Matthew 5:21-23.

[Harry]

Ray recently posed a question in an email entitled, "End Times?"  He asked what does Matthew 5:21-23 mean?  Does anyone have thoughts on these Scriptures? 

Harry


   

[ned]

Here's what I get.

Mat 5:21  You have heard that it was said to the ancients: "Do not commit murder!" And, Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the Judgment.
Mat 5:22  But I say to you, Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the Judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the sanhedrin; but whoever says, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of Hell.


Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes & pharisees. (vs.20)
In the old times, the law was;
Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement (condemnation>.

But Jesus says, never mind do not kill, don't even be angry with your brother, or you will be in danger of judgement (Jesus wants us to love our brother as ourselves). Plus, don't call him Raca (hebrews; worthless), or you'll be in danger of the council, yet more severely still, don't call your brother a fool (graceless welch, Hebrew: dull, stupid, heedless) or you will be in danger of hell fire.

If you are calling your brother such names, speaking such foolish words against anyone (fellow believer or not), you don't have Christ in you, you don't realize that the fight is not with our brothers, not with flesh and blood, but with the higher powers and principalities that be. God has possibly chosen this brother as a vessel of dishonour, as someone who is blinded. The truth therefore does not abide in us or we would realize this person has been blinded by our Lord, the very God we serve. How quickly do we, in our carnal nature, judge and talk (evil) about others? (Peer pressure makes it worse.) Because the truth does not abide in us, thus perverting the right ways of the Lord - by calling one of his children a graceless welch. we will be subject to hell fire (same as the)  lake of fire -- for this carnal thought will be "burned" out of all his children eventually. 

Love,
Marie

[hillsbororiver]

Great reply Marie,

Yes, we can (and will) be angry with a brother or sister at some time or another, as long as there some empathy or compassion it will be resolved.

If we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we see no value in one of the brethren, that we consider them worthless and beneath contempt, ignoring, hating, etc. than we most certainly do not have the mind or spirit of the Saviour of ALL MEN and therefore are doomed to the Lake of Fire to have this (spiritually) burned out of us.

Every person has worth and in some way is intregal to His plan and purpose His Sacrifice was for each and every individual.

His Peace and Wisdom to you,

Joe

[Harry]

Thank you, Marie and Joe. 

There is much wisdom and love here and I'm thankful for it. 

God bless,

Harry

[orion77]

Here's what I get.

Mat 5:21  You have heard that it was said to the ancients: "Do not commit murder!" And, Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the Judgment.
Mat 5:22  But I say to you, Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the Judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the sanhedrin; but whoever says, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of Hell.


Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes & pharisees. (vs.20)
In the old times, the law was;
Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement (condemnation>.

But Jesus says, never mind do not kill, don't even be angry with your brother, or you will be in danger of judgement (Jesus wants us to love our brother as ourselves). Plus, don't call him Raca (hebrews; worthless), or you'll be in danger of the council, yet more severely still, don't call your brother a fool (graceless welch, Hebrew: dull, stupid, heedless) or you will be in danger of hell fire.

If you are calling your brother such names, speaking such foolish words against anyone (fellow believer or not), you don't have Christ in you, you don't realize that the fight is not with our brothers, not with flesh and blood, but with the higher powers and principalities that be. God has possibly chosen this brother as a vessel of dishonour, as someone who is blinded. The truth therefore does not abide in us or we would realize this person has been blinded by our Lord, the very God we serve. How quickly do we, in our carnal nature, judge and talk (evil) about others? (Peer pressure makes it worse.) Because the truth does not abide in us, thus perverting the right ways of the Lord - by calling one of his children a graceless welch. we will be subject to hell fire (same as the)  lake of fire -- for this carnal thought will be "burned" out of all his children eventually. 

Love,
Marie

Good post, Marie.

These things are a good discerning point to who is who, when it comes to Christ's teachings.  Even though we know in the longrun God will burn these things out of all of us, it's good to know now, who are the real spiritual Jews.

These scriptures come to mind that speaks of this:


(Joh 8:3 LITV)  And the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman having been taken in adultery. And standing her in the middle,

(Joh 8:4 LITV)  they said to Him, Teacher, this woman was taken in the very act, committing adultery.

(Joh 8:5 LITV)  And in the Law, Moses commanded that such should be stoned. You, then, what do You say?

(Joh 8:6 LITV)  But they said this, tempting Him, that they may have reason to accuse Him. But bending down, Jesus wrote with the finger in the earth, not appearing to hear.

(Joh 8:7 LITV)  But as they continued questioning Him, bending back up, He said to them, The one among you without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.

