Matthew Bible Study · Lesson 14 · Matthew 5:27–32
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LESSON 14
ADULTERY, DESIRE, AND THE
COVENANT WEIGHT OF MARRIAGE
Matthew 5:27-32
GOVERNING BURDEN
Yahusha shows His people that faithfulness in marriage begins
in the heart, requires ruthless dealing with what leads toward
unfaithfulness, and carries covenant weight that does not end
simply because a man chooses to dismiss his wife.
GOVERNING THESIS
Torah already commanded against both the act of adultery and
the desire for another man’s wife. Yahusha presses that same
faithfulness into the deliberate look, the snare that must be
removed, and the covenant consequences of putting away.
THE SPINE OF THE LESSON
The Commandment Reaches the Heart -> Deal With What
Leads You There -> The Covenant Weight of Marriage
OPENING FOUNDATION
You already know from what Yahusha has taught us that He
did not come to destroy Torah.
So when you reach Matthew 5:27 and hear Him say:
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou
shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you…"
do not hear Yahusha correcting Yahuah’s commandment.
The command stands exactly as it was given:
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
The Hebrew is lo tinaf – you shall not commit adultery.
Yahuah had already forbidden the act.
But He had also already addressed what happens in the heart.
The same covenant instruction that says:
"Thou shalt not commit adultery"
also says:
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife."
So before Yahusha ever speaks Matthew 5:28, Yahuah has
already dealt with both the outward act and the inward desire.
That matters.
Yahusha is not placing heart-faithfulness on top of Torah as
something new. He is pressing His people into the full weight of
what Yahuah had already commanded.
And in this passage He does that in three directions.
First, He takes you beneath the physical act of adultery and
makes you look at what you are doing with desire in your own
heart.
Then He tells you how seriously you must deal with whatever
becomes a snare leading you toward sin.
And finally, He brings you to the covenant weight of marriage
itself and shows you that dismissing a wife does not make
covenant consequences disappear.
This passage will not allow you to reduce faithfulness to this:
"I never physically committed adultery."
Yahusha is going deeper than that.
But we must hear Him carefully.
He is not condemning you because your eyes happened to see
someone.
He is not calling the involuntary recognition that someone is
attractive adultery.
Matthew 5:28 speaks of a look directed toward desire – a look
being used for the purpose of wanting.
That distinction matters because we are not going to put words
into Yahusha’s mouth that He did not say.
At the same time, we are not going to soften what He did say.
If you deliberately feed desire that reaches outside the
faithfulness Yahuah requires, Yahusha brings that heart before
you.
If something becomes a snare pulling you toward
unfaithfulness, Yahusha does not tell you to manage it
comfortably. He tells you to deal with it.
And when He reaches marriage and divorce, He will not allow
you to treat covenant as though it disappears merely because
one person decides to walk away.
So the question before us is not simply:
Have you committed the outward act?
The question is:
What kind of faithfulness does Yahuah require from you in
your heart, in what you allow to lead you, and in how you
handle the covenant of marriage?
That is where Yahusha is taking us in Matthew 5:27-32.
MOVEMENT 1 – THE COMMANDMENT
REACHES THE HEART
Matthew 5:27-28
THE QUESTION IN THIS MOVEMENT
What does Yahusha show you about adultery before the
outward act ever occurs?
THE TEXT ITSELF
"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."
Matthew 5:27-28
"THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY"
Yahusha begins with a command Yahuah had already given
His people:
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
The Hebrew is lo tinaf – you shall not commit adultery.
Yahusha does not correct that command.
He does not weaken it.
He does not replace it.
The command stands.
But Torah did not stop with the outward act. Yahuah also
commanded:
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife."
So when Yahusha moves from adultery to the heart, He is not
taking His people outside Torah. Yahuah had already
addressed both the act and the desire.
"WHOSOEVER LOOKETH ON A WOMAN TO LUST
AFTER HER"
Now listen carefully to what Yahusha actually says.
He does not merely say:
Whoever sees a woman.
The Greek construction carries purpose:
looking in order to desire her.
