Matthew Matthew 5:21-26 Can t We All Just Get Along?

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1 Matthew Matthew 5:21-26 Can t We All Just Get Along? It s Francis Schaeffer says: we find ourselves in a more consistent but uglier world consistent because people are taking their low view of man to its natural conclusion, and uglier because humanity is drastically dehumanized. The Bible teaches that man is made in the image of God and therefore is unique. Remove that teaching, as humanism has done on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and there is no adequate basis for treating people well. we are faced today with a flood of personal cruelty. the Christian consensus gave great freedom without leading to chaos because society in general functioned within the values given in the Bible, especially the unique value of human life. Now that humanism has taken over, the former freedoms run riot, and individuals, acting on what they are taught, increasingly practice their cruelties without restraint. And why shouldn t they? If the modern humanistic view of man is correct and man is only a product of chance in a universe that has no ultimate values, why should an individual refrain from being cruel to another person, if that person seems to be standing in his or her way? 1 It isn t enough to say Thou shalt not kill. We are called to value human life because it is created in God s image. This means we are to have respect for all people. And to be able to see men as God does means we must have the heart of God. This is much more difficult than simply refraining from killing someone. V First Discourse: The Sermon on the Mount 5:1-7:29 A. Introduction 5:1-2 B. The Sermon 5:3-7:29 3. A Christian s Righteousness 5:17-48 a. Murder Most Foul 5:21-22 b. Making Things Right 5:23-26 Conclusion Introduction: In the previous section of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has explained the characteristics of the citizen of the kingdom. His emphasis has been on heart qualities and relationship with the Father as the foundation of a godly walk. Jesus has gone on to emphasis that these qualities don t imply the Law, or Tanakh, is to be set aside. In fact He demonstrates an extremely high view of scripture, as we will see this morning. It is ironic that later on He is accused of violating the Sabbath. The problem is the religious leaders of the day have a higher emphasis on behavior, rather than what drives that behavior, the heart. Oswald Chambers summarizes this transition by noting: The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a right- 1 Schaeffer, Francis, A., The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, Vol. 5, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, Crossway Books, Westchester, IL, 1982, p

2 eousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind. Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child. The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption. No one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations He gives us His teachings which are truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places within us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well. 2 This morning we ll consider Jesus first example of raising the bar as He discusses relationships, warning that it is easy to become self-righteous, if we believe that one can keep God s commands simply by not doing something. We ll consider how Jesus requirements aren t limited to the absence of a behavior, but include positive actions, flowing from a right heart, toward others. I also will touch on an analysis of the command in light of our study in Exodus. So first a. Murder Most Foul: don t murder anyone. Jesus opens His comments here by stating You have heard Of course Jesus is referring to the Ten Commandments. God commanded Don t commit murder, and Moses records the consequences: Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness (Numbers 35:30). Clearly the intent of this command was not to prevent any taking of human life. This is clearly the case since the consequence of murdering was to be executed. God directed Israel into war. And even the Law made the distinction between murder and manslaughter. Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death (Exodus 21:12-14). The scribes and Pharisees wanted to restrict the interpretation of the command to a very specific and limited application. It is Christ who opens it up to a much higher understanding. One reason may well be His emphasis on the importance of each life. This importance requires us to go beyond simply avoiding the taking of life, to the caring for life, treating one another with respect. (This speaks to Schaeffer s concern noted at the beginning of this lesson.) And why, obviously, because we are all, saved and lost, created in the God s image. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his 2 Chambers, Oswald, James Reimann, ed., My Utmost for His Highest, Discovery House Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI, ) 136 (

