"But I say to
you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the
court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the
supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go
into the fiery hell. If therefore you
are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go
your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your
offering." (Matt. 5:22-24 NAS)
I want to deal in this article specifically with the second
clause in this statement of Jesus where he says "Whoever shall say to his
brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court." My main interest is how this applies to
you and me today. There is a warning in
this teaching that transcends the ages.
A good place to begin is with the word "Raca"
which is meaningless to the average reader of the Bible. Consequently, many translations translate the
Greek differently using terms or phrases such as "insults his
brother" (ESV), "insults a brother" (NET, NRSV is similar),
"You good-for-nothing" (NAS update—I used the original NAS in my
quote at the top of the page, GNB), and "Empty fellow" (YLT). Vine's An Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words says, "It was a word of utter contempt, signifying
empty, intellectually rather than morally, empty-headed." Strong's Dictionary described it as "a term
of utter vilification." I believe
from my study that the YLT (Young's Literal Translation) comes the closest of
any of the translations in giving the best translation of the Greek.
When one takes a look at the various translations given
above for the Greek and learns the meaning of the Greek word used behind those
translations it becomes obvious that we have a sin that can be committed today
even though we might use different terms or words. The man that would say this kind of thing to
a brother not only insults that brother but displays a lack of love and
compassion, a lack of kindness for his fellowman. It tells you more about the man speaking than
it does about the man he is insulting in such speech. It manifests a feeling of superiority in the
speaker's mind.
If you are an American have you ever wondered why the
desperately poor southern white who never owned a slave or had hopes of doing
so fought to uphold the slave holding rights of rich southern plantation owners
during our Civil War in the 1860s? I am
told through their writings by those who have studied the subject that the
slave gave them a sense of self-worth in that there was at least one man below
them in terms of how society judged its own. They were at least better than the black
slave (as they saw it). As long as there
were slaves they were not in society's lowest caste. Take the slave away and then it is a
different matter.
One wonders how much of this belittling of one's brother or
sister is similar in kind. I insult and belittle
you so I can feel better about myself. My
low self-esteem leads me to drag you down to raise myself up. And, no doubt, a great amount of this kind of
behavior comes from not so much low self-esteem but downright arrogance
residing within the one who does it. Full of pride and puffed up, better than
another in their own mind, the other guy is merely dust under their feet. But the motive makes little difference. It is the result that matters. One can be a jerk for this reason or that
reason but he is still a jerk if that is his character.
There is a price to be paid for such behavior. In school we call such conduct bullying. School shootings and suicides of young people
oftentimes are directly related to some child being continually subjected to
such torment by those who would verbally abuse others. When I was a student in high school I saw a
young girl tormented (bullied) mercilessly daily (this was back in the early
60s). This was long before schools ever
gave a thought of disciplining such conduct.
I have always sort of blamed those tormentors of hers for the way her
life turned out. I saw what she went
through daily. She was going to have a
tough go of it at best and needed all the love, friendship, and kindness she
could get but what she got instead was tormentors and bullies who verbally
abused her daily and made her life miserable.
In another article on this passage, I talked about
anger. We ought to be angry against sin
and that would include the sin those engage in who would belittle others,
insult them, and call them names. I hate
this sin. My dad was an honest man and a
hard worker. People thought well of him
for that but Dad had a speech impediment of sorts and had some difficulty pronouncing certain letters or sounds. I
could understand him perfectly and everyone did who was around him all of the
time but still, he did not quite pronounce some of his words correctly.
Dad never told me this but I learned it later and I never
said a word to him, never brought it up to him, but I learned as they were
eating lunch one day at work one of his co-workers was making fun of
him, evidently mercilessly, and he slapped the man. No doubt Dad was too ashamed to ever tell it. He had to have been tremendously provoked to
do that for it was totally out of character for him and hard to believe he had
done such a thing.
Certainly, Dad was in the wrong but those who speak hurtful
words to others tearing them down to the point of the loss of all dignity what
kind of love do they have in their hearts toward others? Is there any love, compassion, any mercy, any
humanity in such speech? If I incite a
person to the point it becomes intolerable for them and they just cannot take
it anymore am I guilt-free of sin? Dad
knew he could not pronounce his words correctly and never liked to be out in
public. No man wants to be embarrassed.
I think one can begin to see that this sin involves more
than just words, it involves the heart.
The man who would call his brother names and insult him has not only
sinned with the words of his mouth but in his heart as well.
The Bible tells us, "Do not merely look out for your
own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." (Phil. 2:4
NAS) Does the kind of speech of which we
are speaking violate this scripture?
This speaking humiliating things to others, putting them down, is a sin
on so many levels—a sin of the heart, of the tongue, a violation of all the
passages that speak of love, compassion, kindness, and mercy.
"And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity;
the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and
sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell." (James
3:6 NAS)
In closing, it is readily seen that whatever this passage meant
in the first century it is still applicable today in that there will be a
judgment for such speech. We need not
worry about the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court in the first century, for a
greater than the Sanhedrin is here—Jesus Christ himself, the judge of all, on
that special day that has been appointed for that. "For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the
body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." (2 Cor. 5:10
NAS)
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