Sermons

Matthew 5:21-16 The Cost of Anger

I read a bestselling book, Blink authored by Malcolm Gladwell, idiosyncratic sociologist. 

• The book’s premise is that you can read people in a simple snapshot of time.
  • Blink impressions tell your brain a lot in an instant.
  • Gladwell calls this “thin-slicing” where your brain takes pictures in the middle of crises.
• First impressions.
• Gladwell applies this to “speed dating” where people in minutes gauge compatibility.

In an experiment, Gladwell observed taped interviews of married couples for thirty seconds. 

• Within 30 seconds he diagnosed whether a marriage would last.
  • His predictions were found to be very accurate.
  • He gauged success or failure on one thing.

 

• Within 30 seconds did one exercise superiority over the other.
  • Did a spouse disparage the other?
  • The attitude that kills marriages.

 

• Murdering from the heart.

 

Jesus’ teaching from our text indicts the sin of murdering people in their hearts and with their words!  A sin that is happening all the time!

 

Prop: Jesus warns against the three levels of murdering from the heart

1. Being angry with someone (vv. 21-22a)

Verse 21 opens up how Jesus applies the Law. 

• The “Law of Christ.”
  • Chapter 5, provides six of the most relevant and important applications to illustrate living the Law.
  • How to both obey and apply God’s Law from your heart.

Jesus begins with the command forbidding “murder” (v. 21).

• This directly ties to the Mosaic Law, what we call “The 10 Commandments” which is also called The Decalogue found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.

^ESV  Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.

^ESV  Deuteronomy 5:17 “You shall not murder.

 

The Decalogue summarizes the entire heart and soul of the Law. 

 

• The first four commandments focus upward in terms of loving God.
• The remaining six commandments focus horizontally in terms of loving your neighbor.

 

^ESV  Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

³⁸ This is the great and first commandment.³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

 

^ESV  Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

 

^ESV  Galatians 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

^ESV  Galatians 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 

^ESV  Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

 

Again, Jesus did not come to “abolish the Law” or “invalidate” the Law but instead “fulfill” it. 

 

• The prophetic fulfillment of the Law, everything symbolized Christ.
• He perfectly modeled the Law’s intent.
  • Meant to locate Christ,
  • Expose our need for grace,
  • To be obeyed from the heart.

 

• Obedience from a transformed heart.

 

The Pharisees struck out with three strikes. 

 

• Missed the Messiah
• Rejected grace
• Made a list of rules to be obeyed by the flesh
  • Defining righteousness through legalism.
  • Doing more and more.

 

• Jesus says, “No!”
• Righteousness is never doing more and more but going deeper and deeper.

 

• Obeying from the heart through faith by grace.

 

^ESV  1 Corinthians 9:21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

 

Verse 21 is a direct reference to the command “You shall not murder” (cff. Ex. 20:13; Dt. 5:17). 

 

Jesus (in Matt. 5:21) uses the same introduction for all six-succeeding application/illustrations:

 

Lust, Divorce, Oaths, Retaliation, and Enemies. 

 

Confronting the Pharisee-promoted error where they “relaxed” the Law

 

Weakening it by recasting it as something superficial. 

 

Moralizing the Law through traditions. 

 

“those of old” was the self-pronounced title for the “ancient rabbis” which gave them their authority. 

 

• Rabbis through the ages taught, “If you murder, you go to trial” when the law plainly said, if you murder you were to be executed.

 

• Put to death on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

 

^ESV  Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

 

^ESV  Numbers 35:30-31 “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.³¹ Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death.

 

To murder was to destroy someone made in the image of God thereby punishable by death. 

 

• Arguing against the death penalty cheapens the preciousness of human life.
  • Stott says, remember the murderer’s victim.
  • We understand the death penalty in terms of clear-cut cold-blooded murder though murderers still need and can receive grace.

 

• Many convicted murderers in this life repent and are free in the next life.

 

Still, Jesus’ point was not to redefine or reinstate the death penalty. 

 

• There was no need for this, the death penalty was fully at play in this society, even with the heavily synchronized influence of Roman governance.

 

Passive denominations misconstrue God’s Word to say, there is never a time to kill someone.  This makes no sense of Roman’s 13:4 – governing authorities who “bear the sword.” 

• The common sense of Scripture speaks of the “strong man” is to protect his family (cf. Matt. 12:29).

 

Instead, Jesus wants believers to plumb the depths of meaning by what Jesus says here. 

 

• This goes deeper than civil code of conduct.

 

• Jesus addresses the core sin of cold-blooded murder that rises from the heart.

         

Verse 22 clarifies this depth with the phrase, “But I say to you” (v. 22). 

 

• Now moving from earth’s lower court to God’s higher court.
  • “…that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (v. 22a).
  • Being “angry” [orgn – present, passive, participle] depicting smoldering wrath that has been there for a while.

 

• Jesus is not dealing with a flame up where someone gets mad because you cut him off in traffic.

 

There is a lot of quick light anger where people have no patience in today’s temperament. 

 

• Jesus addresses what’s deeper – what’s lodged
  • The burning, grudging hatred that lodged deeply against someone.
  • The volcano God only sees.

 

• What saps spiritual vitality and binds away love and joy.
• The first phase where things are still inside and have not popped out yet.

 

^ESV  1 Chronicles 28:9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

 

^ESV  Proverbs 6:16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

¹⁹ a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

 

Anger in and of itself is not sin, hating someone is. 

 

• Jesus cleared the temple twice.
• Paul says, “be angry and sin not” (Eph. 4:26).
• But allowing animosity to lodge and grow inside is a terrible sin.

 

^ESV  James 4:1-3 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?² You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

 

^ESV  1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

 

J.C. Ryle: “Let us mark well.  We may be perfectly innocent of taking life away, and yet be guilty of breaking the sixth commandment!”

 

Back to verse 22, Jesus seamlessly moves to anger’s next level, murdering with our words. 

 

 2. Insulting someone (v. 22b)

This next level is when you start to call names. 

“…whoever insults his brother” literally “…whoever says of his brother, ‘raca’” which means, “empty head” or a “block head.” 

Saying what demoralizes someone to make them feel “worthless.” 

^ESV  Matthew 15:18-20 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.²⁰ These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

 

^ESV  James 3:8-10 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

 

When someone sins by tearing people apart with words according to Paul’s teaching in Galatians, this is “biting and devouring” – literally thrashing in the jaws of a crocodile another person made in God’s image. 

^ESV  Galatians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Like before, murdering with words is held to account in God’s higher court. 

“…will be liable to the council” (v. 22). 

• Literally, “guilty where you are going before the Sanhedrin” (v. 22).
• A metaphor for standing before God.

 

“Winning the war of words involves choosing our words carefully. It is not just about the words we say, but also about the words we choose not to say.”
― Paul David Tripp, War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles

 

This brings us to another level of hate. 

Smoldering anger leading to insults, leading to condemning.  

 3. Condemning someone (vv. 22c – 26)

“and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (v. 22). 

Now you are calling someone a “fool” which is deeper than an insult. 

• Being willing to pronounce a judgment.
• Character assassination
• Saying someone is beyond the point of no return.
• They are hopeless.

 

This is not to say, that believers have no way of recognizing when someone is an unbeliever. 

The trend has been “all roads lead to heaven” or the “Christian version” that says, “Who am I to judge whether God allows someone into heaven through another path?”  

• Jesus clearly taught he is the only path and that we shall know people by their fruits.
• Scripture acts as a discerning grid is designed to warn people of their blind state.

^ESV  Psalm 14:1 To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.

^ESV  Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

 

^ESV  1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

 

What Jesus brings to light is when someone raises themselves up like a god, driven by hatred, murders someone with his words, bites and devours that person’s character, to the point of someone’s soul, saying they are beyond grace. 

 

• Beyond your grace and beyond God’s grace.

 

• Pride runs deep to the point someone believes they can delude themselves build a dam between them and God’s grace.

 

Ironically, hardening your heart at this level, pronouncing someone the “fool” makes you the “fool” (v. 22). 

 

• The warning is that if you are at this level, you are in danger of “the hell of fire” (v. 22).
• Literally “guilty of the hell of fire” (v. 22).  

 

“the hell of fire” literally the Gehenna of fire is the picture of burning at a garbage dump. 

 

• Gehenna was located in a valley South West of Jerusalem.
  • The city dump that perpetually burned trash.
  • Worse than trash, historically was a cite of Satanic worship.

 

^ESV  2 Chronicles 28:1-3 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done,² but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals,³ and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.

 

Jesus lays down a severe warning to guard your heart against hating others, so you do not end up there. 

 

If you will not forgive, if you stay hardened in your anger, if you condemn, you will be forever condemned. 

 

^ESV  Matthew 6:15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 

      a. Religious coverups

You say, “I am not near to this kind of hardness” – these categories of hardened hearts are for hardened criminals. 

• Not so. In verses 22-23, Jesus targets the church. 
  • People operating covertly on the inside
  • Secret assassins
  • They assassinate people’s character under the guise of Christian worship.

 

• The scenario looks completely normal and even extra especially healthy from the outside.
  • However, the tie in from the Greek: “So if” eav ouv for this illustration makes this a clear warning who is actually oblivious to his or her anger.

 

• You tell yourself, “I’m fine, the problem is not with me!”

 

• “In fact, I am going to prove how good I am by going through the motions of worship.”

 

• You are right up to the act of offering a sacrifice when something hits your conscience.

[Hughes] “The worshipper has entered the great Temple of Herod with his sacrifice and has passed through the concentric courts (the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of Men).  Beyond him lies the Court of the Priest, into which only priests could pass.  The worshipper is standing at the threshold of the court.  His hands are on the sacrifice, and suddenly he remembers that he has wronged his brother.  So, he turns and retreats through the great courts.  He must first make things right with his brother.” 

You may have your Christian practice completely dialed but to your own detriment. 

• Practicing religion while harboring your anger, hate, or unresolved conflict does damage.
  • We can begin to believe our own press when we shouldn’t.
  • Doing more and more never solves heart issues.

 

• Jesus calls believers with unresolved conflict to pursue believers.

^ESV  Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

      b. Legal coverups

Verses 25-26, conclude Jesus’ thought by bringing this application outside of the church into the world. 

• This second scenario differs from religious coverup being a secular one.
  • The coverup is not a legal issue.
  • The believer is being accused of an accusation that may very well be bogus.

 

• The problem is when you allow the dispute to ramp up because your ego is involved.
  • On the surface, this may not appear as anger, but it is.
  • Covering anger under the cloak of “justice!”

 

• “I know I am right, so we are going to take this to court!” “I will be vindicated.” 

 

The warning like before is the same. 

• On the outside, you appear to be doing everything by the book and this may be true from a secular perspective.
  • The problem is that God’s goal for your life is not to be right.
  • Not vindication by secular courts.

 

The goal is for your heart to be filled with grace. 

• Placing your dispute into the hands of the secular courts very well may backfire.
  • Jesus warns against the gamble.
  • Instead, “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going…”

 

• While you are on the way, cut it short, and be willing to be defrauded if necessary.
  • Why? Because the condition of your heart is far more important than a court ruling. 
  • Then money? Even your reputation. 

In a similar passage, Paul warns the church not to bring fellow Christians to court. 

• Better to “suffer wrong” than to “wrong and defraud…your own brothers!” (1 Cor. 6:7-8).

^ESV  1 Corinthians 6:1-8 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?² Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?³ Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!⁴ So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?⁵ I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,⁶ but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?⁷ To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?⁸ But you yourselves wrong and defraud–even your own brothers!

 

It is so easy to be ensnared by your own ego. 

 

• The end justifies the means.
• I am angry so I am pushing through this process to the end.

 

This kind of self-deception practically can mean you lose all kinds of time and money, not to mention heartache and a loss of trust in the system. 

 

• Still, something worse can happen.
• Even though you may believe you were in the right.
• But, the other side somehow still wins, and you lose.

 

You end up being sentenced to a debtor’s prison. 

 

• Debtors prison is akin to a life-sentence where you are in jail until your debt is paid, which often meant you remain there in perpetuity.
  • You cannot earn money while you are in, so you stay.

 

• Best case, your family bails you out but there is the shame of what you could have avoided.

 

Verse 26 is a severe warning of anger. 

 

• Prison is the picture of Hell.
• Eternal debt to be paid which now cannot be paid means eternal Hell.

 

The parable of the unforgiving servant makes the same point.  Matthew 18:21-35. 

 

King wanted to settle debts. 

 

• A servant owed what he could not pay and begged mercy and received it.

 

• Then this servant was owed a far lesser amount, a fellow servant who begged mercy, but this servant put the other servant in prison.

 

• The other servants told on him to the forgiving king and this time the king saw his heart for what it truly was, “wicked” (v. 32 “You wicked servant”).

 

^ESV  Matthew 18:32-35 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

 

 

Take-Home Points:

 

1. Be sobered by the sin of anger
   1. It disqualifies you from spiritual leadership
   2. It destroys relationships (spouse, children, friends, employers)
   3. It hurts children
   4. It shapes children
   5. It sends you to prison
   6. It leads people to Hell

 

2. If you neglect your anger it will grow
   1. Ask, “What am I willing to wish about someone?”
   2. Ask, “What am I willing to say about someone?”
   3. Ask, “Am I an assassin?”

 

 

3. Dignify the image of God
   1. People you struggle with
   2. People you know who struggle with you

 

 

4. Reconcile quickly