The look is directed toward desire.
That distinction matters.
You can see someone without choosing desire. You can
recognize that someone is attractive without deliberately using
your eyes to feed what Yahuah has forbidden.
Yahusha is dealing with what you choose to do with what you
see.
That is where the Torah command against coveting becomes
important.
Yahuah had already said not to desire your neighbor’s wife.
Yahusha presses that same heart-faithfulness into the
deliberate look joined to desire.
WHAT YAHUSHA DOES NOT SAY
Do not put more into this verse than Yahusha puts there.
He does not say every glance is adultery.
He does not say recognizing beauty is adultery.
He does not say an involuntary thought arriving in your mind is
the same thing as deliberately feeding desire.
But once desire is deliberately entertained, you cannot hide
behind this defense:
"I never touched anybody."
Yahusha is already dealing with what you have chosen to
entertain in the heart.
WHAT TORAH ALREADY SAID
Exodus 20:14
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
Yahuah forbids the act itself.
Exodus 20:17
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy
neighbour’s."
Yahuah also addresses desire directed toward what belongs to
another. Heart-accountability did not begin in Matthew 5.
Deuteronomy 5:18
"Neither shalt thou commit adultery."
The command stands again without change.
Deuteronomy 5:21
"Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt
thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his
manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any
thing that is thy neighbour’s."
Again, Yahuah speaks directly to desire.
Job 31:1
"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think
upon a maid?"
Job speaks about his own discipline. He refuses to let his eyes
become an instrument for feeding wrongful desire. That witness
moves in the same direction Yahusha presses in Matthew 5.
WHAT THIS EXPOSES
This movement exposes the belief:
"As long as I do not physically commit adultery, I am
faithful."
Yahusha will not let you define faithfulness that narrowly.
The command against adultery stands.
The command against coveting stands.
And Yahusha brings your heart under that same requirement of
faithfulness.
THE WORD IN ONE LINE
Faithfulness is required before the act, because Yahuah
already holds the heart accountable for the desire you
choose to feed.
WHAT THIS REQUIRES OF YOU
Do not excuse deliberate desire simply because no physical act
has happened.
Do not use the absence of physical adultery as proof that your
heart is faithful.
When you recognize that you are deliberately using what you
see to feed desire Yahuah has forbidden, deal with it for what it
is.
Do not feed it.
Do not protect it.
Do not rename it.
Bring the heart under the same faithfulness Yahuah requires
from the body.
COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. Explain the text: What command does Yahusha quote in
Matthew 5:27, and does He change it?
2. State what this proves: What does the purpose
construction in verse 28 establish about the kind of looking
Yahusha is addressing?
3. Defend from Scripture: How do Exodus 20:17 and
Deuteronomy 5:21 show that Torah already addressed desire
before Yahusha spoke Matthew 5:28?
4. Recognize the error: What is wrong with saying, "As long
as I never physically committed adultery, my heart is faithful"?
5. Identify the response: What must you do when you
recognize that you are deliberately using what you see to feed
desire Yahuah has forbidden?
MOVEMENT 2 – DEAL WITH WHAT LEADS
YOU THERE
Matthew 5:29-30
THE QUESTION IN THIS MOVEMENT
How seriously does Yahusha require you to deal with what
becomes a snare leading you toward sin?
THE TEXT ITSELF
"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from
thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast
it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not that thy whole body should
be cast into hell."
Matthew 5:29-30
"IF THY RIGHT EYE OFFEND THEE"
The word translated offend is skandalizo.
It carries the idea of causing someone to stumble, becoming a
snare, or becoming something through which a person falls into
sin.
Yahusha has just dealt with the deliberate look joined to desire.
Now He tells you how seriously to deal with what becomes a
snare.
He names the right eye.
He does not say the eye itself is evil.
He is showing you that if something you are using becomes a
path through which you are being drawn toward sin, you do not
treat that lightly.
"PLUCK IT OUT, AND CAST IT FROM THEE"
Yahusha uses severe language.
He tells you to remove the eye and cast it away.
The point is not permission to injure your body.
