Matthew 5:32: Adultery

Hey guys we left off in Matthew 5.

15 Matthew 5:32 Adultery

April 19th 2026

And last week we talked about the Lord expanding upon the seventh commandment – thou shalt not commit adultery.

He began His teaching on the subject saying in Matthew 5 verses 27-28

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Then he talked about the idea that if one member of our body offends the rest of us we ought to cut it off, meaning remove it from our person and cast it far from our presence.

All of this serves as a bit of a preface to His continuing on the topic of the seventh commandment in verses 31 which will comprise our text for today.

Now in His teaching the Lord says some things that are sort of repugnant to a lot of people today.

But Yeshua only and always teaches eternal truths. So what He says here must be read as truth extending back and forward through time AND encompassing God’s perspective all things considered.

So first He says, It has been said, Thou shalt not commit adultery,” but I say that if “whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart.”

Speaking of the same commandment, Yeshua adds:

31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:

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.

To get perhaps an even clearer picture of this, turn to Mark chapter 10. There the Pharisees came to Yeshua and asked,

“Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?

There was a great debate among the Jews dating way back about what they referred to as, “the putting away of a wife.”

One opinion came from the Jewish “school of Hillel” and it said that a man might put her away for any offence or any dislike he might have of her.

Burn the chicken, miss a spot on the silverware, give him a nasty face – goodbye, right?

And the woman was left dangling out there in society because of the whim of the man.

Remember, under the Old Covenant (where men were the ones circumcised) a woman primarily had her identity to God through her husband. This made things quite tough for women because of the hearts and ways of most men.

This custom is brought to mind when we recall the story of Mary conceiving the Lord and Joseph, a good man, choosing to protect her rather than have her put under scrutiny for being pregnant before the ceremony they employed.

So, the Hillel opinion of the Law said a man could put his wife away for any reason under the sun.

The other major opinion came from the school of Shammai. It maintained that divorce was unlawful, except in case of adultery – meaning in the case of a spouse having sexual relations with someone other than his spouse.

But again, even this option was pretty much up to the man and his accusations against her and so women often got the brunt end of the deal even in this situation.

So being asked His thoughts, the Pharisees hoped to get Yeshua to commit to either the Hillel or Shammai party – which would serve to bifurcate His influence among the Jews.

This kind of politicking continues today in the Body as we find dividers entering into a body of believers and dividing them based on opinion.

Yeshua, the Master teacher asks them in return

3 . . . “What did Moses command you?”

Instead of immediately answering and implicating Himself, He refers them back to a source they both respected - Moses.

They replied . . .

4 “Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.”

Was this true? Yes it was.

Divorce was permissible among the COI.

So was polygamy. Was divorce or polygamy from the beginning? No.

It was the product of the Fall of Man, not the will of God.

But when it came to the COI, here was the situation. Moses was leading millions of people out of bondage and into the promised land. For hundreds of years they had been under the yoke of the Egyptians and when you take a people used to being enslaved out from slavery they are a unique group and helping them “exodus” through the wilderness toward the promised land was an enormous task.

So there in the midst of this mass exodus (and all that it entailed) Moses was being faced with one of the single most emotional issues in human existence – the dissolution of a marriage – which is extremely destructive and divisive to the fabric of any society.

Instead of letting some very misogynistic men just walk away from their wives without a cause, which would introduce elements of chaos into the COI by literally leaving these women without any hope of a future or material security, Moses, because of the hardness of their hearts, had their husbands write a “a bill of divorcement” which allowed the women to prove that they have been freed from the contract of marriage to another and were therefore free to remarry another, giving them some hope.

Marriage was vitally important to a woman of the House of Israel but without it being legal and recognized, she was out of luck.

So there, in response to the Pharisees, Yeshua said:

5 “For the hardness of your heart he (Moses) wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; (that literally mean be glued to her) and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more two, but one flesh.

Now, I think there is a point we need to consider before moving on – for what purpose are couples married.

Some will say, “for companionship. To not be alone. To have children. To build a life with another . . . etc.”

M. Scott Peck, a Christian psychologist now deceased once wrote that there are two primary reasons couples marry – to rub the edges off each other and to establish an environment for children to enter in where both genders are represented and exercise influence.

