WWUTT 1942 It Was Said, ”You Shall Not Murder” (Matthew 5:21-26)

Have you ever murdered anyone before? No, you say, I've never killed anybody, and I'm sure that's true. But have you ever called anyone names? Jesus said that's just as bad as murder. When we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Jesus and the Law in the Sermon on the Mount

Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5. And we're into that section where Jesus goes through the law, showing to his disciples that they have not kept it.

Let me begin by reading in verse 21 and go through verse 26 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. You have heard that the ancients were told, You shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin. And whoever says, You fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your offering there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last quadrants.

So, this is a section of the Sermon on the Mount that you are surely familiar with as Jesus goes through the law. He singles out particular laws demonstrating to his disciples that they may not understand the law the way that they should, or even helping his disciples recognize that they have been taught the law wrongly in some cases, which is what the Pharisees were doing.

They were twisting the word, adding to the word, and even taking away from it, and we'll see some of that come out even as we go through this list of laws that will go through the rest of Matthew chapter 5.

These first two that we're looking at between today and tomorrow are straight out of the Ten Commandments. You shall not murder and you shall not commit adultery, picking up in verse 27. Before continuing on, let's think about what we just read.

So yesterday, I recapped again verses 17 to 20, where Jesus says, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. And now Jesus is going through the law and showing how it should be rightly understood.

The way that verses 21 to 48 are most often interpreted, this section where Jesus goes through various laws, it's most often interpreted as if Jesus was abolishing the law and the prophets. To give you a more specific example, in verse 38, Jesus says, you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And there are people who will interpret that as Jesus saying, yeah, I know that was in the law, that was in Deuteronomy, but we're not going by that anymore. I have a better law for you. And if that's the way that you understand what Jesus is saying, then you would have to read him as abolishing the law and the prophets.

There's another one coming up in verse 43, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And so once again, you have people going, see, Jesus is instituting a new law.

He's not doing away with the old law. You have to understand exactly what Jesus is doing here, showing his disciples the right way to understand the law. He's not abolishing the law or the prophets, lest you want to throw out Matthew 5, 17.

Yeah, I know Jesus said that, but it sure sounds like he's abolishing law and prophets here. No, he's not. He's telling his disciples how they are to understand the law, even the purpose of the law and the sin it exposes within their hearts.

We're going to get to that, especially tomorrow on verse 27, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

See, you've broken the law in your heart. You think you're righteous because you haven't done anything on the outside. I've never murdered anybody. I've not slept with someone else's wife. Yeah, but you have broken these laws from the heart.

And that's where it begins. At the end of the section that we looked at yesterday, Jesus says, I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Right? That was the statement Jesus made right before he starts going through the law. What do we read at the very end of this chapter? Verse 48, therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

So, first of all, your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. And you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Between those two bookends, do we have Jesus laying out the law and showing his disciples that breaking the law is a matter of the heart.

It happens first in the heart. Again, Jesus is talking to his disciples here. Like this is not Jesus rebuking the Pharisees because they were teaching the law wrongly. Although there's certainly some correction that Jesus is having to give to his disciples because there were aspects of the law that they were taught wrongly or were told to exercise in an improper way.

We'll get to those things as we go. But Jesus is talking to his disciples, not rebuking false teachers. He's telling his disciples, you have heard that the ancients were told. You shall not murder. These first two commandments that we have here in verses 21 and tomorrow in verse 27.

These are straight from the 10 commandments. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. So you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not murder and whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.

Because surely there were people that were sitting there hearing Jesus teach thinking, I am righteous enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. I have a righteousness that's like that of the scribes and the Pharisees.

I do what they tell me to do. So surely I can enter the kingdom of heaven. What does it mean to have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees? You have to have done more than simply not murdered somebody.

That's where this is going. As Jesus says in verse 22, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. Remember that last line in verse 21, whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.

But whoever is angry with his brother has, has thought vengeful thoughts against his brother in his heart. He's already guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, Raka shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin.

What is Raka? What does that mean? Well, it means empty headed, idiot, good for nothing, a worthless person. That's what Raka means. So if you think of somebody else as being worthless, you're so angry at them, you hate them so much.

They've made your life so miserable. This is what you're justifying in your mind, that this person is good for nothing. I wish they were, they didn't even exist at all, or at least they were not in my vicinity anywhere.

Go live your life somewhere else. You good for nothing. Well if that's what you think about your brother, you'll be guilty before the Sanhedrin. Now the Sanhedrin was made up of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

These were the two sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees that made up the Sanhedrin who determine court cases for the people of Israel. So you're guilty before the court. It's just another way of saying guilty before the court.

