Matthew 5:21-26 – Murder Begins in the Heart
21 “You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder , and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. 22 But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Fool!’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You moron!’ will be subject to hellfire. 23 So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 I assure you: You will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny!
1 John 2:9-11
9 The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Related Text:
Exodus 20:13
Proverbs 8:12-13
Matthew 5:38-48
Luke 6:22-36
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So let’s all be practical. We’ll finish reading this scripture, eventually log out of facebook and step away from the computer, and step out into our lives. We’ll interact with our friends/family, coworkers and general acquaintances. We’ll meet people who are rude, people who we don’t get along with, people we can’t stand, and people who don’t like us for whatever reason. There will be people we do get along with and people we but heads with.
So what do we do?
We pray for the people we can’t stand. We pray for the people who are so dead set against us for whatever reason. We pray for those people who have driven us crazy for so long that we can’t even remember why they drive us crazy. We pray for them, and we also pray that God will change our attitude toward them.
When you are finished reading this, I encourage you to try to identify a couple of your “enemies” that you might cross paths with today, tomorrow, or when you go back to wok next week. Be humble before God and let go of your pride, identify those people you don’t get along with (the reason doesn’t even really matter at this point), pray for them, pray for their hurts, and pray that God will give you the strength to change your attitude toward them so you can show them God’s love. Love them.