But the Biblical answer is here in scripture:

But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; (that literally means “be glued to her”) and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more two, but one flesh.

While you may not agree, the reason a male and female marry is to be one flesh – to have sexual relations with each other exclusively. And we will soon see that this oneness of the two, not of three or more, is exclusive.

In other words, no marriage, no sex and quite frankly, no sex, not marriage exists.

Fundamentally, there is no such thing in the face of the Bible of a sexless marriage.

Where there is marriage there is sex and where there is sex there is marriage.

This has been and remains a foregone conclusion in the sight of God relative to man.

Can a man and woman have companionship with each other without marriage?

Sure.

Can they escape loneliness? Absolutely.

Can they have a joint bank account, adopt children, buy property, cry and laugh with each other, eat every meal together?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

But God created males and females to leave father and mother, cleave to each other, and no longer be two but one, or as Yeshua said:

“so then they are no more two, but one flesh.”

What makes a single male and a single female, who were once two, one flesh is the sexual relationship.

In the end, this is what marriage was “created” for (remember the emphasis) – for the two to become one.

Now, in the Matthew account of this same confrontation between Yeshua and the Pharisees Yeshua says to the Pharisees, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts gave a bill of divorcement, BUT FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO.”

What does Yeshua mean, “’from the beginning’ It was not so?”

In order to contextually understand divorce and what Yeshua says about it here in Matthew 5, we have to go back to this “beginning” Moses was speaking about and it began with a couple – that means two and no more.

Adam and Eve.

Now ask yourself, “Where did Adam come from?” From the dust of the earth, right?

The name Adam means “red earth” and from this most believe that the first man was a Ginger – or a redhead.

And, at the risk of being redundant, where did Eve come from? From the earth? No. From Adam’s own body.

The components of the first woman Eve were taken from Adam and not from the red earth. From this we learn at least three important things -

First, where Adam was of the earth directly, Eve, or women, was the more refined, more connected to the other in their makeup.

This is certainly reflected in our innate sensitivities, isn’t it with the male wanting respect from the being that came from him and the female longing to be loved by the being from whence she came.

Do not these two basic responses exist even today among most couples??

Secondly, they were one created into two – not two from different components but one body of components, then they were separated out and made into two interconnected and fitting parts that were commanded to reunite. This how it was “from the beginning.”

Had there not been a Fall, who knows how this would have looked when it came to the human family?

I mean, perhaps we would have existed as one interconnected group of couples and families physically and spiritually communing with the father openly where eternal health, longevity, and love without any division would abide?

I would suggest that the communion believers share in spirit and truth touches on how it may have been had Adam and Eve obeyed – and that perhaps the heavenly eternities of all believers will also reflect this setting some day.

But in this fallen world only the imagination can say because here due to the Fall we face a different situation, don’t we?

Now, there was nothing, from the beginning, that could take Adam and Eve and ever separate them. She came from his side. His body provided the materials to create her.

She was “the flesh of his flesh,” and “the bone of his bone” and even if some force could have taken Adam and moved him to Mars, he and Eve were still and would forever still be one.

Can you see this in this from the beginning model? It replicates the idea of marriage and the importance of sex between the two and no other.

The third principle we can take from the origins of Adam and Eve is that Adam is complete only with Eve and Eve is complete only with Adam.

From this we might see why Men and women respond toward each other even today in their basic emotional needs and in marriage we truly can see Man being made complete –

Paul says in 1st Corinthians 11:11, “neither is the man without the woman neither is the woman without the man.”

Scripture says very little about marriage but listen to these reiterated instructions couples are given toward each other.

First of all, and in marriage mentoring this is always where I start -

Men are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church . . . and gave His life for it.

What more does a good wife really want than to be loved and completely accepted by the man in her life? To know that she and she alone means everything to him?

Lost or messed up women may want more but a good wife really wants and seeks these things.

And what does this look like in her mind and in reality -that he would sacrifice his will and ways for her?

Now listen - this desire makes sense as woman, an extension of Eve, was taken from Adam and created from Him, and therefore she longs to be wholly embraced by the being from which she came.