That was the statement in verse 22, whoever is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. Whoever says to his brother, Raka shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin. It's a parallelism. If you've heard me go through, you know, Psalms or as we're going through Isaiah right now the most common form of Hebrew poetry is what's called a parallelism.

It's saying the same thing twice, but in a slightly different way. Jesus is kind of exercising that very thing here, where he's helping a person to understand their guilt comes from the heart before they've ever even done anything on the outside.

If you're angry with your brother, you're guilty before the court. Whoever says to his brother, Raka shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin. And whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

The Heart of Murder and the Sin of Contempt

Whenever I've done evangelism out on the street, just encountering folks, I practice a method that's known as the way of the master method. If you've ever watched Ray Comfort videos, then you probably know this.

It's taking the very method that Jesus used to help a person recognize their sin and their guilt so that they would also see their need for a savior. And when I evangelize, I do that very thing, presenting the law to somebody so that they will see that they're not as good a person as they think they are.

And I will ask a person, have you ever murdered anyone before? I've never had anybody tell me yes. I've witnessed to hundreds of people this way over the last, you know, I'm talking decade and a half or whatever.

I've witnessed to hundreds of people this way, never have had anybody tell me yes. I don't know what I'm going to do on that day when I haven't really thought that far ahead because as it says in Proverbs, a man thinks that he is right in his own eyes.

So when you ask a person, do you think you're a good person? And then you put them to the test by presenting the law to them. You ask, are you a murderer? Have you ever murdered anybody before? Of course, they're going to say no.

I think if a person even has murdered someone, they're going to say no, because they're probably thinking, okay, this is a setup. Where's the cops? Where's the camera? Somebody's trying to get me to confess to something.

So every time I've asked that question, I've always gotten no. But I'm able to say to that person, you know, Jesus said that if you even call somebody names, you're guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

You're guilty of murder in your heart. Have you ever called someone names before? And then the answer I usually get, in fact, I don't know that I've ever had anybody tell me no to this question. Have you ever called anybody names before?

Yes, they will say to me, Jesus said, it's as if you've murdered in your heart. When you think of somebody in such disparaging ways, when you think of them as being a good for nothing, if you wish that they were dead, that they weren't in your life anymore, that they were somebody else's problem, this person annoys me so much, I wish they would just go bother somebody else.

When you think angry, vengeful, vindictive, belittling thoughts about another person, you call another person names to make them feel bad. And maybe you justify it. They need to know that they are the way that they are something, you know, however you want to justify in your head why you're calling somebody names.

And apparently that's a good thing for you to do. But if you've called someone names and you've disparaged them and put them down, then Jesus says you're guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Verse 23, he says, therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you.

Leave your offering there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering. Now remember again who Jesus is addressing. Of course, he's talking to his disciples.

These men are Hebrews. And when you use that word brother with a Hebrew, they think kinsmen. So it could be somebody from my own household. It could be someone from my own tribe. Or it could be just any Hebrew.

There's different ways in which that could apply when they hear that term brother. We should not interpret this, though, as Jesus saying that if some Gentile or some pagan were to have something against you, then you should respond this way.

Jesus is talking about a kinship here. He's talking about being of among the same people. So as this is being spoken to his disciples, as we are disciples of Jesus, as we're followers of Christ, we should apply this in the same way.

So the context would be if you're presenting your offering at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you. Brother in our context would be a brother or sister in the Lord. We're talking a fellow Christian.

If you know that there's a fellow Christian who has something against you, then leave your offering there before the altar. First be reconciled with your brother or sister in the Lord, and then come and present your offering.

Now, we're not giving offerings, of course. The offering system, the sacrificial system, Christ fulfilled with his death and his resurrection. So we're not going down to the temple or the tabernacle or anywhere and giving offerings.

So what would the offering be there for in our context? What would we mean by that? Well, there are different ways in which that could apply. Could be the Lord's table. Before you come to the Lord's table and eat of this bread and drink of this cup, if you remember that your brother has something against you, then don't partake.

It's been a couple of years now since we've been through 1 Corinthians, but it's there in 1 Corinthians 11 that Paul says, whoever handles these things, the bread and the cup, in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

So if you have sins that remain unconfessed, and when I mean unconfessed, I'm not meaning in the Catholic way. Go find a priest, confess your sins, and then you can go partake of the Mass. That is absolutely not what I'm referring to, but you are guilty of something.

There's something that's still on your conscience. You know that you've done it. Then don't partake of the Lord's table, abstain, go make yourself right with your brother whom you have a grudge with, you have unresolved issues with.

Be reconciled to your brother. Leave your offering there before the altar. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and partake of the Lord's table. That's just one possible application that I'm giving to that.

