Matthew 5:21-26
May 7, 1995
by J. David Hoke
You have heard that the ancients were told, "You shall not commit murder" and "Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court." But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, "Raca," shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, "You fool," shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent.
(Matthew 5:21-26 NASB)
Never before have so many been involved in killing. With the memory of Oklahoma City
and Haddon Heights, New Jersey still fresh in our minds, this should be sufficiently
illustrated. There are certainly an alarming number of people involved in direct killing
right here in this so-called civilized country. We hear of increasing crime statistics in
almost every major city in America every year.
But there is another kind of killing going on at an even more furious pace today. This
would not be direct killing, but it would be put into the same category by Jesus himself.
It is the killing that takes place within our hearts. You see, the heart of murder is
the heart.
When we think of killing, we normally think of taking another human life. But what
exactly do we mean by killing? When God gave the Sixth Commandment, what did He have in
mind? Did He mean war, capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, or self-defense? Is the
commandment which forbids us to kill simply a commandment not to take human life and is it
limited to actions alone? Could God have in mind the attitudes and emotions behind the
actions? Could He be thinking of things like hatred, jealousy, anger, greed, arrogance,
and callous words? If these murderous attitudes are included in God's definition of
murder, we are in more serious trouble than we realize.
Do you understand what evil lurks in your own heart? Could there be a murderer living
in your own house, and could it be you? Understanding the implications of
God's prohibition against killing becomes extremely important if it encompasses attitudes
as well as actions. If this prohibition takes into account evil thoughts, attitudes, and
intentions, then we are all in serious trouble.
The Ten Commandments that were given by God on Mount Sinai included as its Sixth the
prohibition against killing or murder. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clarified its
meaning. As we consider its implications we may have to come face to face with things in
our lives which we do not like to see or admit. But grapple with them we must. What about
you? Is there a murderer in you? Let's turn our attention to the Sermon on the Mount to
see how Jesus applies the Sixth Commandment to the way we live our lives.
You have heard that the ancients were told, "You shall not commit murder"
(Matthew 5:21). Here Jesus was referring to the Sixth Commandment given by God on Mount
Sinai. You may have a translation which reads: "Thou shalt not kill."
The literal translation of the word from the Hebrew is murder. It is clear in the
Old Testament that God accepted capital punishment, war, and self-defense. What this
commandment has in view is the taking of life for capricious reasons.
You see, behind the Sixth Commandment is the view that all life is sacred. That is what
God said in Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be
shed, for in the image of God he made man." It is clear from this passage of
Scripture that life is sacred because it is made in the image of God. Therefore, to
destroy life is not only a sin against man it is a sin against God. For the sin of murder,
the penalty was death. Jesus said that the ancients understood that whoever
commits murder shall be liable to the court.
Thus far, the people who were listening to Jesus were thinking of murder in the literal
and physical sense. But Jesus was about to give them a definition of murder that would
turn their thinking upside down. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his
brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever shall say to his brother,
"Raca," shall be guilty before the supreme court, and whoever shall say,
"You fool," shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell (Matthew 5:22).
Jesus reveals that an important principle we must consider is that attitudes
precede actions. Since we are not robots - since we are thinking, feeling, human
beings with will and choice - our attitudes and intentions are key to our
actions. It is in this area that we come face to face with the murderer in each of us.
It is apparent from Jesus' clarification of this commandment that we all may be guilty
of violating it. Jesus, as usual, cuts through to the real issue. He reveals that
attitudes can be as harmful as actions. Indeed, attitudes precede actions. Attitudes lay
the ground work for actions to follow. Through our attitudes then, we may be as guilty
before God as if we had committed the very act.
Jesus speaks of attitudes of anger, pride, ego, arrogance, and the like, as He expounds
on God's commandment. And He imposes the same judgment on the one with these attitudes as
on the one who commits the act itself. You see, there is more than one way to kill a
person. Attitudes also kill. They destroy a person's dignity. They destroy a person's
self-worth. They kill a person's spirit.
It is interesting the emphasis Jesus places on those attitudes that manifest themselves
through our words. Take, for instance, the arrogant egoistic attitude which causes someone
to call his brother raca. Raca means "empty-head" or "good
for nothing." So when you arrogantly call someone an empty-head, block-head, good for
nothing, worthless idiot, and things like these, check your attitude. Is it one of anger?
Is it one of bitterness? Is it one of hatred? It is one of prideful self-exaltation?
Jesus condemns these attitudes as worthy of the same judgment as murder. He goes on to
say that the kind of murderous hate-filled attitudes which cause someone to call another
person a fool causes the one having those attitudes to be deserving of hell.