The force of the language is the severity of the response.
What becomes a snare toward sin is not something you protect
simply because you value it.
It is not something you keep close simply because giving it up
would cost you.
Yahusha puts the matter in the strongest terms possible:
better to lose something valuable than allow it to become a
path toward destruction.
"IF THY RIGHT HAND OFFEND THEE"
Yahusha then names the right hand.
Again, He does not define the hand as a symbol that we are
free to turn into a system.
He simply names another member of the body that can become
involved in what leads toward sin.
The point does not change.
If something becomes a snare, deal with it.
Do not keep accommodating what repeatedly pulls you toward
what Yahuah forbids.
"IT IS PROFITABLE FOR THEE"
Yahusha tells you why the response must be severe:
"It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into
Gehenna."
He puts two losses beside each other.
The loss of one member.
And the loss represented by the whole body being cast into
Gehenna.
Yahusha makes the comparison severe because the danger is
severe.
You may value what has become a snare.
You may feel that removing it costs too much.
Yahusha tells you that keeping what leads you toward sin can
cost more.
That is the weight of the warning.
WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN
Do not turn Yahusha’s severe language into a command for
self-mutilation.
Removing an eye does not remove desire from the heart.
Cutting off a hand does not make the heart righteous.
The language presses the seriousness of removal.
What leads you toward sin must not be protected simply
because it is close to you, useful to you, pleasurable to you, or
difficult to give up.
WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS ELSEWHERE
Proverbs 6:27-28
"Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be
burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be
burned?"
You do not carry fire against yourself and expect no
consequence.
You do not walk on hot coals and expect not to be burned.
Proverbs does not let you treat the path toward sexual sin as
harmless simply because the final act has not yet happened.
Romans 13:14
"But put ye on the Master Yahusha Messiah, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
Do not make provision for desire.
Do not build conditions that feed what you are supposed to
resist.
The principle is plain: do not prepare a place for what leads you
toward sin.
WHAT THIS EXPOSES
This movement exposes the belief:
"I know this leads me in the wrong direction, but I can
handle it."
Yahusha does not teach you to see how close you can stay to
the snare without falling.
He tells you to deal with what becomes a snare.
The question is not whether you enjoy it.
The question is not whether removing it is inconvenient.
The question is whether it is repeatedly becoming a path
toward what Yahuah has forbidden.
THE WORD IN ONE LINE
What becomes a snare toward sin must be dealt with
seriously, not protected because removing it costs you
something.
WHAT THIS REQUIRES OF YOU
Be honest about what repeatedly leads you toward sin.
Do not rename a snare as harmless simply because you do not
want to let it go.
Do not make provision for what you already know feeds the
wrong desire.
If something has become a path that repeatedly pulls you
toward what Yahuah forbids, put distance between yourself and
it.
Yahusha’s language gives you the measure of seriousness:
better to lose what you value than protect what is leading
you toward destruction.
COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. Explain the text: What does skandalizo tell you about what
Yahusha means when He says the eye or hand "offends"
you?
2. State what this proves: What does the severity of "pluck it
out" and "cut it off" establish about how seriously a snare
toward sin must be treated?
3. Defend from Scripture: How do Proverbs 6:27-28 and
Romans 13:14 support the principle of refusing to make room
for what leads toward sin?
4. Recognize the error: What is wrong with the attitude, "I
know this pulls me toward sin, but I can handle it"?
5. Identify the response: What should you do when something
repeatedly becomes a path that feeds desire Yahuah has
forbidden?
MOVEMENT 3 – THE COVENANT WEIGHT
OF MARRIAGE
Matthew 5:31-32
THE QUESTION IN THIS MOVEMENT
What does Yahusha show you about the covenant weight of
putting away a wife and the consequences that follow?
THE TEXT ITSELF
"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."
Matthew 5:31-32
"LET HIM GIVE HER A WRITING OF
DIVORCEMENT"
Yahusha now brings you from desire and the danger of what
leads toward adultery into the covenant weight of marriage
itself.
He begins with what had been said concerning a man putting
away his wife:
"Let him give her a writing of divorcement."
