Matthew 5:21–26 (NIV)

21 “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.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. 

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. 

25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Following Jesus will require you to leave behind Anger and Contempt. Nothing is more antithetical to kingdom living than these two dispositions. Anger is a natural, spontaneous response similar to pain. It alerts you that something is wrong. The problem arises when we embrace it and nurture it, which we do all too often. When you hold onto anger it matures into contempt, or disgust, which will damage your soul until you eventually become an “angry person”. This ends up damaging every relationship you have.  

When someone does or says something that hurts us, we feel anger rise up within. They made us angry and we grab hold of that anger like a shield to protect us. We begin to build cases against them, we host imaginary arguments in our mind (... and then I would say this and they would say this and then I would say…).  We make assumptions of why they hurt us and choose to believe the worst about them. What began as simple anger has developed into contempt. The word Raca is meant to represent the sound you make when you spit on someone. This is what it is like to live with disgust against someone, just the thought of running into them makes you sick. As your case against them grows, your perspective of them changes. They become less human and more monster. We hold them in contempt, or disgust, which grows into pure hatred.  Contempt has brought you to the place of calling them a fool. Now, this word doesn’t mean what it meant in Jesus’ time, but we have our own four lettered words that would work. We reach a place where we rationalize that they don’t deserve our love, in fact it would be wrong for me to not hate them. You wish harm towards the other, or at least wouldn’t be bothered if something bad happened to them… they deserve it after all. 

Jesus will have none of it. You can either hold onto Anger or you can hold onto Jesus.

Your turn:

• This week you will focus on being reconciled to someone. 

• Do you want to worship God? Then find someone who you hurt and try to make things right. 

• Stop seeing things from only your perspective. Try to understand why they are hurt. 

• Own your mess. If you did something wrong, acknowledge it. 

• Apologize to them and ask them to forgive you. 

• Make restitution where possible.

• Very important: You can’t control how others will respond to this. You just have to do your part. Your part is to love them, not to get them to love you. 

I know, this feels impossible to do. Ask Jesus to help. If you let go of anger, He will gladly take you by the hand and help you walk through it.