Key Verse: “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.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Mat. 5:21-22)
A place you don’t want your picture to appear is on the FBI’s or the RCMP’s “Wanted” page. These people will one day stand before a judge or jury and be assigned a penalty for what they have done. They are in Jesus’ words, “subject to judgment.” We understand that’s what should happen, but what does He mean by the following words, “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment”?
Courts judge people on the basis of evidence. Lawyers present such things as physical evidence, documentary evidence, or circumstantial evidence to support or refute a view of what has happened. On the basis of the evidence, a judge or jury carefully weighs the evidence and decides if the accused acted illegally or not. And that is the key: The person must have acted, he must have done something.
But Jesus says something different here. He says that “anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” This is not an outward action, but an inner attitude. What jury is capable of making such a judgment? What judge? Only One. Only God can judge the heart. He needs no external evidence, no testimony of an eyewitness, nothing. He sees into the depths of the human heart.
God can see, and God can judge. That is not to say that God is judgmental. The focus here is not on the judge, but on the crime. Jesus is not saying here that God is waiting to zap us. He is saying that God’s standard is higher and deeper than just the written law.
We were fishing once on a lake in southern Ontario, and this lake was reported to be very deep. At one point we said, “Let’s see if we can find out how deep it is.” We put a good heavy weight on a line and let it down. We couldn’t reach the bottom. Our line was not long enough. But God’s line is long enough. He can see deep into our hearts, and that’s where He wants us to meet the standard. He wants our hearts to be so aligned with His that murder is not an issue, stealing is not an issue, lying is not an issue, coveting is not an issue; our evil thoughts never express themselves in actions because we deal with them long before they reach that stage.
How is your heart? Don’t worry about breaking the law. Aim for Jesus’ deeper standard. Aim at pleasing God in your thought-life, in your heart. We have a higher calling than merely to keep the law. Our calling is “to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, . . .” (Phil. 3:10). This is not a behavioral standard, but a heart standard.
Prayer: Father, I confess with David in his opening words in Psalm 139: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.” That is a simple statement of fact, but I also issue this invitation with David in his closing words: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Author: Lindsay Hislop was raised in southern Scotland and southern Ontario and now lives in the southern United States. He worked in the engineering field for 15 years (mostly in Canada) before pursuing an academic career. He has taught for over thirty years at Columbia International University. He also serves as an elder in his church, where he teaches and preaches regularly. He is married to a wonderful wife Pam and has two terrific children, Holly, who lives in Canada, and Doug, who lives in Columbia. His four grandchildren, Isaac, Madeline, Lindsay, and Dolan, are also pretty special. He likes doing carpentry and odd jobs around the house.
