What does Matthew 5:35 Mean?

Context Summary

The legislation of the old time insisted that no member of the commonwealth should commit adultery, and enforced terrible penalties. See Deuteronomy 22:22-24. But the Divine Man, who reads the human heart with perfect accuracy, goes behind the deed to its premonitory stages, legislates about the look that may inflame passion, and condemns the soul that does not instantly turn the eye from that which allures it, to the All-Holy, asking to be cleansed not with tears only but with blood. The first act in the religious life is to detect right and wrong in the thought or intention. If the tempter is arrested there, He is powerless to hurt. Kill the snake in the egg!

The prohibition against swearing does not deal with taking an oath in the law court. During His trial by the high priest, our Lord did not resent being put on His oath. On rare and solemn occasions we may have to bare our heads before God and ask Him to corroborate our word. But how different is this from the frequent and flippant use of expletives and extravagances of speech. [source]

Chapter Summary: Matthew 5

¹  Jesus' sermon on the mount:
³  The Beattitudes;
¹³  the salt of the earth;
¹⁴  the light of the world
¹⁷  He came to fulfill the law
²¹  What it is to kill;
²⁷  to commit adultery;
³³  to swear
³⁸  He exhorts to forgive wrong,
⁴³  to love our enemies;
⁴⁸  and to labor after perfection