3 own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:26-27). Jesus makes this perspective the real issue when He states it isn t enough to simply avoid murder, after all most people are able to do this quite easily. Instead He lifts the standard so high that all fail to meet it. He equates the heart attitude of anger and hatred on a par with the act of murder. And isn t it? After all the only difference between the heart attitude and the act is fear of consequences, social restraint, etc. Consider the book The Lord of the Flies. When the trappings of civilization are removed, the children turn to monsters, finding it easy to murder. This is why Barton notes: Killing is a terrible sin, but anger is a great sin, too, because it also violates God s command to love. Anger in this case refers to a seething, brooding bitterness against someone. It is a dangerous emotion that always threatens to leap out of control, leading to violence, emotional hurt, increased mental stress, and spiritual damage. Anger keeps us from developing a spirit pleasing to God. Have you ever been proud that you didn t strike out and say what was really on your mind? Self-control is good, but Christ wants us to practice thought-control as well. Jesus said that we will be held accountable even for our attitudes. 3 Verse 22: First we need a bit of background for verse 22 in order to put into its context. The IVP Bible Background Commentary explains: Raca is Aramaic for empty-headed one ; the insult is about the same as the one that follows it, Fool! The punishments are also roughly equal: the (day of God s) judgment, the heavenly Sanhedrin or supreme court, and hell. (Jewish literature described God s heavenly tribunal as a supreme court, or sanhedrin, parallel to the earthly one.) The hell of fire is literally the Gehenna of fire, which refers to the standard Jewish concept of Gehinnom, the opposite of paradise; in Gehinnom the wicked would be burned up (according to some Jewish teachers) or eternally tortured (according to other Jewish teachers). Not only the outward act of murder but also the inward choice of anger that generates such acts violates the spirit of God s law against murder. 4 Righteous anger is one thing. And have you experienced righteous anger? What was the situation? But reality is, most of the time the anger we experience isn t righteous. We are angry because someone has interfered with getting our needs met. This is the anger that Jesus is saying is the heart equivalent of murder. He is saying to be angry with a brother is to be a murderer. It s no wonder as Dr. McGee puts it: You cannot break the Law and get by with it. My friend both you and I need a Savior who has perfectly kept the Law and can impute to us His own righteousness. 5 As you can see we all can be guilty of violation of this commandment as Christ calls for obedience. John deals with the same point in 1 John 3:15-17: Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions 3 Barton, Bruce B., Mark Fackler, Linda K. Taylor, and David R. Veerman, Life Application Study Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL, Keener, Craig S., IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Downers Grove, IL, McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Vol. 1, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, ) 137 (

4 and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? To make matters more difficult, Jesus says that it is the heart attitude which will be the basis of judgment. What we know from the NT as a whole is the rebellious heart is the one who rejects salvation and will face eternal judgment. The obedient heart accepts Christ, but still at times rebels. Nevertheless, the more we are conformed to the image of Christ, the more our anger is righteous rather than self-serving. And remember this message is going primarily to disciples, though I suspect there were scribes and Pharisees present, and this would have made them furious as it would have been perceived as a direct attack on their teachings. the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law (Matthew 7:27-28). You can imagine the response of those hearing this. How can anyone meet this kind of standard? And that s the point. No one can! Except of course, as God manifests the qualities we ve previously discussed in our lives. b. Making Things Right: But it isn t enough to avoid unrighteous anger, we have to strive to be a peace with others. Stott states: (Jesus ) theme was that if anger and insult are so serious and so dangerous, then we must avoid them like the plague and take action as speedily as possible Jesus gives two examples of ways to make things right. The first example is that of on individual bring a sacrifice to the temple. He is coming to pay the price for his sin. But, Jesus points out, it would be better to make right a sin, before making an offering for it. I ll always remember a conversation I overheard back in high school. Two girls were talking about going out partying on Friday night. They were obviously intending to have a real blow out. They were also planning on going to confession Saturday to take care of their actions on Friday. What s wrong with this picture? So what makes sense about making a sacrifice for treating someone sinfully when you re not willing to make things right? Well of course it makes sense. It s like the girls going to confession. I don t have to do anything about making things right as long as I pay off God. But Christ says God isn t interested in the sacrifice that doesn t reflect true repentance and an effort to make restoration. Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15:22). 6 Stott, John R.W., The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1978, p. 85. ) 138 (

