“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.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment.” Matthew 5:21–22 (NIV)
Jesus equates anger with murder in his statement in the Sermon on the Mount. He first quotes from the Ten Commandments that murder is against God’s law, but then he raises the bar further getting to the core of murder, which is unbridled anger.
Most of us are not murderers.
I have never literally killed anyone, and you probably haven’t either. I cannot say, however, with all honesty, that I have never been angry enough in my heart that if I hadn’t controlled my anger someone would not have ended up dead.
The goal of good relationships is not just to keep from killing each other. I can always find someone ‘worse’ than me to make myself feel better.
“I’m not as bad as Charles Manson or Hitler.” But is that really the heart of the matter?
The end game is that we would truly love each other, unconditionally.
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, continually raises the bar and gets to the heart of the matter. He wants to change our hearts so that the motive for everything we do, and even every thought we have towards others, is love. Love, he said, sums up every law.
God went even further in expressing his love for us.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (NIV)
