Previous Lesson | Return to Home Page | Next Lesson
Lesson 6 of the Discipleship Making process.
I left you last time with the question of “How long do you normally stay angry?”
Read: Matthew 5:21-22
Jesus introduces His next subject in the Sermon on Mount by quoting the sixth commandment, “You shall not commit murder.” Some people believe this commandment reads, “Thou shall not kill” and interpret it to mean that no one is justified in taking the life of another. However, the Scripture both Old and New Testaments use different words to convey these two ideas. Murder is a wanton act. It is subject to a penalty executed by the government. The penalty may be death itself. Accidentally killing someone is not murder it’s manslaughter. Killing someone while defending oneself, family, or property when attacked is not murder, it’s self-defense. Warfare itself is not murder; however there can be individual acts of murder occurring within the framework of war depending on the circumstances.
In this lesson Jesus reinforces the concept of individual responsibility. He declares that an individual’s actions and motives will be judged and that evil actions have their own penalties. Jesus exposes the pattern of steps in the charge of murder and their effect on an individual’s body, soul and spirit. Then He closes with instructions for the prevention of murder.
Murder is always premeditated. Let’s look at the steps in the process that leads to murder. Jesus presents each of them in Matthew 5:22. Warning signs accompany each step in the process and are a result of the failure to overcome sin.
The first warning sign in the process is anger towards someone. According to James 4:1-3 it all starts in the body, a lust of the flesh. “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.”
The second warning sign comes when the angry person demeans the other, in the soul, a lust of the eyes. Jesus used the term “Raca” which means “I spit on you” or “I despise you”. The angry person views himself in an exalted position or in one of greater importance than the other. James 4:6 and 10 speak to that issue. “Therefore it says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.’ . . . Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
The third warning sign I will give you in my next lesson, along with the two commands that Jesus gives His disciples in this important lesson on subduing anger, the root of murder, the spirit of the law.
With that, allow me to leave you with these two questions to consider:
What does judging others lead to? . . .
. . . and the original question that was proposed for this lesson . . .
. . . “How long do you normally stay angry?”
Until next time . . . Godspeed!
Previous Lesson | Return to Home Page | Next Lesson
No comments:
Post a Comment