That language reaches back to Deuteronomy 24.
But read Deuteronomy carefully.
It describes a man who puts away his wife and gives her a
writing of divorcement. It then follows what happens if she
becomes another man’s wife and that second marriage also
ends.
The command Yahuah gives in that passage is not:
Divorce your wife as long as you give her paperwork.
The passage regulates a situation involving divorce and places
a boundary on what can happen afterward.
That distinction matters.
Yahusha will not allow the certificate itself to carry more weight
than Torah gives it.
"BUT I SAY UNTO YOU"
Yahusha then presses the matter further:
"Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication…"
The word translated fornication is porneia.
It refers to sexual immorality.
That is the exception Yahusha names in this statement.
We need to stop where He stops.
Do not narrow porneia into a definition the word itself does not
require.
Do not broaden it until it becomes permission for whatever
circumstance someone wants to place underneath it.
Yahusha names sexual immorality as the exception.
The lesson can say that plainly without pretending these two
verses answer every difficult marriage situation that may be
brought before us.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF PUTTING AWAY
Yahusha says that the man who puts away his wife apart from
the exception He named brings an adultery consequence upon
her.
The Greek construction places her on the receiving end of what
his action sets in motion.
We do not need to force the grammar beyond that.
The point Yahusha gives you is already serious:
what the man does to the marriage has consequences
beyond himself.
He does not get to treat dismissal as though it concerns only
his preference, his decision, or his future.
His action reaches another person.
Yahusha makes him answer for the covenant consequence
connected to what he has done.
"WHOSOEVER SHALL MARRY HER THAT IS
DIVORCED"
Then Yahusha gives the second consequence plainly:
"Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth
adultery."
The wording is direct.
The man entering that union is said to commit adultery.
Do not soften that because the subject is difficult.
But do not make it say more than Yahusha says either.
Marriage carries covenant weight.
Putting away is not treated as a consequence-free act.
Sexual immorality is the exception Yahusha names.
And the unions that follow dismissal can carry the consequence
of adultery.
Let the words stand at their full weight.
WHAT TORAH ACTUALLY SAYS
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
"When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it
come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because
he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write
her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send
her out of his house.
And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and
be another man’s wife.
And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of
divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out
of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to
be his wife;
Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her
again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is
abomination before Yahuah: and thou shalt not cause the
land to sin, which Yahuah thy Elohim giveth thee for an
inheritance."
Notice where the prohibition actually lands.
The passage describes the divorces.
The command comes when the first husband seeks to take the
woman back after she has become another man’s wife.
Yahuah places a boundary there.
So do not turn Deuteronomy 24 into a command to divorce or
into blanket approval of divorce.
Teach what the passage actually regulates.
MARRIAGE AS COVENANT
Malachi 2:14-15
"Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because Yahuah 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 seed of
Elohim. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal
treacherously against the wife of his youth."
Malachi gives us language Matthew 5 does not need to invent:
the wife of thy covenant.
Yahuah is witness.
Treacherous dealing within marriage is not presented as a
private matter that concerns only the two people involved.
Marriage stands before Yahuah.
And notice the command:
take heed to your spirit.
The warning reaches inward again.
Faithfulness is not merely what you claim with your mouth.
Yahuah calls you to guard how you deal with the one joined to
you in covenant.
"THEY SHALL BE ONE FLESH"
Genesis 2:24
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
Marriage begins with joining.
A man leaves.
He cleaves to his wife.
The two become one flesh.
That is the foundation underneath the covenant weight of this
movement.
So when Yahusha speaks about putting away, adultery, and
another union, He is not speaking about something casual.
He is speaking into a relationship Yahuah established with the
language of joining and one flesh.
WHAT THIS EXPOSES
This movement exposes the idea:
"If I decide the marriage is over, then whatever follows is
only a personal matter."
Yahusha does not treat it that way.
The man’s act of putting away carries consequences.
The exception Yahusha names matters.
What follows the dismissal matters.
And another union can stand under the charge of adultery.
A certificate does not make covenant weight disappear.
