Matthew 5:21-26
Jesus
Teaches About Anger And Personal
Relationships
5:21
"You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU
SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits
murder shall be liable to the court.'
22 "But I say to you that
everyone who is angry with his brother shall be
guilty before the court; and whoever says to his
brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty
before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You
fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery
hell.
23 "Therefore if you are
presenting your offering at the altar, and there
remember that your brother has something against
you,
24 leave your offering
there before the altar and go; first be reconciled
to your brother, and then come and present your
offering.
25 "Make friends quickly
with your opponent at law while you are with him on
the way, so that your opponent may not hand you
over to the judge, and the judge to the officer,
and you be thrown into prison.
26 "Truly I say to you,
you will not come out of there until you have paid
up the last cent.
This
is the Word of the Lord ... It is meant to change
the way that we think, and the way that we live.
Commentary
by Bob Pardue
Anger And
Relationship Issues
Would you commit murder?
Neither would I ... but, according to these
passages Jesus says that, if we become angry enough
to murder someone, we have already committed the
crime in our hearts.
So, the question comes again,
have we ever committed murder? The Pharisees did
when they became angry enough to kill Jesus, or at
least have him killed.
Now, the physical act of
killing another person is against what most humans
believe and is a terrible thing to do. I'm not sure
of the direct quote but the act of killing was
explained in a Clint Eastwood movie where he
explained that killing takes away everything a
person has, or ever will have. A bit chilling when
you think about it.
But, what about anger? Is the
sin of anger just as great as the sin of murder? As
stated above, we would never murder anyone but we
are capable of becoming extremely angry with them.
This is dangerous not only on
the physical level where anger can cause a person
to lose control but also is a killer of
relationships.
Many marriages have ended in
divorce because of anger--Arguments over petty
things such as money, priorities or the want for
power. If those couples would have turned to God,
learned the meaning of his law, and forgave each
other the marriage might have been
reconciled.
Lastly, anger moves us
further away from God. His commandment is to love
one another so how can we do this in anger? Human
relationships are important but, even more, is our
relationship with God.
Controlling anger is a real
challenge for me and is right at the top of my list
of sins but, with God's help, I am making leaps of
progress in this area.
We can many times keep from
lashing out in anger at another person by keeping
our thoughts to ourselves but Jesus teaches that we
work on controlling even our thoughts about others.
No easy task but something we can work on starting
today.
If this is one of your
weaknesses as it is with me, pray and ask God to
help you overcome this destructive emotion. Self
control works in many cases but God control is
always best!
Love in Christ
- Bob
If you have never made the
commitment to receive the love and life-changing
experience of Jesus Christ, please take a moment to
go
here and take the
first
steps to salvation.
More Daily Living Advice from Scripture
Reading
Matthew
5:17-18;19-20
- Jesus
Teaches about the
Law
-
In this
lesson from Baptist Bible study in the book of
Matthew, Jesus makes it very clear that he is not
implying that his followers break the laws of the
prophets (ten commandments and others) but that he
came to fulfill them.
Verses about controlling anger and
relationships are from New American Standard
Bible
Comments are welcome. Please email
me with any questions or comments you
may have.
|