June 25, 2023
Matthew 5:21-30

The title of the sermon is “The mind of a saint or murderer.”

OUTLINE
1 Anger in the mind and mouth.
2 The punishment.
3 The remedy.

God described the people of Isaiah’s day around the year 700 BC when he wrote of them, “And the Lord said: 'Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.” (29:13) Very soon in the narrative Jesus would use those same words to describe the religious leaders of His day as well. ¶ Many of Israel’s religious leaders were religious pretenders, and they were misleading the people into a human driven righteousness. Jesus would spend much of His ministry exposing their humanistic ways and teachings. ¶ And in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus started putting His finger on the correctives that His listeners needed to make to ensure that they would not following in the missteps of their leaders. In the Sermon, Jesus expounding the Scriptures to the crowds and to the Disciples. He drew distinctions between religiosity and proper thinking. He was raised the bar in people’s understanding on what was expected of them.

Anger
21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

• This phrase “You have heard it said …” will be used 6x in this passage.
  • Jesus explains what His audience had heard time and time again.
  • Remember the people were taught orally. We take having the written Scriptures for granted. But they mostly listened to the public reading of the Scriptures.
• Who said it? “Those of old.”
  • For 1400 years they had been taught parts of the OT, but in some of their circles the teaching was off.
  • Jesus was now starting His teaching ministry as recorded by Matthew. Jesus teaching ministry challenged the teaching of the day in three ways:
    • 1 Correcting the teaching and teachers.
      • Flat out heretical teaching.
      • Errors and improper thoughts and ideas.
      • Human additions.
      • Just like in Jesus’ day, so much time in ministry is straightening out all the errors people hold on to that directly conflict with what God has told us clearly.
      • There have always been false teachers and there always will be until Christ returns.
      • Christianity is full of false teaching.
      • Old grandma sayings, “God help those that help themselves.” “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
      • We people parrot one another as well.
      • We need to always ask this question: what is the proof text? What has God told us vs. what people have told us.
    • 2 Jesus’ teaching ministry expanded the revelation and truth of God’s people.
      • Jesus brought proper understanding what we call the OT. He explained the proper meaning of what the people already knew, but often didn’t know how to apply.
    • 3 Jesus teaching brought us the New Wine of the New Covenant along with its new revelation and truth.
      • Jesus’ teaching ushered in the New Covenant.
      • He explained the Father most clearly by coming and living with us. He is Immanuel.
      • His life and words explained the Father’s heart to us.

Jesus starts His correcting and exposition in verse 22 But I say to you …

• The “I” is emphatic―“I myself and no other” (Utley)
  • Some believe here that Jesus explained the heart of the Law that most teachers or none had ever fully grasped. That Jesus was giving what Pluntre called a “truer report.”
  • I and others believe that Jesus not only clarified understanding here, but He also raised the bar of holiness in ways it had not been done before. >>
    • I agree with what Blomberg wrote, “Christ makes clear that he is not contradicting the law, but neither is he preserving it unchanged.” He seems to make it more “stringent.” (Blomberg, p 103, 106 respectively)
• What all could agree on …
  • 1 … is that Jesus’ teaching definitely contrasted with the religious teaching of the day.
  • 2 … is that Jesus was concerned with and pointed to the root of sin more than had ever been articulated before.
  • Murder starts as anger.
  • Adultery starts with lust.
  • Jesus is going to end this section of Scripture with the truth of love of enemy.
    • If we are angry with our brother, how can we ever love our enemy?
    • If we lust after people, how can we ever expect to love our enemy?
  • Jesus was making it clear that He wanted people’s focus to be on the hidden sins they were engaged in —sins of the mind.
  • Jesus’ charge was, that an outward appearance of righteousness alone is no righteousness at all.
  • And a lack of love in the mind is to fall short of love altogether.

Three levels of sin with three levels of judgment (punishment):
First charge: that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment;

• Caveat: The KJV, NKJV, et al. adds “without cause.” "The addition is not in the early Greek manuscripts … (Utley; cf. Plumptre, in CER, et al.) The rendering without the phrase “without cause” is given a B manuscript rating (meaning almost certain). Therefore, I will not comment on it further.
• There are two main words for anger in the Greek: “There is thumos (Gk #2372), which was described as being like the flame which comes from dried straw. It is the anger which quickly blazes up and which just as quickly dies down.” There is also orge (Gk #3709). “It is the long-lived anger; it is the anger of the man who nurses his wrath to keep it warm; … and which he will not allow to die.” (Barclay)
• What Jesus meant is strengthened also because of its form in the Greek: “anger” is a PRESENT MIDDLE PARTICIPLE. This form describes “a settled, nurtured, non-forgiving, long term anger” as well. (Utley; cf. AMP ver.)
• Jesus places His finger on what He is talking about: the context is prolonged angry with one’s —see it in 22 — “brother” (or a fellow member of the faith community).
• Jesus applies his charge: “first of all to those against whom anger is most inappropriate” —the eternal family.
• Application: It “is particularly bad for Christians to get angry at other Christians who have themselves also been spared God’s wrath.” (Blomberg, 107)