New Testament scripture then gives one bit of advice to the wife toward her husband – the rendering in the King James being “submit, ” from the Greek compound, “hupo-tasso,” I would suggest the best definition of the command is for her to (ready) for her to “respect” him.

What more would a being want from something taken from him than respect?

Respect is the main driver males seek – if not they are misled in their natural make-up. We what the respect from those around us – especially from our wives?

Now, who made them one?

God, because He created the “two from one” and then commanded the two parts to re-connect as one flesh for life.

Again, was there “anything” on earth that could take Adam and Eve and tear them apart or make them NOT one? Anything?

Nothing.

If Adam and Eve “got divorced” would the “divorce” change the fact that Eve was taken from Adam’s side and that they were literally of one flesh? Not in the least.

“From the beginning,” Eve came from Adam and they were one, and nothing could ever separate them. They were one, they were absolutely equal, but they were different – hetero in nature not homo in nature.

This is how Yeshua was able to say, “Moses may have granted all your reprobates a bill of divorce, but from the beginning it was not so.”

Meaning – listen carefully - from the beginning God made the unity of a couple absolutely permanent and impossible to separate and this was the reality of God’s view of two when they become one.

Remembering that Yeshua teaches only truth – truth which extends out to the eternities and encompasses the facts of all things, so what He is saying is that “from the beginning, before there was sin in this world, the plan that God Himself ordained was set and bills of divorce had no power or meaning – from the beginning the two were one – period.

Therefore in this world – listen - when two beings – a female and male – leave their father and mother AND BECOME ONE FLESH, there is nothing that can tear them apart from becoming one flesh.

They are married.

From God’s holy perspective which is what Yeshua was teaching, this is the model for the marital union – then and even today.

And in this holy model we find an extremely limited expression of sexual intimacy in terms of partners.

Now, many pastors will teach that in the garden God “married” Adam and Eve. It’s absurd. We suggest that there was no need for them to be married in the sense of a ceremony of some kind because they were already, from the beginning, one!

This is the picture which Christ hearkens to in His explanation to the Pharisees.

Now – listen - in light of the Fall God ordains or uses marriage as the greenlight for a man and woman to share in physical consummation between each other.

And the exclusiveness of Adam and Eve to each other is a type for the total exclusiveness a man and woman are to have with each other in marriage was that the two are exclusively one and we suggest that this model is central to the makeup of God and His Son and the model of One God and having no other God’s before Him.

Specific to what Christ was teaching is , “marriage is synonymous with sexual relationships and sexual relationships, in God’s eyes, is synonymous with marriage.

Taking this out to its logical extremes, in God’s eyes, once a person becomes ONE with another sexually, they are married and are not to be one with anyone else for the remainder of their partner’s life.

Remember remember – the purpose of Yeshua teaching these things was to get them to see how MUCH they needed a Savior instead of the Law -because in the face of the Law they were screwed.

And what Yeshua is teaching here on the mount is that God takes sexual union and/or marital fidelity very seriously.

In other words, from the beginning one man was to be one with one woman for life and exclusively.

It does not matter what men or women think or say on the subject today. This is the biblical reality. And Yeshua is teaching God’s truth. There is no way around it.

And this is why Yeshua added in verse 9 of Mark:

9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Got all that?

Alright, now back to our text for the day.

Here Yeshua, says, while expanding on the Seventh commandment,

“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.”

Is this true? In God’s eyes, yes, absolutely.

Let me say this even more poignantly.

If you were married, and you divorced for any reason other than fornication, and you remarry another, you are an adulterer or and adulteress in God eyes.

“Do you mean to say that if I was divorced from a man for any reason other than fornication that God sees me as an adulterer?”

(beat)

“Do you mean that after my wife left us high and dry because she was tired of marriage and I got remarried to a beautiful Christian gal that I am an adulterer?”

Yes, and yes – hence the need for Yeshua.

Remember, we are talking about how “God sees things and how things were from the beginning.”

Remember, too what Yeshua says here, “if you are angry in your heart and call someone a fool you are in danger of hell fire.”

