Legal Counsel For Christians Series

I have entitled our message for this morning, “Legal Counsel for Christians.” You may not realize it, but the Bible is full of courtroom imagery. The most noteworthy example is the great white throne of judgement seen in the book of Revelation (20:11-15). Did you know that Jesus will be there right alongside the Father in that final judgement? Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:1, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.” We also read in Romans 2:16 that “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” Jesus understands the legal proceedings of heaven, and heavenly lawfare is much more complicated than what we find in the courtrooms of men. In our passage of Scripture, Jesus provides us some expert legal advice that we would do well to heed; so, let us go ahead and get started!

Settling Disputes Outside of Court (vv. 25-26)

25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

The illustration Jesus presents here is a legal case concerning debt. “Such cases were settled by the local council of elders. A time was appointed when [the] plaintiff and defendant had to appear together. In any small town or village, there was every likelihood of them finding [each other] on the way to the court [and travelling there] together. When a man was adjudged guilty, he was handed over to the court officer . . . It was the duty of the court officer to see that the penalty was duly paid, and if it was not paid, he had the power to imprison the defaulter, until it was paid.”(1) Jesus taught that we would do best to settle our disputes outside of court. I believe He also taught that Christians, especially, should resolve their differences privately, as going to court is a bad public testimony.

We can also infer from what Jesus said that we need to head off a problem before it escalates. These verses can be applied to more than just court proceedings. “If a quarrel, or a difference, or a dispute is not [settled] immediately, it can go on breeding [more] and [more] trouble as time goes on. Bitterness breeds bitterness. It has often happened that a quarrel between two people has descended to their families . . . and has in the end succeeded in splitting a church or a society in two. If, at the very beginning, one of the parties had had the grace to apologize or admit [their] fault, a very [bad] situation need never have arisen.”(2) “Never leave an unreconciled quarrel or an unhealed breach between yourself and your [fellow] man. Act immediately to remove the barriers which anger has raised.”(3)

Stopping Crime within the Heart (vv. 27-30)

27 You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not commit adultery.” 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Here, Jesus mentions adultery, which is a matter that would have certainly sent someone to court! However, in verse 28, He introduces a new concept; “adultery of the heart.” According to commentator William Barclay, Jesus was “not speaking of the natural, normal desire, which is part of human instinct and human nature. According to the literal meaning of the Greek, the man who is condemned is the man who looks at a woman with the deliberate intention of lusting after her. The man who is condemned is the man who deliberately uses his eyes to awaken his lust, the man who looks in such a way that passion is awakened and desire deliberately stimulated.”(4) He continues to note how “in a tempting world there are many things which are deliberately designed to excite and to stimulate desire. There are books, pictures, plays, [and] even advertisements.”(5) Barclay alludes to the deliberate consumption of pornographic material.

In verse 29, Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin,” and then in verse 30, “If your right hand causes you to sin.” The word “sin” is the Greek word skandalizei, which comes from skandalon. Skandalon can mean “stumbling stone,” however, it has another meaning more appropriate to this passage. Skandalon is also the word used for “the stick in the trap that springs and closes the trap when the animal touches it.”(6) It is like the triggering mechanism in a large bear trap. “The skandalon is something which trips a man up, something which sends him crashing to destruction, [and] something which lures him to his own ruin,”(7) and the one who baits the trap is Satan. In 2 Timothy 2:26, Paul speaks about how he wishes that people would “come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”