WEDNESDAY May 24th
Matthew 5:21-26
V22 ‘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.’
As we come to some of these verses we will discover that Jesus begins to speak into issues that are to do with our relationships, over the next few verses he says phrases like, ‘You have heard it said . . . But I say unto you’ and here in these few verses it is in regard to our relationship toward others. The ESV uses the sub heading here ‘anger’. It is all about our relationship with others and in particular that if we have wronged someone the importance of seeking to right the wrong.
Without going into the verses with great detail, there is application in a general sense, we should live in harmony and put right any dispute we may have, but I also believe that there is an important spiritual application, so I think the important part is found in verses 23-24 ‘So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.’
Why do I think this is important? It is because in Christ we have become new creations, and as a result we have become members of a new community, the community of the Church, which we learn from Paul is the body of Christ, of which Jesus himself is the head. And within this new community it is essential that we live together or fellowship together in a spirit of unity. Therefore in the local Church community, what Jesus speaks of here in these verses is important to maintain the unity that must be among us as God’s people. Again, Paul brings it up in the era in which we find ourselves, the day of God’s grace when he talks about our coming to the Lord’s Supper, in 1 Corinthians 11:27-28 ‘Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.’ There are many ways in which we can partake in an unworthy manner, and one of them is by not being in a healthy and good relationship with a brother and sister in the Lord.
May we seek at all times to live in harmony with one another, nothing between us and nothing between us and the Lord, for it is then as read in Psalm 133 that the Lord commands the blessing.