When Anger Becomes Sin

“But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca shall be in danger of the counsel: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire.”  Matthew 5:22

When I was young, folks said that one should never call another person a fool because to do so was a very bad thing.  It was implied that calling someone a fool would fetch one a very unfavorable outcome.  I remember Mr. T on the old television show, “The A Team”, was constantly calling others a “fool”.  It made me wonder if his Mama never cautioned him about using that term in referring to another person.  I would never make it as an actor because I wouldn’t want to compromise my beliefs.  Even though it would only be acting, I still wouldn’t feel right about it.  There are some movie producers who claim to be Christian, yet the content and language of some of their productions are not very godly.

The above verse is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which could be called a summary of the entire word of God which presents the entire Bible in three chapters with the emphasis on the spirit of God’s law.  In His sermon, Jesus is focusing on His Father’s desires on how men and women should conduct their lives in a simple yet profound narrative.  The subject of this particular part of His sermon revolves around the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13).  The religious leaders of that day were only considering the outward, external act of murder, which is taking a life unjustly.  They didn’t consider the hateful, revengeful, inward working of the human heart.  Jesus would address that momentarily when He would use the example of adultery: to look on a woman to lust after her is the same as the actual act of adultery (verse 28).  While murder is definitely wrong, so is being angry at someone without just cause.  “Just cause” is the key word in that there are times when we have what we call “righteous indignation” which is expressing anger at unjust actions or treatment.  I get angry every time I hear politicians push their abortion agenda, their push to convince young people to attempt to change their gender or allowing criminals to go free.  That’s just the top three of my list.

This blog is from notes that I wrote in 2018.  I had written that I don’t think that I have ever witnessed so much anger among Americans as I have over the last couple of years.  Keep in mind that was before COVID, the looting and burning of cities, a decline in race relations, mandates, job losses, a loss of incentives to work, high inflation, the energy crisis, etc.  People are still being threatened for just having different ideas and opinions, even more so now, from the people who are so angry.  Even the President of the U.S. displays an anger that we have never seen in the leader of the free world.  Why is he so angry?  I believe that his anger stems from extreme envy of the former president.  You may like the former president or not, but it is plain to see that he is extremely popular with most of those who support him, and his policies had made a big difference, in a good way, in our economy and way of life.  Our current economy is suffering, and it seems like there is no relief at least in the short term.

Whatever is in a person’s heart is what will overflow when the heart is full.  One will either pour forth love and mercy or bitterness and hatred.  James 3:11-12 asks, “Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?  Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olive berries?  Either a vine, figs?  So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh”.  James goes on to say that a person who has envy and strife in his or her heart is being led by “earthly, sensual, devilish” desires, but the one who depends on God has the desire for purity, peace, gentleness, courtesy, mercy, good works, impartiality and no hypocrisy.  Those who follow the latter set of standards will, in the long run, win the race of life, while the haughty, self-centered, angry folks will go down in defeat.