He was teaching them God’s perspective of man. In the face of this it becomes super easy for us today to apply our own reasoning to it.

“Oh, come on. God is love, and He would not have an issue with anyone divorcing a spouse who was abusive, a miser, or a shallow, mean person.”

We are talking about people pleasing God by and through His perfect ways, folks, not from a position of being forgiven as humans according to His Grace.

This is His Law stuff going on here.

And they key to seeing all of this is to really stand on what God wanted from, “the beginning.”

Now, before you are ready to string me up, ask yourselves again:

“Was there anything under the sun that could make Adam and Eve not one?

Nothing.

Therefore, if Adam left Eve after the Fall

and married others and then Eve did the same would both be committing adultery based on what was in the beginning.

Same if Adam took on extra wives.

This is how God views man and wife – as those who have consummated their bodies to each other - as one - and it is impossible for the two who had become one with each other to then become ONE with more.

They have already become one so to become one with another is chaos, madness, and leads to disorder.

Listen closely – the seriousness of adultery is a picture of the seriousness of polytheism and idolatry – which is abhorrent to the living God.

Just as a human being can and should only worship ONE true and living God, and it is impossible for them to truly worship or give allegiance and love another gods equally and at the same time, so is it impossible for a man and a woman to be one with more involved than one another.

Get it?

So when Yeshua, whom Paul calls “the second Adam,” teaches, He is restoring to the earth how everything (Through HIM) is supposed to be . . . from the beginning.

And listen – can be again through Him to those willing to submit themselves over humbly to His teachings and ways.

Back in the Mark teaching the disciples were totally befuddled by what Yeshua said. Once they were away from the eyes and ears of the Pharisees, we read in verse ten that

10 . . . in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.

Now what Yeshua tells them fits perfectly with all we have read today, because once again, He lays it out clearly and without exception, saying (Listen)

” Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

Man can attempt to separate a couple, we can call it divorce, we can justify it all we want, but to God, any and every couple is as much one as Adam and Eve were one from the beginning. Again, that is the standard of God’s holiness because “what God has put together let no man put asunder.”

Some will say, “well God didn’t put my marriage together.”

He did in the sense of giving you the parts to “be one” so even if a couple doesn’t believe in God when they married or consummated their bodies as one through sex, it doesn’t alter the fact that God sees them as one because they chose to become one, and the same perspective applies to them as to believers.

Okay? so those are some of the hard biblical facts about marriage and divorce.

If you are married and have consummated that marriage, you have become one in God’s eyes and are not permitted to be divorced and if you do and then engage in sexual relations with another you are under the law of perfection an adulterer – no matter who you are.

I know this is hard to hear but nobody is in any position to alter the facts. Often people will ask:

“Shawn, I was married, got divorced because we didn’t get along, and then I got remarried. Does this mean I am an adulterer in God’s eyes?”

And I say with all frankness and love:

“Yes. Under the Law of perfection you are an adulterer.”

And then they freak out. And so we have literally avoided teaching it this way from almost every religious perspective on earth. Or we teach it and dogmatically try to enforce the reality on others through law.

So, these facts are typically ignored all together though Yeshua Himself plainly states them.

But they should be taught the same way Yeshua teaches about even being angry with others and our committing murder or even just looking on another with lust and being an adulterer.

So, let’s turn to the hopeful facts regarding divorce.

First of all, while Yeshua said to the Pharisees that “divorce was not so from the beginning,” neither was sin from the beginning, or lust, or anger, or selfishness, or any of the things that make both life and marriage difficult today.

So, while we must be entirely faithful to describe God’s perspective we must also note that we live in a fallen, messy world, one where God sent Yeshua to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Hear this clearly.

Therefore, if you have been divorced without just biblical grounds and have remarried, and are, according to scripture, “an adulterer,” realize that you are covered by the blood, and you are redeemed, just like people who have gossiped are gossips (and forgiven), and people who have lied are liars (and forgiven), and people who have stolen are thieves (but are forgiven) and people who get unrighteously angry with others are forgiven.

Then there are some people who have made a “stay married at all costs” position their sort of pet project for the world.

