2005-04-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
You’ll remember that last week I was led to write about God’s true intent of the Law. Then, I promised this week to write about the heart-attitude that God intends for those who obey the Law. To begin, let’s recall MT 5: 6 [KJV], “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” In case the archaic language is confusing, here is the same verse in the Good News version, “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!” Fulfillment that is found in obeying God leads blessings such as obtained from no other source. Christ found it to be His challenge in the Sermon on the Mount to show the true heart of the Law. This is something totally different from the ritualistic and utterly frustrating approach that the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and even today’s traditional Jews take. Christ and every person trying to spread belief in God’s teaching has this challenge: how to convey the true intent of God’s teaching without insulting the recipient to the point where they shut off communication altogether. This takes gentle persistence, refusal to stray from either the intent or the content of God’s teaching, and sensitivity to the recipient’s culture and spiritual maturity.
Christ understood that temporal judgments should be made by a court, not by individuals or unauthorized groups of individuals. Imagine what our society would be like if people wronged or who perceived they were wronged were authorized to mete out punishments. We would have anarchy! It would be like street gang mentality. On the other hand, Christ knew that spiritual judgments were His God-given responsibility, not that of mankind. How do we know this? DN 7: 13-14 makes it clear. “During this vision in the night, I saw what looked like a human being [Christ]. He was approaching me, surrounded by clouds, and He went to the One Who had been living forever [Ancient of Days in the KJV; God] and was presented to Him. He was given authority, honor, and royal power, so that the people of all nations, races, and languages would serve Him. His authority would last forever, and Hi Kingdom would never end.” I feel that God gave Christ this awesome responsibility, because He knew His Son would never contradict His intent for the Law and His teaching, only reveal His own heart-attitude. EPH 4: 25-27 illuminates this attitude. “No more lying, then! Everyone must tell the truth to his fellow believers, because we are all members together in the Body of Christ. If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day. Do not give the devil a chance.” The laser beam of this passage is directed at people who lie, who get angry, and especially, who hold grudges. This kind of behavior is clearly against God’s will. The same can be said for uncontrolled anger that leads to sinful behavior. God doesn’t want to destroy these people; He wants them to stop their evil behavior and to transform their hearts to people who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
This leads directly into the portion of the Sermon on the Mount where Christ teaches about anger. Remember that Christ was raised as a Jew. Thus, He understood the commandment, “Thou shalt not commit murder,” which is first presented in EX 20: 13 and then repeated in DT 5: 17. Now look at MT 5: 21. “You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.’” Of course murder is not the only expression of anger, but it is a good starting place for Christ in what He is led by the Father to say. This verse also makes it clear that Christ’s intent is not to replace the court system. Instead, He realizes that if He can bring people to righteous behavior, the court system will work according to God’s will. After all human judges, attorneys, bailiffs, etc. all have hearts that God wants to transform to righteous ones, just as those who appear before the courts do. The willful taking of another person’s life is an offense that is neither acceptable in human society or by God. Anger, jealously, greed, grudge-holding, hatred, and other kinds of evil are at the bottom of a heinous crime like this. Those are the things God wants expunged from out lives.
MT 5: 22 further clarifies Christ’s position on anger. “But now I tell you: whoever is angry with his brother will be brought to trial, whoever calls his brother ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Council [Sanhedrin-Jewish ruling council], and whoever calls his brother a worthless fool will be in danger of going to the fire of hell.’” This language seems pretty tame in comparison with some of the language used today. If this language will lead someone to hell, imagine how much quicker some of the language used today will! Perhaps, it’s because I’m in my sixties now that I am so appalled by what sensors are allowing on TV and in other media today. I hear words that in my youth would have never been allowed. I don’t want to come across as a paragon of virtue, because those of you who have been reading my messages for awhile know that swearing is one of the areas that has given me a lot of trouble personally in the past. JAS 3: 8-10 reveals God’s opinion on the matter of cursing. “But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison. We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse our fellow man, who is created in the likeness of God. Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My brothers, this should not happen!” I pray that I continue to make progress on getting these all-to-familiar words out of my vocabulary! Each of us is called to examine the language that escapes our mouths.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne today as people, many of whom are convicted by the words You have led me to write, including myself. Truthfully, not many of us are murderers, but it is true that many of us have allowed words which dishonor you and ourselves escape from our mouths. Many of us have had some experience in a court room that would indicate some kind of anger has been either taken out against us or that we have taken out against others. As believers, we know what was the content of our hearts at the times this has happened to us. That is because You were good enough to give us the Holy Spirit Who is our consciences. You are always right. The Son of God is indeed the only ultimate Judge. All to often, we have tried to usurp His place and have stood in judgment of others. So, Dearest Abba, we confess our wrongdoing in both attitude and deed before You and plead for Your mercy and compassion in dealing with us. We know You to be a always-righteous God Who loves His people and shows it by His patience and justice. We take responsibility for our own actions, listen carefully now to everything Christ teaches us about anger as we delve into the Sermon on the Mount, and dedicate ourselves to changing any lingering sinful behavior in this area to conform with Your holy word. Over the many years of human history, You have remained loving and caring and patient with us. Our imperfections and confessions have been met and are being met with love and right teaching. Except in the case of heinous crimes, You are a God of second chances, and we know You have righteous limits to how much sinning You will tolerate. We offer You praise and thanks for being the guiding and loving Presence You are in our lives. In Christ we pray, Amen.”
Next week, the Holy Spirit leads me to write about what Christ teaches us about reconciliation on both a temporal and spiritual level. There is no one reading this message who has totally escaped feeling angry. Anger is an honest emotion, and even our Lord expressed it at times, for example when He turned over the tables of the moneychangers at the temple in MT 21: 12-13. However, the real issue is whether the expression of one’s anger is destructive or constructive. Many a family has been torn apart by destructive expression of anger. The same can be said for what is happening to our society in the steadily raising crime rates we see in parts of it. Our young people, especially many being raised in day care centers and humanistic public schools, are not learning the need for consideration of the rights and needs of others. I’m not saying all children in this situation are evildoers, but an alarming high percentage of them are very self-centered indeed. Despite all of this, our Lord remains on the job, teaching all of us about love, self-control, and goodness. His love for us is so great that His first priority to bring us to a place where the Holy Spirit can transform our hearts, and then, He can bring us back to the Father’s side in heaven for a life of eternal bliss and fellowship [JN 14: 15-17; JN 6: 39-40]. Each day, we who believe should offer praise and thanks to God for His faithfulness. In addition, we should spread His life-giving message to everyone who will listen, especially those who have not yet come to faith. It’s one way we can offer our lives as “living sacrifices of service to Him” [RO 12: 1] and acknowledge how deserving of this kind of honorable behavior our God really is.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn