Matthew 5:31 refers to an old legal custom in Israel: a husband could end a marriage by writing a certificate of divorce and handing it to his wife, and Jesus is about to explain that this was never the whole story of God’s design for marriage. The verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount, spoken by Jesus to his disciples and the crowds gathered on the hillside in Galilee. Its context, the verses around it, shows that Jesus is correcting how people had come to treat the law, not simply throwing it out.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’
Matthew 5:31 (WEB)
What Matthew 5:31 Means
The phrase “it was also said” signals that Jesus is quoting a teaching his listeners already knew, drawn from the law of Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1. That passage allowed a man to give his wife a written certificate of divorce, a document that protected her and made clear she was free to remarry. The verse does not condemn that practice or describe it as sinful in itself. It simply states what people had been taught.
The phrase “whoever shall put away his wife” describes a husband who sends his wife away, and the words “let him give her a writing of divorce” show the law’s concern for her dignity. In everyday terms, the verse reports a rule about how a marriage could end. It does not promise that divorce is always permitted, and it does not describe the ideal of marriage. Jesus will address that in the very next verse.
The Context of Matthew 5:31
Matthew wrote his Gospel for a community with strong ties to Jewish life and Jewish Scripture, which helps explain why he keeps returning to the law and how Jesus relates to it. The Sermon on the Mount runs through chapters 5 to 7, and in this section Jesus takes a series of teachings the people knew and says, “but I tell you,” deepening each one toward the heart. Verse 28 about looking lustfully, and verses 29 and 30 about cutting off a body part that causes sin, set the pattern: the problem lies in the inner life, not only in outward action.
Verse 32 is the answer to verse 31. Jesus says that divorcing a wife, apart from sexual immorality, exposes her to adultery and that remarrying a divorced woman carries the same weight. Read alone, verse 31 might sound like a simple legal note. Read with what follows, it becomes the setup for a sharper standard that treats marriage as a lifelong bond and asks what the law was meant to protect.
Key Phrases in Matthew 5:31
Deuteronomy 24:1
When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
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This is the Old Testament law that Jesus is quoting or alluding to in Matthew 5:31. Reading it shows the original setting of the certificate of divorce and why the rule existed. It helps you see that Jesus is engaging a real command from God’s law and is not inventing a new teaching out of nowhere.
Mark 10:6-9
6 But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. 7 For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
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In this passage Jesus returns to God’s purpose for marriage from the beginning of creation. It sheds light on why Jesus says what he says in Matthew 5:32, showing that the marriage bond was meant to be a deep, enduring union and not merely a contract that could be dissolved easily.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 5:31
Lord, you see the hearts of the people who love us and the hearts of those we have hurt. Help me to take seriously the promises I have made and the bonds I have been given. Where I have been quick to look for an easy way out, turn me back toward patience, honesty, and faithfulness. Teach me to guard my words and my attitudes so that love is protected before it is ever broken. Give grace to those who are carrying the weight of a marriage in trouble. Amen.