Sometimes it seems that some of them relish in castigating people who have been divorced or who get divorced or they want people to suffer in the marriages like they are suffering in their own.

These types usually cite a passage in Malachi 2 where it says that God “hates divorce.” Of course he hates divorce.

What they fail to mention is God also hates, according to scripture a

1. proud look

2. a lying tongue

3. or with hands that shed innocent blood,

4. or with hearts that devise wicked imaginations

5. or feet that be swift in running to

mischief,

6. false witnesses that speaketh lies, or

7. people who sow discord among the brethren.

The point is, God hates the conditions of this fallen world – and that is why He sent His Son – to save us from ourselves – whether we are married and divorced five hundred times – this is His love.

So while we cannot justifiably remove the title of “adulterer or adulteress” from someone who has earned it UNDER THE LAW, we can remove the stigma and the use of the title when referring to them, by and through the victory of His only Human Son.

What is really interesting to me is that when Yeshua addresses divorce, I think He sort of leveled the playing field by finally bringing justice to a people-group who have long time been badly mistreated – women.

Let me explain.

Yeshua gave one reason on how a person could divorce their spouse, remarry another, and NOT be an adulterer.

Go with me back to our text for the day in Matthew 5:31-32. There Yeshua said:

“It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 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.”

Now notice that the exception for a marriage to be lawfully destroyed in God’s eyes - without it ending in the offended spouse being an adulterer – is not called adultery instead Yeshua says, “except for the cause of fornication.”

Why does He use this word?

The word for adultery is “moi*kha*o” and it is the taking on a lover who is also married. Now ask yourself, why doesn’t Yeshua say,

That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of adultery, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”

But instead says:

That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication . . .”

What Yeshua is doing is teaching and reiterating the importance of total marital sexual fidelity and He says that divorce is justifiable in the case of fornication instead of adultery because while the Greek word for adultery is moichaho the Greek word for fornication is . . .

“porniea!”

And I would suggest that Yeshua accomplishes a number of things in His teaching on divorce using this word.

First of all, adultery and fornication are two totally different words and scripture frequently separates the terms.

For example, in Matthew it reads:

Mt 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

From this (and many others) we can see that adultery (mocheia) and fornication (porneia) are two very different terms with very different meanings.

While we know what adultery means the word pornea means “any and all sexual immorality or deviancy.”

So, what Yeshua says here is the only justifiable grounds for divorce where the offended spouse can move on and remarry with God’s full approbation is when their spouse is involved in “any and all sexual immorality or deviancy committed in the purview of the marriage.”

It doesn’t mean you have the ethical right to divorce, but Yeshua states that such activity is grounds in God’s eyes for a lawful divorce.

In light of this, let’s consider some facts relative to what Yeshua is teaching:

ONE: God demands total sexual abstinence outside of marriage and total fidelity within it.

(Just like He says, have NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM)

Yeshua reinforces the breadth of this through His use of the word, porneia.

TWO: From this Yeshua expresses God’s view perfectly regarding sexual expression. Two in one – not more.

THREE: If sexual in fidelity of any kind is broken in a marriage, it is grounds for divorce in God’s eyes.

This stance reinforces the fact that marriage is God’s permission for sexual expression.

Looking at marriages today, which gender do you suppose is more in the position to put a spouse away for failure to comply to their vows?

The wife!

So, where for centuries women had suffered at the hands of their male partners for burning toast, here Yeshua makes the rules clear and women are typically far more justified to “put away” a spouse than the reverse.

And Yeshua, once again, makes all things right. In conclusion let me say this plainly:

Sexual relationships are so sacred, that God expects every person to avoid them unless married, and then wants every married couple to live as though they were Adam and Eve.

If they do, there are absolutely no grounds for divorce – none – because that couple is singularly one and will work out their issues together as one.

But, Yeshua says, if this union is broken by any sexual deviation or perversion from either side, the marriage can end, and the offended party (not the offender) would not be considered adulterers in God’s eyes if and when he or she remarry’s.

God is good, wholly righteous, and just.

And loving the world so much, sent His only begotten, to make up for our failures, mistakes, errors, and hearts, introducing mercy, longsuffering, patience and kindness for all – because we are all found under sin.