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The Spirit of the Law 1: Anger and Reconciliation (Matthew 5:21-26)

Dr Hera Lukman

31-01-2021


Matthew 5:21-26

New International Version

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ 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.

 

Prior to this passage in verse 20, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples with authority (using the word “I tell you”); He said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And later in chapter 23, Jesus told the crowds and His disciples not to do what the Pharisees and the Scribes were doing because they are hypocrites and blind guides. They don’t do what they preach. While they piously uphold the letter of the Law, the Pharisees and the Scribes undermined the spirit of the Law. As such, the Lord was calling out the inadequate righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who only focused on righteous deeds while neglecting inner righteousness, the righteousness of the heart as John Stott put it in his exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. What really matters to God is the state of our hearts. Kingdom righteousness must be more than an external show of obedience and faithfulness. Our righteousness MUST surpass that of the Pharisees and the Scribes.

 

In verses 21-26, Jesus went into more depth to illustrate the true intent of the Law by using the 6th commandment, “You shall not murder.” The people Jesus was speaking to knew the commandment well because they had been taught by the Rabbis that the act of murder i.e. the act of taking away the life of another is liable to judgement. To obey this commandment, they are to refrain from engaging in the act of murder. Jesus corrected the traditional teaching by emphasising that the spirit of the commandment includes the inner attitude towards a neighbour. The command “You shall not murder” includes refraining from thoughts and words of anger and insult towards one’s neighbour.

 

What kind of anger was Jesus referring to in verse 22? Surely not all anger is immoral and hence prohibited. After all, we are familiar with God’s wrath in the Scripture and in Matthew, Jesus’ anger with the Pharisees and the Scribes was explicitly described in Chapter 23 when He used words such as “hypocrites”, “blind guides”, “white washed tombs”, “brood of vipers” etc. God’s anger is always holy and pure for God is good and hates evil. Some may argue that we too as Christians should hate evil and hence, we too can be righteously angry. We say “we ought to love the person and hate the sin.” That is certainly true but how often do we achieve that? When we are angry at a person’s action, be it unjust, immoral or personally hurtful, how likely are we to maintain our love for and acceptance of this person? Can we love the person and hate the sinful act? How pure is our intentions or motives for such righteous anger? If we are brutally honest with our self-examination, would we find self-centred intentions or self-centred righteousness disguised as quests for justice and righteousness?


The anger in verse 22 refers to immoral anger. I would like to highlight 3 words the Lord Jesus used. “WITH”, “RACA” and “FOOL”. The Lord Jesus did not prohibit anger at something, a wrong doing or an act of injustice. He was referring to anger WITH a brother or sister, anger towards a character rather than a deed. Both the words “RACA” and “FOOL” are words meant to insult and condemn the person not his/her actions per se. RACA is an Aramaic word similar in meaning with “empty headed” in the English language. This term is meant as an insult to a person’s intelligence. The word FOOL is a term of judgement. Using the term “fool” amounts to condemning the person to hell. All the 3 words Jesus used describe an anger that has to do with another’s character and the judgement of that character. Jesus categorically taught his disciples that having such anger with a neighbour is no different than the act of murder. Both are subjected to the Heavenly court’s judgement, even though in the court of man, such anger is not subjected to judgement. We must remember that ultimately, we are all subjected to God’s judgement.

 

In today’s language, I think the Lord is referring specifically to “contempt towards a neighbour”. Contempt is an emotion that involves despising a person’s character, despising who the person is more than what they have done. In other words, when we are in contempt with another, we consider the person as a bad person or someone with a bad character. We think of this person as inferior to us and tend to evaluate the person as “stupid”, “incompetent” or “immoral”. As such, contempt motivates us to exclude or alienate the target of our contempt. Contempt drives us to ignore the person, gossip about the person and socially exclude the person. Contempt can occur without outward display of anger or insult. In our Asian culture that values diplomacy and keeping face, inner contempt is more acceptable than outward expression of contempt. In Kingdom principles, both outward and inner contempt are equally unacceptable.

