Matthew 5:27

The Sermon on the Mount: Adultery and Lust

27 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'

Matthew 5:27 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 5:27

Ye have heard that it was said
These forms of speech, as well as what follows,

by them of old time,
have been explained, in ver. 21. The law here mentioned,

thou shalt not commit adultery,
is recorded in ( Exodus 20:14 ) and the meaning of our Lord is, not that the then present Jews had heard that such a law had been delivered "to the ancients", their fathers, at Mount Sinai; for that they could read in their Bibles: but they had received it by tradition, that the sense of it, which had been given to their ancestors, by the ancient doctors of the church, was, that this law is to be taken strictly, as it lies, and only regards the sin of uncleanness in married persons; or, what was strictly adultery, and that actual; so that it had no respect to fornication, or unchaste thoughts, words, or actions, but that single act only.

Matthew 5:27 In-Context

25 {Settle the case quickly with your accuser} while you are with him on the way, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

26 Truly I say to you, you will never come out of there until you have paid back the last penny!

27 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'

28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

29 And if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw [it] from you! For it is better for you that one of your members be destroyed than your whole body be thrown into hell.

Footnotes

• [a]. A quotation from Exod 20:14; Deut 5:17