We’re in week three of You’ve Heard It Said, a series exploring the hardest teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Today’s text is Matthew 5:31–32 — two verses on divorce that have been quoted in churches for centuries, often wielded as a weapon against the very people Jesus sought to protect.

We’re doing the background work today: what Malachi actually said and to whom, what Deuteronomy was doing when it regulated divorce, and what Jesus was really after when he spoke.