"You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny."
At what point in our personal walk of faith do we begin to realize that accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour demands a higher level of dedication and sacrifice that in reality we would rather sidestep or justify rather than accept literally? Like it or not, a follower of Christ can measure very quickly whether the spiritual fruit he/she bears is lush and plentiful or stricken and barren beginning with each of Jesus' antitheses ("You have heard that it was said....but I say to you") found in Matthew 5. This is an extremely profound technique Christ uses because in today's melting pot culture of post-modernism whereby truth is relative and experiential, Jesus confronts our knowledge by honing in very specifically on whether we truly understand the infallible truth of His teaching and the deeper meaning of righteous living.
In order to begin breaking down this passage of Scripture, one must address whether he/she accepts unconditionally and universally, Christ as truth. Jesus stated plainly, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63), so why then do we struggle to live according to His Word that gives eternal life? James, the brother of Jesus, gives us no clearer answer than this: "Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:13-15). Our carnal bent to live unto ourselves drives a wedge between the purest truths of God and our own selfish desires that manipulate God's Word into a Pharisaical exercise of rule-abiding legalism. Therefore, if we desire to live unto Christ by abiding in His Word, we must be willing to accept that heart surgery will be performed at the deepest level of our being, and that begins with what we accept as our foundation of truth.
It is imperative that again we recognize that what Jesus addresses in each of these antitheses is NOT a contradiction of what the Old Testament says regarding the issues of anger, lust, divorce, oaths and retaliation. Rather, He is questioning the depth of our understanding, i.e. whether we are content to keep our distance from obvious sins like murder (in this particular study), yet neglect the murderous thoughts we harbor in our hearts and minds toward other people who were created in the image of God himself. God desires for us all to obey His commandments, but the command to love far exceeds any other because in everything we say and do, we are choosing whether we love God, ourselves or one another. Christ's command is supreme though: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
Why then is love an issue at all when considering the issue of anger? In truth, anger is familiar to our flesh for our flesh is constantly at war with the Spirit of God that dwells within the heart of any man or woman who accepts Christ as Saviour. It is natural to feel angry at times because our sin nature becomes very angry when we do not yield to it. But what is the standard from which that anger derives? We must understand that who and/or what we love is the foundation from which we build our understanding of anger. For the Christ-follower, that inevitably comes down to Holy Scripture which begs the question: Do we hate what God hates or what we choose to hate? And do we love who God loves or who we choose to love? Bottom-line, Jesus felt passionate enough to address the issue of anger first, therefore we are best served to heed this warning with great consideration and accountability in hopes of recognizing the wildfire that consumes our lives when anger is allowed to run rampant, destroying everything in its path.
Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary gives a tremendous reference point to the meaning of this powerful emotion:
ANGER, n.
1. A violent passion of the mind excited by a real or supposed injury; usually accompanied with a propensity to take vengeance, or to obtain satisfaction from the offending party. This passion however varies in degrees of violence, and in ingenuous minds, may be attended only with a desire to reprove or chide the offender. Anger is also excited by an injury offered to a relation, friend or party to which one is attached; and some degrees of it may be excited by cruelty, injustice or oppression offered to those with whom one has no immediate connection, or even to the community of which one is a member. Nor is it unusual to see something of this passion roused by gross absurdities in others, especially in controversy or discussion. Anger may be inflamed till it rises to rage and a temporary delirium.
Personally, I physically cringe at how raw and descriptively accurate the first sentence of that definition feels, for in my heart I know it far too well. Anger begs for vengeance and retaliation, for our flesh desires retribution whether justified or not based on the real or supposed injury we have experienced throughout our lives. No doubt, some anger is justified at times and in particular situations, but on the whole, getting angry about people, things or circumstances that are of little consequence in the big picture of God's redemptive plan is meaningless. "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27) should be a reminder to us that while not all anger is sin, we must guard ourselves to not be consumed by anger and thus allow our anger to become sin. The Old Testament is full of examples of God's holy wrath and anger toward the sin of mankind, but His anger is rooted in love that paid the ultimate sacrifice by dying for sinful anger.
I find it impossible to consider the breadth and depth of anger without considering the depravity of my own heart. For while I find it virtually effortless to be angry about practically anything that inconveniences my own selfish desires, the greatest convicting truth is that I cannot seem to bring myself to the same level of passionate anger for sin in my own life, and that is undeniably convicting to admit after 9 stalemate months considering the enormity of that personal truth with God before writing about it! How sick the human condition can become when a follower of Jesus Christ becomes numb toward anger of his/her personal sin, yet passionately angry about the sins of mankind and the world around him/her. No doubt the apostle Paul understood this dilemma as well when he wrote: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:14-15). Bottom-line, if I spent my time channeling my anger toward the ongoing sinful tendencies of my own life rather than the sins of others and inconveniences of life in general, perhaps applying the truth of Matthew 5:21-26 would become much more effortless and common-place, and reconciliation with God and others would become my first thought rather than my last resort.
Anger can be a pervasive cancer in the heart of a Christ-follower when it is not based upon God's truth but man's selfish desires and experience. True, selfishness sits at the root of such divisiveness in the heart of man and in the church of Jesus Christ today, but anger unfortunately is the weapon that we use to drive wedges within the body of Christ which does nothing more than create distance between ourselves and Christ Himself. Therefore, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31) because anger is often mentioned throughout the New Testament writings of Paul with sins that we can tend to flippantly dismiss as well: "quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder" (2 Corinthians 12:20) and "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these" (Galatians 5:19-21).
In my opinion, the key takeaway in studying Matthew 5:21-26 is to heed James' loving advice: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19-20). Anger is best served when guarded by our hearts and reserved for God Himself to own, for only His righteous anger is holy. Our righteousness is simply dependant on our ability to apply the truth of Scripture, and begins with personal reflection of our own lives and a passionate anger for all sin within us that distances us from the righteousness of God. We are called to predominately channel anger first inward toward personal sin and begin to eradicate the cancer by the power of the Holy Spirit who illuminates the truth of God's Word. By doing so, we will begin to align our will with the will of God that seeks our reconciliation unto Himself as first priority. "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10).