It could be that the altar is just a general sense of our own Christian lives. After all, in Romans 12, 1, it says, to present our bodies before the Lord, holy and acceptable to him, this is our spiritual act of worship.

So any day, it doesn't have to be a day that you're partaking of the Lord's table on Sunday with your brothers and sisters in Christ as a church. Any day, you're doing anything, and you remember that your brother has something against you.

Go and be reconciled with your brother. Now where Jesus makes this reference of your brother holding something against you, we would understand this as being something legitimate. Like it's not just your brother is mad at you, and he's making up stuff.

He's got a reason to be mad at you, and so he's just come up with something. Or it was something petty and insignificant, and he's making a bigger deal out of it than you are or whatever. This appears to be a genuine complaint against a brother.

Like you've actually wronged somebody. Your brother has something against you, so go and make it right with your brother. Even if it is something petty, if your brother is thinking deeper of the issue than you are thinking, still go to your brother and talk to him.

You know, this brother or sister in the Lord. Talk to them and say, what do we have to do to resolve this? Maybe you don't think it's as big a deal as they think it is, but still, what can we do to kind of bring people together again so that feelings are not hurt?

So that the unity, the love of Christ can be displayed between us. The unity he purchased by his death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave. Shouldn't we be demonstrating that and showing that between one another?

What do I have to do? Maybe you have to go to greater lengths than your brother is willing to go to, but who cares? It's in honor of the Lord. It's to bring purity to the bride of Christ. If you have to be the one to humble yourself more than your brother, just do it.

Go before your brother and say, what do we have to do to make this right together between us? And you can do that right now. Like I said, it doesn't have to be when church rolls around or when we're partaking at the Lord's table or there's something deeply religiously spiritual going on.

And so, well, now is certainly the time when I must make it right. No, today you're supposed to be presenting your body before the Lord as a living sacrifice. So go make right with your brother now, especially if it's a spouse.

You know, when we're talking about brothers and sisters in the Lord, no one is closer to you than your own spouse. Wife your husband, husband your wife. First Peter 3 .7 says that if there are unresolved differences between a husband and a wife, then your prayers are hindered.

It even affects your relationship with God. So make things right between you that the two of you can present each other to the Lord together. In verse 25, Jesus says, make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown in prison.

All Jesus is saying here is resolve your differences quickly. Take care of these things. Do it now. Don't let another second pass by the way Paul puts this in Ephesians four. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

Verse 26 Jesus says, truly I say to you, you will not come out of there, out of that prison you will be thrown into. You will not come out until you have paid the last quadrants, which was one 64th of a laborer's daily wage.

It was a very small amount of money, but it's Jesus saying even the smallest amount, you're going to have to pay it all back before you're allowed to get out of there. And again, this is Jesus saying you will be held accountable for the ways that you've thought about your brother in your heart.

You cannot hide this from God. He is the one who searches mind and heart and will give to each one according to their works as Jesus said in revelation chapter three, my friends, we have got to speak kindly to one another.

We've got to, and that begins with thinking kindly about each other from the heart, not just on the outside saying flowery words to people, but on the inside, you're just, you know, still just pent up anger and frustration and bitterness toward other people from the heart.

We have got to love one another. And when you have affection and care for others from the heart, when it's genuinely from the heart, then it becomes easy to speak words of kindness to each other, speaking graciously that it may, it may give grace to those who hear, as Paul says in Ephesians 4 29, I hear a lot of Christians, bad mouth each other.

I hear a lot of Christians swear. We have got to seize those things and ask the Lord, as it says in Psalm 1 41 three, that he would set a guard over the door of our mouths. Don't even let those words come out, let them stop right there at the mouth.

We fix the condition of the heart so that we may be kind to one another. Jesus is saying here, the law exposes that it's not just about, you know, don't, don't go destroy somebody's body. Although certainly we should not be murdering one another.

But if you even have that contemptible spirit toward others in your heart, it's as if you've murdered them in your heart. Take hold of that, seize it, submit it to Christ, ask him to cleanse you and make you new to give you a new heart and a new mind that cares affectionately for others.

For God cares for us. Let's finish there with prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would think of one another in kind ways. We recognize each other as being fellow image bearers of God. And yes, there are people around us who have disobeyed God and are under the judgment of God, but it's out of love and affection for them that we would show them their sin and tell them to repent so that they would come to the way of righteousness.

They would come to Christ and be cleansed and so be saved. That is how we love and care for each other. Not calling one another names, not being disparaging toward each other, not tearing one another down or trying to make somebody else feel bad.

Forgive us, forgive me when I have done this, when I have spoken ill of another person and give me words that would be gracious toward others for you have been gracious to me. It's in Jesus name that we pray, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.