(Joh 8:8 LITV)  And bending down again, He wrote in the earth.

(Joh 8:9 LITV)  But hearing, and being convicted by the conscience, they went out one by one, beginning from the older ones, until the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middle.

(Joh 8:10 LITV)  And Jesus bending back up, and having seen no one but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are those, the accusers of you? Did not one give judgment against you?

(Joh 8:11 LITV)  And she said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I judge you. Go, and sin no more.

(Joh 8:12 LITV)  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the Light of the world. The one following Me will in no way walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.



Seems to be we either have love for the brethren (believers or not) or we do not.  The ones who do not, are the ones who are constantly condemning in their bellief.  A good discerner of who is in the Light and who is in the darkness.  Not that we are any better, because we once were the same, but now we can distinguish.

God bless,

Gary

[ned]

I came across this scripture today when reading, and feel it really fits well with Matt5:21-23. Check this out;

1Thes 4:3-9  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication (greek; idolatry). That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseteh, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. But as touching brother love, ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

This is some awesome instruction in how we are to live for our Lord. When we talk bad about others, it is God we are talking about. This we ought not to be doing!!!!

Hi Gary,

I was expecting you to join in this thread  .

I agree we can discern well by how people act toward others. Corrupt people cannot produce good fruit. And those judging and speaking evil of others is just that; corrupt.

And here the glory goes to God, again and always, for we cannot of ourselves love like He would have us to love, it is His work in us that allows us to love others, especially our enemies.

Love,
Marie

[orion77]

Hello Marie,

Another good post, thanks for sharing those scriptures.  Brings it all home doesn't it?  Seeing the things we have all learned, from where we were to where He has us now, it's amazing to hear of condemnations of others who profess to believe.

Throughout the OT God speaks of the alien, fatherless, and the widow.  To treat them well and help them. 

(Deu 10:18 LITV)  He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, to give to him food and clothing.

(Deu 10:19 LITV)  And you shall love the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

(Zec 7:10 LITV)  And do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the alien, or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, of a man against his brother.


Seeing how important it is for our Father to protect these, how can we oppress others just because of differing beliefs.  Not only this, but to actually have a belief based upon God dealing unjustly, or should it be attrociously towards sinners, of which we all are anyways.

His ways are far better than my own.  I thank Him for being merciful.

God bless,

Gary

[athisfeet]

Hello everyone:

Great verses!!

I'm thinking that this is directly related to those verses in Mat 5, as well:

1Jo 3:14-15  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.  15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

I also noticed in the verses that were posted from John Chapter 8 that the men "heard and were convicted by their consciences" after Jesus bent down and wrote in the earth.

I see a beautiful picture in that of:

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

(covered again in Heb 8 & 10)

athisfeet

[Pax Vobiscum]

I think this is the discussion which prompted me to come out from lurking and contribute:

Ray stated in an earlier post,  "If you can explain Matt. 5:21-22 and Isaiah 66:17 & 24, you will have a pretty good understanding of THE ENTIRE BIBLE!"

I will leave Isaiah alone for now, but would like to comment on what is known in NT circles as the "Antitheses" of Mt 5:21-48.

Matthew cites six antitheses  in this chunk of Chapter 5.  In each instance, Jesus states a Jewish Law and then offers His interpretation of that Law.  It is very important to note that Jesus is not contradicting the Law – he does NOT say, "Here's a new Law."  Only that he offers a commentary on a more rigorous adherence to the Law.

The one at hand is the first one about murder.

He is showing that the Law is not about prima fasciae performance and adherence to its commandments.  He wants us to look deeper into the Law (thus deeper into God's commandment) in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Law (thus a deeper understanding of God).  He goes right to the heart of the problem:  Murder is bad, OK – but the HATE, INJUSTICE, and ANGER which causes one to murder is the real sin, so to speak. 

Jesus seeks to show us that the root intention of the Law lies in our hearts and minds (Remember "love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul...."?).  Sure, we can't go around killing each other – duh!?  That's a sociological/behavioral issue – what God wants us to realize is that the negative emotions which cause those actions must stop to avoid judgment.

It's all about love, man.  Now, if you'll indulge this newbie (kinda, but that's a different post):

In Jesus' day, there was a revered Rabbi known as Hillel.  As the story goes, a man approached Rabbi Hillel and challenged him that if the rabbi could recite the Torah in its entirety while standing on one foot, then the man would follow God.

The rabbi assumed a one-legged position and recited, "What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah.  The rest is commentary."  It is never said what happened to the man....

Check out Mt 7:12 for Jesus' version.

Peace.