This week we looked at the passage in the Bible where Jesus talks about anger.
In this passage (Matthew 5:21-26), Jesus brings up the Old Testament law "Do not murder," (Exodus 20:13) as well as a bit that had been added on to the end, "For any who murders will be subject to judgement." He then says that "Anyone who is angry with their brother will be subject to judgement." This is not Jesus saying that committing murder is okay now, but that to be angry with someone in your heart is just as bad in God's eyes. This is hard for us to understand because we see sin in a human way (being human..), but God, who is completely good and knows a lot more than we do anyway, sees things differently. Jesus says that if we are angry with someone then we will be subject to judgement just as much as someone who has murdered someone else, so we shouldn't think that we're doing well just to be angry with someone but not kill them, but instead we should give that anger over to God.
Then Jesus says that if you call someone else a name (he uses the word "raca" here, which was something people back then called one another to show great dislike), then you are subject to judgement from the "Sanhedrin" - this would be like the Jewish elders... sort of - again showing that it's not okay just to show anger in other ways that are not physically violent or going to hurt someone's body. Instead, any display of anger or any anger that we've allowed to stay in our hearts is wrong and damaging.
Finally Jesus says that anyone who calls someone else a "fool" is "in danger of the fires of hell." This is the worst result of all the things he has mentioned so far, and at first this can look a little confusing, why should just saying someone else is stupid be worse than calling them names, being angry or even murdering them? Well, it's about the attitude of our hearts. Thinking someone else is a fool is thinking that you are better than them, but to God we are all equal: not one of us deserves to go to Heaven by what we've done or not done in our lives and none of us is worse than anyone else. We are loved by him the same and Jesus died on the cross for us all, so we need to remember that and not look down on others.
Thankfully, if we are truly sorry about our anger or times when we have thought other people were worth less than ourselves, we can give these things to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness from him. Because of what Jesus has done, we don't have to suffer for these things we have done wrong if we decide to trust in him instead of ourselves.
Lois and Eleanor
In this passage (Matthew 5:21-26), Jesus brings up the Old Testament law "Do not murder," (Exodus 20:13) as well as a bit that had been added on to the end, "For any who murders will be subject to judgement." He then says that "Anyone who is angry with their brother will be subject to judgement." This is not Jesus saying that committing murder is okay now, but that to be angry with someone in your heart is just as bad in God's eyes. This is hard for us to understand because we see sin in a human way (being human..), but God, who is completely good and knows a lot more than we do anyway, sees things differently. Jesus says that if we are angry with someone then we will be subject to judgement just as much as someone who has murdered someone else, so we shouldn't think that we're doing well just to be angry with someone but not kill them, but instead we should give that anger over to God.
Then Jesus says that if you call someone else a name (he uses the word "raca" here, which was something people back then called one another to show great dislike), then you are subject to judgement from the "Sanhedrin" - this would be like the Jewish elders... sort of - again showing that it's not okay just to show anger in other ways that are not physically violent or going to hurt someone's body. Instead, any display of anger or any anger that we've allowed to stay in our hearts is wrong and damaging.
Finally Jesus says that anyone who calls someone else a "fool" is "in danger of the fires of hell." This is the worst result of all the things he has mentioned so far, and at first this can look a little confusing, why should just saying someone else is stupid be worse than calling them names, being angry or even murdering them? Well, it's about the attitude of our hearts. Thinking someone else is a fool is thinking that you are better than them, but to God we are all equal: not one of us deserves to go to Heaven by what we've done or not done in our lives and none of us is worse than anyone else. We are loved by him the same and Jesus died on the cross for us all, so we need to remember that and not look down on others.
Thankfully, if we are truly sorry about our anger or times when we have thought other people were worth less than ourselves, we can give these things to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness from him. Because of what Jesus has done, we don't have to suffer for these things we have done wrong if we decide to trust in him instead of ourselves.
Lois and Eleanor
No comments:
Post a Comment