Matthew 5 – 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a]and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
So I think from reading this, although this scripture is talking about murder, there is a lot more we can take from this. Yes, we shouldn’t murder each other but it talks about how these feelings can easily go places and it talks about how we can avoid getting to this dark place just by loving each other.
The first thing that stands out about this verse to me is that it’s clearly saying that sin is sin. There is no difference in the sin you commit it’s all separating you from God. It’s pretty intense how you can compare something such as being angry with someone who commits murder.
Well let me explain what I believe is being said here, in these first verses you can see how Jesus is making it clear that each of these things are things that are seeds and lead to the latter. Notice when he says that people who call one another fools are in danger of the fire. He’s giving warnings about where you can end up, he’s saying your in danger of moving towards worse things. I’m a school teacher and trust me, I’ve seen teenagers over the years hold onto anger and it filters into all aspects of their lives and can lead to self destruction, it’s heartbreaking.
So at this point, you’re probably thinking ‘we get it’, we shouldn’t be angry at each other.
Well Jesus wants you to know how important your love is. Our relationship with God is important and he wants us to worship him and go to him in all of our times. Jesus says if you’re offering something at the altar, go and reconcile first. Jesus is saying that God would rather you repair a friendship with a brother or sister than to bring him an offering of worship. I believe that many people who have yet to discover the love of Jesus do not see this. They can easily spot when another Christian falls out with a brother or a sister and what people really need to see is the love that we have for each other. We should repair those relationships before we come to Him.
The next thing that speaks to me is that it talks about settling matters with your adversary quickly. I think this is an important lesson to take. There are two reasons for this. My first reason is obviously that Jesus is coming soon and it will be when we least expect it. Do we really want feelings of hate towards a brother or sister? Do we have any hidden thoughts that are putting a wedge in that relationship? Deal with them quickly. We want to be able to approach Jesus with a clean heart on his arrival.
This brings me to my second reason for dealing with things quickly. When things are dealt with, it gives the enemy time to plant seeds of doubt, lies and hurtful thoughts. If you’re able to speak to that person right away, then you’ve got a much better chance of healing that relationship.
I don’t really need to get personal with this blog but I just want to make it clear, we need to love each other and just be there for one another. We need to reconcile relationships quickly and need to humble ourselves before we can come to God.
Clear our hearts of hurt and rejection and rebuild those relationships so that we can approach God with our worship and open arms.
Lanky "Disciple" Ray 