"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)
(This will conclude a
series of 4 articles on this passage having already covered verse 22 in the
prior 3 articles.)
Can a man be saved who
has contempt for and mistreats his fellowman?
John says no when he says, "By this the children of God and the
children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness
is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." (1 John 3:10
NAS) Contempt for and mistreatment of a
brother are the opposite of love and places one in the devil's camp. Four verses later John says, "We know
that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He
who does not love abides in death." (1 John 3:14 NAS)
One is either a child of
God or a child of the devil, there is no middle ground, and John declares that
the man who does not love his brother is not of God. Such a man abides in death. Thus verse 23 of this passage begins with the
words "if therefore" tying what is to come with what has just been
said in verse 22 about various attitudes towards and words spoken against a
brother.
One cannot on the one
hand worship God and on the other hand mistreat his fellowman whom God created
and gave a soul to and for whom Christ also died. God does not show partiality, "there is
no partiality with God." (Rom. 2:11 NAS)
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom.
3:23 NAS) "There is none righteous,
not even one." (Rom. 3:10 NAS) The
man whose vanity and pride has led him to see himself as being in a better
position before God than others, say for example the Pharisee who went up to
pray in Luke 18:10-14, fools only himself.
Any and all who are saved are saved by grace.
Christians need to be
very aware of the great danger they are in at all times as regards this
matter. They try their best to be
faithful and obedient in all things.
There is much evil they would not think of partaking in. We see sin and protest against it as we
should. The Pharisee that went up to
pray to God and went back unjustified in Luke 18 was not wrong in saying there
were swindlers, unjust, and adulterous people in the world for that there were
and always will be. The Pharisee saw
that. He did not partake in those
things. He seemed to be faithfully
obeying the commands of God so what was his problem?
He had lost sight of the
fact that he too was but a mere mortal, a man in need of God's grace and
forgiveness. His obedience in
commandment keeping had blinded his eyes to his own sins of his heart. He had forgotten or ignored what Jesus called
the second greatest commandment of the Law of Moses, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR
NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” (Mat. 22:39 NAS)
Pride had grown up in
his heart and so much so that he was feeling sorry for other sinners who needed
forgiveness unlike himself who he felt no longer needed it. He had become his own judge. He would judge not only himself but also his
fellowman. How did he know this
tax-gatherer who was also praying was a sinner extraordinaire? He was ready to take God's place as judge of
all. His outward commandment-keeping,
the outward observances of such, had led him to judge himself a righteous man
in need of no forgiveness.
God judges a man's
heart. "But the LORD said to
Samuel, '…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward
appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.'" (1 Sam. 16:7 NAS) "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test
the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the
results of his deeds." (Jer. 17:10 NAS)
"My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart."
(Psalms 7:10 NAS) It is the pure in
heart that shall see God (Matt. 5:8).
The Pharisee had a heart problem.
All Christians today who
are trying to live faithful obedient lives need to beware of the tendency we
all have to become like this Pharisee. If
we are faithful in the outward observances of Christianity the first thing we
know we can find ourselves finding fault in others rather easily. We become the standard by which people are to
be judged. We can end up worshipping
ourselves rather than God. The Bible
says of that particular Pharisee that when he prayed he was "praying thus
to himself." (Luke 18:11 NAS)
The man who would do
such things as Jesus spoke of in our text in Matt. 5:22 seems to be a man much
like the Pharisee of Luke 18 in his attitude toward his fellowman and towards
himself. Jesus is telling us in verses
23 and 24 of our text if we have been this way toward our fellowman, have been
disrespectful, hurtful, degraded him, or done him wrong in anyway go take care
of that problem now. Go to him, own up
to your sin, and be reconciled. That has
top priority. Do not delay. What a wonderful world it would be if we
would all obey God's golden rule—Matt. 7:12--(man gave it the name
"golden" but the rule is God's).
"He who does not
love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen."
(1 John 4:20 ESV)
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