First punishment in 22a: “liable to judgment”

• “judgment” = liable to a court proceeding. >>
• 1 a separating; a trial, contest; 2 selection; 3 judgment; i. e. opinion or decision given concerning anything, especially concerning justice and injustice (Thayer)
• This “liable to judgment” cannot be a human, earthly judgment. >> Whoever went to a trial for being angry? (See France, p 201 for a good argument against this idea)
• What is the #1 reason we get angry? Self ain’t gettin. We were not treated in the proper way regarding this, that and the other.
• 99% of our lingering anger is rooted in unforgiveness and selfishness.
• It is pitiful for a believer indeed to stay angry. Jesus said this anger will not go unjudged.

Second charge: 22b whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council;

• Sin proceeds from the mind to the mouth in the middle of v 22.
• ESV’s and CSB’s choice of “insults” is the choice of a few other English translations. - Other translations of Raca = “idiot” (NLT), “You good-for-nothing” (NASB),
• “Raca” is the actual Greek word and it is chosen at least 18 other times in English translations (see Bible Hub).
• Barclay said the word is hard to translate because it is more of a tone of voice. We might explain it as an attitude that expresses itself in a raw prideful way.
• “raca, … was in common use as expressing not anger only but … contempt.” (Plumptre, in CER)
• If Raca had to be defined it would seem to me that the best definition would be “empty” (OBU) or “empty one” (Strong).

Second punishment: liable to the council.

• This Greek word for “council” could be used for the Sanhedrin, but obviously does not point to that council here due to v 5:20. COMMENT
• Some believe “council” was used in a metaphorical way to mean the highest judgment is coming to those that insult the brothers. (Plumptre, et al.)
• I disagree, I believe that it is most likely, that insults directed from believers to believers may be refereed to a heavenly, future council.
  • Psalm 82:1 and other passages speak to this heavenly council, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.”
  • It seems that when we insult our brothers and sisters that those comments are headed to a heavenly supreme court for evaluation.
  • There is an article in my notes on the divine council. (See this article on “What is the divine council?”)
• Application, today, calling a brother any idiom or syn. for stupid, air-head, idiot, moron, blockhead, dupe may meet this council criteria.

Third charge: 22c and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

• The flow of context is calling a brother a fool. Perhaps Jesus broadened the caution here to unbelievers (this seems doubtful).
• The Greek word translated “fool” by the ESV is the Greek word “mōre.” The ESV is joined by 30 other English translations with “fool.”
• A form of this word in Greek mōre is “mōron.” Almost directly from the Greek, we get our English word “moron” (cf. etymonline.com), so LSV chose that word.
• Thayer, et al., pointed to the idea for fool here was used as, “an act or appointment of God deemed foolish by men.” If this be the case here, then it would seem that, calling a brother a fool was to verbally lump a saved brother into the lump of unbelievers from Psalm 14:1a, "The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Third punishment: “hell of fire” = Valley of Gehenna = of Hebrew origin (גָּיְא and הִנֹּם); valley of Hinnom (Strong)

• Jesus used this actual place to describe hell.
• This place had its label due to the so called cries of the little children who were sacrificed there for the idol Moloch [having the form of a bull]. The Jews so detested the place afterwards, “that they cast into it not only all manner of [trash], but even the dead bodies of animals and of unburied criminals who had been executed.” Constant fires were necessary to consume the the bio-hazards that were there. (Thayer)
• What did Jesus mean here? Some would argue that a person who would call a believer a fool was most likely not saved and thus deserve hell.
• The Catholic Church would draw on this text to get its view of purgatory.
• View One: France saw the passage as hyperbolic when he wrote, “To invoke this awesome concept in relation to the use of an everyday abusive [designation] is the sort of paradoxical exaggeration by which Jesus’ sayings often compel the reader’s attention …” (p 202)
  • I would remind France and others of Matthew 5:19, Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
• Others agree with Carson and do acknowledge the fact that Jesus used hyperbole to drive some of His teaching. (p 40) But Carson pointed out here when he wrote, “is murder merely an action, committed without reference to the character of the murderer? Is not something more fundamental at stake, namely his view of other people (his victim or victims included)? Does not the murderer’s wretched anger and spiteful wrath lurk in the black shadows behind the deed itself? And does not this fact mean that the anger and wrath are themselves blameworthy? Jesus therefore insists that not only the murderer, but anyone who is angry with his brother, will be subject to judgment.” (p 40)

