Sermon: Sunday, 16th November, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Matthew 5:21-6
Sometimes we can think something is relatively easy to do when actually it is difficult. For example, when the KFC creche room was being plastered I was watching Darren the plasterer at work. He said to me, ‘D0 you want to try?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I took hold of the hawk in one hand (what the plaster is held on) and a trowel in the other and had a go. I was terrible. It was much harder than it looked. The 10 commandments are a bit like that. At first, they might seem manageable and relatively easy to keep. That’s what the rich young ruler thought of the commandments when he said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept since my youth.’ (Mark 10:20) How wrong he was. The Pharisees were also wrong about God’s commandments. They had a superficial and external attitude to the law.
1. True or false? The 6th commandment is easy to keep.
Have you ever murdered someone? Have you kept this particular commandment? The Pharisees thought they successfully kept the 6th commandment, thou shalt not murder, as long as they did not spill any blood. Jesus comes to them and corrects this false understanding. The commands of God are so deep that they concern the heart as well as our actions. And so, if we are angry with someone in a wrong way then we have broken the spirit of this command: ‘ class=”blu”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.’ (Matthew 5:21-22) In other words, murder is not only a crime of the hand but also of the heart. You don’t have to commit physical murder to have the heart of a murderer. You can have murderous thoughts and break this command.
The 6th commandment not only prohibits the act of murder, but also an attitude towards people which hates, resents, is embittered, is angry, despises and wishes someone dead. Which of us has kept the 6th commandment? None of us. That is the truth of the matter.
How big of a problem is anger? Surely Christians will have got a handle on ‘anger management’!
Jerry Bridges: ‘It permeates each person and spoils our most intimate relationships. Anger is a given part of our fallen human fabric. Sadly, this is true even in our Christian homes and churches… our anger is often directed towards those we should love most: our spouse, children, parents, or siblings in our human families, and those who are our true brothers and sisters in Christ in our church families.’
What is anger? It is a strong feeling of displeasure, and usually of antagonism. It is usually accompanied by sinful emotions, words and actions hurtful to those who are the objects of our anger.
‘Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ (Ephesians 4:31-32) Here we see Christian discipleship is like gardening. Both the weeding out (get rid of) and the planting (be kind and compassionate) are necessary in the Christian life.
‘My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.’ (James 1:19-20)
‘Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.’ (Proverbs 29:11)
‘An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.’ (Proverbs 29:22) Anger leads to other sins: bitterness, resentment, church splits, divorce, rudeness and violence.
Can we ever say, ‘Yes I’m angry, but that’s because someone else has made me angry’? Or, is this just blame-shifting for our own reactions? ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.’ (Mark 7:20-23) Even when we are wronged, we can still choose how we will respond to the sinful actions of others towards us.
Jerry Bridges: ‘Someone else’s words or actions may be the occasion of our anger, but the cause lies deep within us – usually our pride, or selfishness, or desire to control.’
Often it is our words which reveal our murderous thoughts. In verse 22, Jesus mentions this word ‘raca’ which means ‘empty’ and is probably similar to when we might call someone an ‘airhead’ or a ‘blockhead’. You are insulting their intelligence. Or you might call someone a ‘fool’, which seems in this context to be close to calling him a scoundrel. In other words, we are engaging in the character assassination of another person, which is a serious business. Of course, insulting words may never lead to murder, but they are serious in the sight of God. That is why there is a warning of divine judgement in verse 22.
‘Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.’ (1 John 3:15)
John Stott: ‘Anger and insult are ugly symptoms of a desire to get rid of someone who stands in our way. Our thoughts, looks and words all indicate that, as we sometimes dare to say, we ‘wish he were dead.’
I hope we are all more sensitised to just how serious anger is in the sight of God and how destructive it can be.
Jerry Bridges: ‘Anger held on to, is not only sin, it is spiritually dangerous. Anger is never static. If it is not dealt with, it will grow into bitterness, hostility and revenge-minded grudges.’
And because it is so serious, we should do anything to avoid it and do all we can to limit its effects as quickly as possible. Jesus stresses the urgency of dealing with anger in the two illustrations he gives in vs 23-26.
2. Christian disciples: sort our disagreements speedily.
Jesus’ teaching on the immediate action anger requires is quite shocking: ‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.’ (Matthew 5:23-24)
For us in 2025, we might picture ourselves in church listening to a sermon, but then realise there is a relationship which has become bitter, leave church there and then and go and sort it out. Did Jesus mean this literally? Certainly, it gets the point across emphatically – sort it out as soon as is humanly possible. If we don’t, the issue is likely to get bigger and bigger. Paul says a similar thing ‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.’ (Ephesians 4:26-27) Paul is urging us not to hold onto our anger.
Notice something else. I would have expected Jesus to say something like: ‘If you are in church and you are angry with someone in your heart then go and sort it out.’ But that is not what Jesus says. Jesus says that if you realise someone else is angry with you, rightly or wrongly, get it sorted. Scotrail don’t want unidentified baggage lying around on trains or in train stations. They tell us: ‘See it. Say it. Sorted.’ That’s what we must do with our anger, whether it comes from our own hearts or from someone else’s heart to us. We have to identify that ‘dangerous baggage’ and have it removed.
Let’s be honest. Most of us are not good at keeping ‘short accounts’ with one another. Nor are we very good at going to someone and saying the words, ‘I’m sorry’. We might wait for them to make the first move. Don’t do that. Remember how important it is to God to deal with anger speedily. Are you willing to take the initiative with a family member, friend, someone in the church family or someone else and sort out resentment? Are there people we refuse to speak to? It should not be.
In a church context, we can see from this passage that God would rather you leave church and sort out a relationship that stay in worship when your worship is contaminated by a damaged relationship. God would rather you worship here with your brothers and sisters in Christ from a place of unity of heart and not from a place of bitterness and division. Such divisions go against the gospel of grace.
In Jesus’ second example (verse 25), there is once again a stress on the urgency of personal reconciliation. This is a legal image. In Jesus’ day, a person who defaulted in his debts could be thrown into a debtors’ prison.
Sinclair Ferguson: ‘Jesus says the two men should settle the matter now, before they are in the courtroom with the judge. It may be costly to settle it now; it will certainly be humbling. But if it continues, one man may find himself in prison, and unable to get out until he has paid the last penny.’
Let me quote Sinclair Ferguson again in his brilliant summary of these two illustrations: ‘Animosity is a time bomb; we do not know when it will ‘go off’. We must deal with I quickly before the consequences of our bitterness get completely out of control. Most human relationships that are destroyed could have been preserved if there had been communication and action at the right time. Jesus says that the right time is as soon as we are conscious that we are at enmity with our brother.
There is another obvious reason why anger ought to be dealt with speedily in a church. Unchecked, it is a terrible witness. We are meant to be pointing others to how they can be reconciled to God, and so if we cannot reconcile with one another, it is just an awful witness. That’s why as far as it depends on us, we should live at peace with all people. ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:35)
Let us take a moment to pause and think: is there someone we need to put things right with? Do we have to stay stuck in our anger? Is there a way back? Even after years?
Mature Christian disciples will acknowledge that their anger is very likely to be sinful. They will then try and think about what lies behind that anger. Is it our pride, our selfishness or our desire to be in control? Repent of whatever is feeding your anger and pray to God for a godly attitude towards the person who has wronged you.
‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ ( (Ephesians 4:32)