 

Have we ever evaluated a brother or sister in Christ as unspiritual, immoral or worthy of the fires of hell because we consider his/her particular behaviour or thinking to be ‘ungodly’ e.g. the way the person speaks, the way he/she dresses, his/her choice of music or his/her worldview on various issues; particularly the more contentious ones like sexuality, abortion, science, miracles, healing to just name a few. In the last year or so, we see the world divided in support for Trump and more recently on whether one should take the covid-19 vaccine. These issues are hotly debated and disputes have amounted to more than war of words. Many people are disillusioned, in despair and many have lost their lives as a result of worldview differences. The Church is not spared from such sorrows. Christians are as divided in our perspectives on many issues. We may not experience an all-out war of disputes in our Church, but we may have an inner contempt for someone in our community that lurks inside us, sometimes under our awareness. Have we ever been angry with a brother or sister because he/she doesn’t see eye-to-eye with us on certain matters? Instead of seeking to understand this person’s perspective, do we think lesser of this person, despise or judge this person as less spiritual? Instead of engaging this person to know him/her better, do we avoid this person because he/she is just not worthy of our time and our energy?; do we walk the other way when we see this person in Church? Do we look down on our neighbour because we think we are better than them?

 

Proverbs 16:2

New International Version

All a person’s ways seem pure to them,
    but motives are weighed by the Lord.

 

What would the Lord see in our hearts? According to Kingdom principles, how would we fare in the keeping of the 6th commandment? Would we be guilty of murder? The Lord has shown me that I am guilty as charged.

 

Contempt encourages pride, vanity, hatred, malice and revenge. It can prevent us from developing the characters Jesus asked His disciples to foster when He gave them the beatitudes at the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount. When we think of our neighbour as more inferior to us or lacking in character, we are not being poor in spirit. We think of ourselves better than what we really are. We overlook our own inadequacies and ignore the blemishes in our own character. Contempt puffs us up and makes us proud of ourselves rather than being humble and contrite in spirit, mourning for our sins.

 

Luke 18:11

New International Version

11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

 

How can we be in contempt with our brother or sister and at the same time hunger for kingdom righteousness. That is self-righteousness and being hypocritical. In contempt, how can we think about mercy let alone be merciful when the aim of contempt is to remove, exclude or assassinate our brother’s or sister’s character. Ultimately, contempt leads us away from reconciling with our brother or sister. Contempt breaks peace rather than encourage peace making. Contempt not only destroys another’s character, it ultimately annihilates the godly character Jesus wants His disciples to be. “Thou shall not murder”.

 

Have you (and I) kept the 6th Commandment?

 

Immoral anger can lead to discord and hurtful relationships. Jesus continued in verses 23-26 to provide the disciples a practical way to reconciliation. He instructed them to seek reconciliation because true worship is not about an external act. True worship is not in the gifts we offer God at His alter while we harbour deep wounds and conflict with our neighbour. Faithfully attending church, prayer meetings and serving the Body of Christ when we hold our neighbour in contempt is not a worship that is acceptable to God. True worship of God requires us to be right with God AND to be right with our neighbour. Love God and Love Man, one cannot exist without the other. True worship requires us to be radically consistent in our being and doing.

 

I would like to emphasise three words in verses 23-25 that the Lord Jesus used in his instruction to his disciples. The words “Remember”, “Go” and “Quickly”. These words describe the nature of reconciliation. Reconciliation is an active process that must not be delayed.

 

The word “Remember” is an active verb. To remember i.e. to recall, requires intentional effort to think about an event, specifically in this passage, to reflect on the state of our relationship with our neighbour. The first step towards reconciliation is acknowledgement, not only the acknowledgement that there is a conflict between us and our neighbour but also our acknowledgement of our part in the conflict i.e. what are the things that I have said or done or neglected to do that might have (intentionally or unintentionally) contributed to the conflict. Without self-awareness and without acknowledging our role in the conflict, we may not see the need to reconcile. The attitude of blame: “it is your fault and not mine” and the excuses we make: “I didn’t mean to hurt you” perpetuate hurts, discord and justifies our decision against reconciliation. A knife wound bleeds regardless if it is an intentional cut or not. It is the wound and the welfare of the wounded that matter more than the intention of the cut. We need to acknowledge the hurt and how we have hurt another if we want to reconcile.