APPLICATION

• France wrote, “abusive language and attitudes are punished by a graded range of periods of exclusion from the assembly.” (p 202)
• “It is possible to find an ascending scale of severity in the descriptions of the punishment in this verse, from an unspecified ‘judgment’ to a more specific 'trial’⁸¹ and then to the final extreme of ‘hellfire.’” (France, p 200)
• Fool ought to never come out of a person’s mouth! If it does, that one is on the path to hell.
• Remember, this is all in a context of expounding on the “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say …"

APPLICATION

Jesus gives what the believers are supposed to do starting in verse 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

• We have to prioritize relationships while we live here.
• “Jesus’ listeners therefore urgently need to escape this judgment by dealing decisively with sin.” (Blomberg, p 107)
• Blomberg said it well, “Interpersonal reconciliation above correct ritual.” (p 107)
• Therefore, we must actively deal with anger wherever we find it.
• Notice in v 24, Worship is not to be engaged in if anger be present.
• "The saying in in vv. 23-24 … conveys a message similar to that of Mark 11:25, “When you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive it.'⁸⁸” (France, p 202)
• The prerequisite to worship is an inventory of who may have a grudge against us. Notice, it is not the one who is mad, but instead the one who knows someone is mad that needs to go tot he other.
• "if a quarrel, or a difference, or a dispute is not healed immediately, it can fester into more trouble as time passes. Anger breeds bitterness.
• Family and community quarrels between members have been know to degrade all relationships; these family disputes spilling over into future generations as people pick sides. (Barclay)

25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

• Here Jesus uses an illustration that involves jail time.
• When problems and misunderstandings are not settled early they often are placed in the courts’ hands.
• Often, at the very beginning, before splits in churches, in marriages, in lawsuits, if one of the parties had had the grace to apologize, admit fault, and make amends many grievous situations could have been dealt with before great hurts occur. (Barclay)
• We need to be big enough in life to make this a part of our character.
• “It may mean that we must be humble enough to confess that we were wrong and to make apology;” (Barclay)
• “it may mean that, even if we were in the right, we have to take the first step towards healing the breach.” (Barclay)
• Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

TODAY

• “Restraining one’s wrath against a fellow believer is a virtue still desperately needed today.” (Blomberg, p 107)
• We are to never question a brother’s salvation or call him a fool or any idiom that implies “fool”. In doing so we lump him in with unbelievers when the Holy Spirit indwells that person. A grave error.
  • A Christian cannot be “godless.” This is an impossibility. We must go on peoples’ testimony. One should NEVER SAY, “I am not sure if he is even saved.” This is a high crime according to our Lord.

Judgement in general

• Caveat: God judges the unbeliever. Don’t do it!
  • 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
• We are not to judge motive of a brother. VERSE HERE
  • 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
• Remember every person is made in the image of God.
  • Plumptre said it well, "to scorn God’s image in man is to do dishonour to God Himself. We cannot truly ‘fear God’ unless we also ‘honour all men’ (1 Peter 2:17). The reverence for humanity as such must extend even to the man who has most provoked us. (in CER; British spellings retained)
• Unresolved anger will be judged harshly.
• Unresolved anger is self-righteousness.
• Unresolved anger is the motivation and character of a murderer.

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.

Other Works Cited

^{Note: Not all of these resources listed below were used in this particular sermon outline.}

Augsburger, David. Dissident Discipleship. Brazos Press, 2006.

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. May be sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom)

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/2up)

Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Ed., A.C. Armstrong and Son, reprint 1984, Kregel Publications, 1971 edition.

Carson, D. A. The Sermon on the Mount : an Evangelical Exposition of Matthew 5-7. Baker Book House, 1982. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/sermononmounteva0000cars/page/40/mode/2up

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Our Daily Bread Publishing, Online ver.

Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. David C. Cook, 2008.

Evans, Craig A. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew-Luke. Victor, 2003. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/bibleknowledgeba00crai/mode/2up)

France, R. T. The Gospel of Matthew. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000fran/page/200/mode/2up

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. Baker Book House, 1984.

Phillips, John. Exploring the Gospels: John. Loizeaux Brothers, 1988.

Platt, David. Follow Me. Tyndale, 2013.

Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Zondervan, 1995.

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