Matthew 5:31-37

Summary: It’s true throughout the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus addresses moral laxity in his day, but when it came to marriage and oath-keeping, things were especially distorted. Some were teaching that marriages could be dissolved for almost any sense of dissatisfaction and oaths were only binding if sworn in a very particular way. In both of these areas, Jesus highlights the radical demand of God that we keep our promises and mean what we say. From marriage vows to casual conversation, all of our words are to be spoken with the greatest of integrity. In this we model our own bride-groom, Jesus Christ, whose faithfulness to his word–even to the point of a cross–is the hope of every unfaithful and duplicitous soul.