 

The word “Go” is another active verb. It is not sufficient to reflect on the conflict with our neighbour and be remorseful before God alone. The Lord Jesus asked us to “Go and be reconciled; then come and offer your gift”, a clear and definitive instruction to engage our neighbour rather than sweep things under the carpet. Being right with our fellow man is necessary if we want to be right with God. The essence in the instruction to “Go and be reconciled” is not to apologise in order to justify ourselves but to apologise in order to resolve conflicts or come to terms with our neighbour.

 

My husband said that I am very bad at apologizing. For those of you listening, you would have realised that I said “MY HUSBAND said” rather than I THINK I am very bad at apologising. You can still hear this hint of reluctance to acknowledge my limitation! God help me! Yes, my husband said that I am very bad at apologising and after almost 25 years of marriage, I am beginning to think he is absolutely right! I am a WIP-WORK IN PROGRESS! When I apologize (which is not often at all!), I am 10 8 11 5 very defensive. I will say “sorry”…begrudgingly…and I will say things like “I am sorry for leaving the room… BUT (there is always that word BUT) BUT I did it because I had to….. or “I’m sorry that I left the room because YOU made me upset and therefore I left the room…indicating that it was his fault in the first place… I tend to take the defensive position when I apologise because I need to defend my self-worth. It is an ego thing. I feel more worthy and my self-esteem is less wounded if I justify, blame another, make excuses or minimize the wrong I have done. I need to learn how to go and be reconciled as the Lord Jesus has asked his disciples to do. I need to acknowledge that I have hurt someone, ask for forgiveness and if need be, offer what I can to repair the damages I have caused.

 

Maybe some of you are like me, preferring not to talk about conflicts because it is uncomfortable, embarrassing and because admitting my limitations makes me feel small. Maybe some of us think that making the first move to reconcile is unthinkable, I am the parent, how can I apologise to my children? I am after all the older generation. I eat salt more than they eat rice! The younger ones need to respect me! I am the teacher, how can I apologise to my students? I know more! I am a leader, how can I apologise to someone under my care? etc…or maybe some of us think that initiating reconciliation is to admit defeat. I don’t want to lose!

 

If we have those thoughts, we are more likely to delay reconciliation; more likely to wait for the other person to start the reconciliation process. The Lord has clearly instructed us to initiate the reconciliation and to do so QUICKLY. The word “Quickly” indicates an urgency in reconciliation as urgent as dealing with cancer cells in our body. We need to be quick to reconcile for 2 reasons, lest the anger with another becomes something uncontainable and lest we be destroyed because we refuse to acknowledge our sins and because we refuse to forgive our neighbour.

 

“What can I do to reconcile with my neighbour?” Remember and Go Quickly.

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us come before the Lord to ask Him to reveal to us the faces of our neighbour that we need to reconcile with. This person could be someone very close to us and whom we treasure but something is amiss between us and them. Words of anger uttered or not may have hurt the relationship we have with this person. The history of this hurt may be from long ago, festering and eating at us and at our relationship with this person. Offer this to the Lord, for a broken spirit and a contrite heart, the Lord will not despise. Allow His Holy Spirit to give us the insight, courage and willingness to seek reconciliation with this person. Reconciliation can be absolutely liberating. It’s never too late to be liberated. The truth will set you free. Are we free, my brothers and sisters?

 

Jesus said to His disciples, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

To be a disciple of Christ is liberating but it is also costly. May the Lord enable us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.


RELATED:

Keys to the Kingdom (Matthew 5:1-6): Towards Spiritual Understanding 


Kingdom Principles for Kingdom Living (Matthew 5:7-12): True Spiritual Righteousness


Salt, Light and the Law (Matthew 5:13-20) 


The Spirit of the Law 1: Anger and Reconciliation (Matthew 5:21-26)


The Spirit of the Law 2: Man must be Righteous at Heart (Matthew 5:27-37)

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