5 2. Whereas the first example focuses on a brother, the second deals with an enemy. Both present examples of how we are to behave in a godly manner. Why don t you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny (Luke 12:57). We need to treat people justly. We need to do this because it is right, not out of fear of retribution. But if we don t, there are consequences. And the biggest consequence really is the quality of our witness before others. The bottom line is we are to deal with problems on an immediate basis. It isn t enough to avoid anger and not to abuse others, we must also treat people with respect and fairness. This is the standard Jesus is setting. This is a standard we will all fail without His help, even if we can keep the commandment, Thou shalt not kill. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him (1 John 3:11-14). Conclusion: We have seen that we can only be citizens of the kingdom because of God s intervention, mercy, and love, and because of the gift of salvation. And we can only rise to the standards of the Sermon on the Mount in the same way, through the power God provides through the Holy Spirit. If we intend to please God, we need to also focus on what we can do for people, just not do to them. Christ is our example. Instead of taking the lives of men He offered up His own life to save them. We are also called to offer up ourselves for those around us. We are called to be servants to mankind. Our task is to model Christ for others so that with the work of the Holy Spirit, they will also desire to follow after Him. There are a number of ways we can protect life. We can carry out a positive approach to this command, as John identified it. First there is the area of the literal protecting of life. This deals with taking a stand against abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. We as believers are called to stand for the oppressed. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything (1 John 3:16-20). ) 139 (

6 It isn t enough to just save lives, we as believers must also use what the Lord has provided to us to provide for those lives. We are to be concerned about both the spiritual and physical needs of those around us. There are two questions we need to ask ourselves and answer very specifically. Are there any we have offended and need to go to, to make things right, be the brethren or enemies? Are there any we are in a position to care for who God has placed in our path? In this way we not only don t murder, either practically or spiritually, but instead we bring life. I want to close with another quote from Oswald Chambers. Jesus Christ brings people to the practical test. It is not that I say I am pure in heart, but that I prove I am by my deeds; I am sincere not only in manner but in the attitude of my mind. All through the Sermon on the Mount the same truth is brought out. Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. We have to fulfill all the old law and much more, and the only way it can be done is by letting Jesus alter us within and by remember that everything He tells us to do we can do. The whole point of our Lord s teaching is, Obey Me, and you will find you have a wealth of power within. 7 We can live the Christian life, if we allow God to live it through us, if we Trust and Obey. When we walk with the Lord In the light of his Word What a glory he sheds on our way! Let us do his good will; He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey. Not a shadow can rise, Not a cloud in the skies, But His smile quickly drives it away; Not a doubt or a fear, Not a sigh nor a tear, Can abide while we trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey. Not a burden we bear, Not a sorrow we share, But our toil he doth richly repay; Not a grief or a loss, Not a frown or a cross, But is blest if we trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey. But we never can prove The delights of his love Until all on the altar we lay; For the favor he shows And the joy he bestows Are for them who will trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey. Then in fellowship sweet We will sit at his feet Or we ll walk by his side in the way; What he says we will do, Where he sends we will go; Never fear, only trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey. 8 7 Chambers, Oswald, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Discovery House Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995, p Sammis, John H.. Trust and Obey, Public Domain ) 140 (

7 Matthew Matthew 5:21-26 Can t We All Just Get Along? V First Discourse: The Sermon on the Mount 5:1-7:29 A. Introduction 5:1-2 B. The Sermon 5:3-7:29 3. A Christian s Righteousness 5:17-48 a. Murder Most Foul 5:21-22 b. Making Things Right 5:23-26 Conclusion Introduction: a. Murder Most Foul: (Numbers 35:30; Exodus 21:12-14; Genesis 1:26-27) Verse 22: (1 John 3:15-17; Matthew 7:27-28)

8 b. Making Things Right: 1. (1 Samuel 15:22) 2. (Luke 12:57; 1 John 3:11-14) Conclusion: (1 John 3:16-20) Personal Application: There are two questions we need to ask ourselves and answer very specifically. Are there any we have offended and need to go to, to make things right, be the brethren or enemies? Are there any we are in a position to care for who God has placed in our path? In this way we not only don t murder, either practically or spiritually, but instead we bring life. Prayer for the Week: Lord, help me to be a life bringer. Show me where I need to make recompense. Help me to live in a way that brings You honor. In Jesus Name, Amen.