THE WORD IN ONE LINE
Marriage carries covenant weight before Yahuah, and
putting away does not erase the consequences attached to
that covenant.
WHAT THIS REQUIRES OF YOU
Do not treat marriage casually.
Do not treat putting away as though one person’s decision
automatically settles everything before Yahuah.
Do not expand Yahusha’s exception beyond what He names,
and do not erase the exception He actually gives.
If your own history raises questions these verses do not
answer, do not force Matthew 5:31-32 to answer them.
Start with what Yahusha actually says.
Let His words examine how seriously you regard marriage,
faithfulness, dismissal, and the consequences your decisions
can create for another person.
Where He speaks plainly, receive it plainly.
Where He does not answer a question here, do not put an
answer into His mouth.
COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. Explain the text: What does Matthew 5:31 say concerning
putting away a wife and the writing of divorcement, and what
passage in Torah stands behind that statement?
2. State what this proves: What exception does Yahusha
actually name in verse 32, and why must we avoid making
that exception narrower or broader than the text allows?
3. Defend from Scripture: How do Deuteronomy 24:1-4,
Malachi 2:14-15, and Genesis 2:24 together show the weight
Scripture places on marriage without making each passage
say the same thing?
4. Recognize the error: What is wrong with treating dismissal
as though one person’s decision removes every covenant
consequence?
5. Identify the response: How should you handle personal
marriage questions that Matthew 5:31-32 itself does not
resolve?
CLOSING SECTIONS
MATTHEW’S ARGUMENT
Yahusha begins with the command against adultery and takes
you beneath the outward act.
Torah had already forbidden adultery.
Torah had also already forbidden desire for another man’s wife.
So Yahusha presses faithfulness into the heart and makes you
examine the deliberate look joined to desire.
Then He tells you how seriously to deal with what becomes a
snare toward sin.
Do not accommodate it.
Do not keep making room for it.
Do not protect it because removing it costs you something.
And when Yahusha reaches marriage itself, He reminds you
that covenant consequences do not disappear simply because
one person decides to dismiss the other.
The passage therefore moves in one clear direction:
The Commandment Reaches the Heart -> Deal With What
Leads You There -> The Covenant Weight of Marriage
Yahusha is pressing faithfulness from the heart, through the
choices that feed desire, and into the covenant of marriage
itself.
EXPOSED ERROR
This passage exposes three errors.
The first is believing that faithfulness can be measured only by
whether the physical act of adultery occurred.
Yahusha does not let you stop there.
The deliberate look directed toward desire brings the heart into
the matter.
The second error is believing that something can repeatedly
pull you toward sin and still be safely accommodated.
Yahusha does not teach you to live comfortably beside the
snare.
He tells you to deal with it.
The third error is treating marriage as though covenant
consequences disappear when one person decides the
marriage is over.
Yahusha names an exception.
He names consequences.
And He does not give you permission to erase either one.
REQUIRED RESPONSE
Guard your heart before desire becomes action.
Be honest about what you deliberately feed.
When something repeatedly becomes a snare toward what
Yahuah forbids, stop protecting it and deal with it.
Treat marriage with the covenant weight Scripture gives it.
Do not make Yahusha’s exception broader than He makes it.
Do not make it narrower than He makes it.
And when your personal history raises questions this passage
does not answer, do not force an answer into the text.
Receive what Yahusha says.
Obey what He requires.
And stop where He stops.
FINAL HEART CHECK
Yahusha has brought faithfulness into the heart.
Are you allowing deliberate desire to live inside you simply
because it has not become a physical act?
He has told you to deal seriously with what becomes a snare.
Is there something you already know repeatedly feeds desire or
moves you toward what Yahuah forbids, but you continue
protecting it because giving it up would cost you?
And He has placed covenant weight on marriage.
Do you treat marriage, faithfulness, dismissal, and the
consequences of your decisions with the seriousness Yahusha
gives them?
The question is not whether this passage touches something
painful.
The question is whether you will let Yahusha speak plainly
where He speaks, and whether you will bring your heart,
your choices, and your covenant faithfulness under what
He says.