Matthew 5:21-22

Matthew 5:21-22

You heard that it was being said to the ones who lived a long time ago, “You will not commit murder.  And whoever should commit murder; this one will be found guilty by a court of judgment.”  But I say to you that everyone who has been angry against his brother will be found guilty by a court of judgment.  And whoever should say to his brother, “You are ignorant!” will be found guilty by the Sanhedrin.  And whoever should You are unwise!” will be found guilty into the hell of fire.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I think that it is interesting to note that there are two words used in the Bible for anger.  There is thumos (θυμός).  Thumos is described as being like what happens when a flame hits dried straw.  It erupts quickly but then dies down.  The other word is orge (ὀργή).  This kind of anger is the anger that abides within.  Unlike thumos, which is gone as quickly as it came, orge anger lives in a person and slowly consumes them.  It is this kind of anger that we find Jesus speaking towards in this passage.  Jesus is specifically speaking to people who not only cannot find a way to let their anger go but who also find ways to invite it to live within them.  Jesus is condemning those who let their anger brood and those who refuse to let their anger be pacified.

Do you ever find yourself the victim of orge anger?  What are the areas of your life where you struggle with letting anger go?

Second Thought:

We should not miss Jesus’ point.  Jesus is comparing our internal drive to hold onto anger to murder.  When we stay angry at someone, we are breaking the relationship.  When we stay angry at someone, we are unable to demonstrate grace and forgiveness to them.  When we stay angry at someone, we are essentially shutting them off from our lives.  When we stay in our anger, we are spiritually and emotionally killing any hope of relationship.  We may not be killing them physically, but we are indeed killing them emotionally and spiritually with respect to relationship.  What is the end result?  When we stay in our anger, we are the antithesis of God.  God seeks relationship – even with those who reject Him and treat Him with contempt.  When we stay in our anger, we have more in common with those who abuse God than God Himself.

Do you understand how harboring anger is not a godly quality?  Who in your life are you guilty of severing any hope of relationship?  Why is this fundamentally a bad thing?

Third Thought:

However, as we go through this passage we find that there are two more things that Jesus lifts up as worse than anger.  The first one is contempt.  This is what Jesus means when He mentions the person who says, “You are ignorant.”  The Greek work there is raka (ῥακά) and it means “a person who is utterly lacking in understanding.”  This is the sin of thinking a person is better than another.  This is the sin of the person who refuses to see other people as beings made in the image of God.  Whenever we put another person down because we intend to elevate ourselves in our own mind, we are guilty of this.  Jesus outright condemns this and gives us the idea that this is worse than simply being angry at them.

When do you hold others in contempt?  What is the danger of seeing other people as less than yourself?  Who in your life do you see this way?

Fourth Thought:

The second thing that Jesus lifts up worse than anger is actually the worst of them all.  Jesus uses the example of a person who calls another “unwise.”  The Greek word there is moros (μωρός).  This is the etymological root of our word moron.  It means as I have translated here: unwise and foolish.  However, in the Greek this word carries a dimension that our English word doesn’t necessarily carry.  To call a person moros in the Greek was to bring their morality into question.  To call a person moros was more than saying they were uneducated; a moros was a person who didn’t even have the character of being able to understand.  This would be a person who literally didn’t have it within them to do the right thing or understand the world around them.  Here we see the sin of anger mixed with the sin of contempt and added with the sin of judgment.  Here we see Jesus speaking against those who make judgments against the character of another person.  That is the realm of God, not mankind.  That is why these people will be judged by the fire of Hell.

Do you ever judge another person’s character?  Why is that wrong?  What is the difference between making judgments upon their actions versus making judgments about their character?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 5:23-26