These are strong words indeed! But they come from the very mouth of Jesus. We must hear
them.
Look into your own heart. What do you see there? Is there evil lurking there? Do you
find yourself with attitudes that you should not have? Are there people with whom you are
angry? Are there people against whom you are bitter? Are there people you hate? "He
made me so mad I could have killed him." Beware! There could be a
murderer in you.
What we see in Jesus' words is a definite connection between physical violence and
verbal violence. We can shoot people with a gun or with our tongues. We can kill them with
bullets made of lead or with bullets made of words. The origin is the same. It all comes
from a hateful heart. The heart of murder is the heart!
God has made men and women in His image. When we depreciate them by hurling hateful,
hurtful, demeaning, insulting, and humiliating words at them, we sin against God. Who are
we to decide that some people are not worthy or valuable? What do we think we are doing
when we call someone a block-head, or loser, or fool, or nigger, or spick, or chink? Do we
have the right to depreciate them in that way? Absolutely not!
Jesus goes on to say that attitudes impact our worship. If therefore you are
presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something
against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go your way; first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering (Matthew 5:23-24).
Every Jew was familiar with the ritual of offering sacrifices in order to atone for
sin. They knew that sin separated them from fellowship with God. The offering of the
sacrifice restored that fellowship and brought them back into a position of right
relationship with God. What Jesus is pointing out is that a right relationship with God
depends on our willingness to maintain a right relationship with one another. If we are
not willing to live in right relationship with our brothers and sisters, then we are not
fit to come and worship the God in whose image they are made.
When we look at the prohibition against murder from this perspective, all of us must
admit that we are guilty at times of violating it. There are murderous attitudes in all of
us at times. They should grieve our spirits. What can we do about them? When you come face
to face with the murderer in you, there is only one recourse.
You must execute the murderer in you. In other words, you must have a
commitment to deal a death blow to the attitudes which depreciate human dignity and worth.
You must deal a death blow to attitudes and habit patterns which feeds those attitudes.
Obviously, we need to repent. That is the place to start. It usually is. Humility and
repentance will always deal a death blow to arrogance and pride. And we need to kill those
attitudes because arrogance and pride are attitudes that bring hatred to birth.
The question, of course, is whether we are willing to truly repent of these sinful
attitudes. Some people like to hang on to these attitudes. They are angry and are enjoying
being angry. Someone has wronged them, in their opinion, and they are cultivating a long
term anger and contempt against that person. I have met people like this. The anger is
like a pet sin to them. They do not want to repent, or turn away from that sin. It is as
if the anger or hatred energizes them. If they didn't have it, they wouldn't really know
what to do. So they hang on to it, pretending that it is justifiable anger.
If you are not willing to repent of these sinful attitudes, you will stand under the
judgment of God. You will be convicted as a murderer in heart. The judgment for you will
be the same judgment for those who commit the physical act of murder. The only alternative
is to repent.
Then, after thorough repentance, we must build into our minds and our hearts attitudes
which encourage and build up one another. These positive attitudes will replace the
negative ones. They will build into our lives new attitudes of love and respect for life.
We are told in Romans 12: 2, "And do not be conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that
which is good and acceptable and perfect." Our minds must be renewed if we
are to avoid murderous attitudes of heart. Those things on which we allow our minds to
dwell, will determine our attitudes of heart. If we dwell on the negative in people -
their faults, mistakes, imperfections, hang-ups, even sins - we will come out with wrong
attitudes of heart. But if we dwell on the positive, we may begin to see them as God sees
them.
In 1 Samuel 16:7, "For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the
outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Unfortunately it is
hard for us to see the heart. Therefore we must choose to dwell upon the positive. That
does not mean we do not see the negatives. But it means we do not dwell on
the negatives. Rather, we dwell upon the positive.
Listen to what the Lord says to us in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of
praise, let your mind dwell on these things." These are the things on which
we are to dwell. When we look at another person, we are to look for things that are true,
honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute. We are to try to find things of excellence
and things worthy of praise.
Everyone has good points. We should seek them out, and when we find them we should
choose to dwell on those things. As you do, you will find that by so doing you are dealing
one death blow after another to the murderous attitudes of pride, arrogance, anger, and
hatred. As you continue to do this, you will successfully execute the murderer in you.
It should be clear from Jesus evaluation that our attitudes are vital. His analysis of
God's commandments went far beyond the letter of the law. He is telling us that it is not
good enough to simply keep the letter of the law. Our obedience to God must begin with our
heart. First, there must be a surrender of our hearts to God. Our relationship with Christ
must go beyond mere outward observance and service. Our hearts must be His. We must be
those who serve from the heart. How is your heart?
Copyright (C) 1995 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of
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