He did likewise with
their narrow view of the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.”
The Pharisees of the day under
-
stood the physical act of
sexual relations with a woman outside of marriage to be sin. They should also
have known, as in the case of the Sixth
Commandment, that lust
for another woman was sinful because the one
lusting had already
broken the Commandment in his heart.
These are examples of the
“righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” that Jesus characterized as making
the outside of the cup and dish
clean, while on the
inside remaining “full of greed and self-indulgence”
(Matthew 23:25, NRSV).
Jesus instructed His
disciples that God’s law must indeed be obeyed
outwardly, but it must
also be obeyed
in the spirit and intent
of the
heart.
When Jesus taught such
heartfelt obedience to God’s laws, He was
faithful to what the Old
Testament taught: “For the
Lo r d does not see as
man sees; for man looks
at the outward appearance, but the
Lo r d looks
at the heart” (1 Samuel
16:7).
The prophet Jeremiah
looked forward to a time when God would establish a new covenant in which God
promised to “put My law in their minds,
and write it on their
hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). God’s original intent for
His law was that people
would observe it from their hearts (Deuteronomy
5:29). The failure of
human beings to obey God’s law in the “inward
being” (Psalm 51:6, )
inevitably led to outward
disobedience.
Jesus did not change the law
Jesus prefaced His
contrast of the scribes’ and Pharisees’ narrow
interpretation of the law
with its true spiritual intent using the words,
“You have heard that it
was said
...
But I say to you
...” (Matthew
5:21-22, 27-28).
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