{"id":353,"date":"2014-08-25T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=353"},"modified":"2014-07-31T16:57:59","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T16:57:59","slug":"matthew-521-26-murder-cross-reference-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-521-26-murder-cross-reference-comparisons.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:21-26; Murder (Cross-reference comparisons)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Matthew 5:22, Jesus is quoted as saying that anyone who is \u201cangry with his brother\u201d has committed a sin that\u2019s equivalent to murder.<\/p>\n

Bible scholar and teacher, Warren Wiersbe, offers this insight on that teaching: \u201cThere is a holy anger against sin (Ephesians 4:26), but Jesus talked about an unholy anger against people. The word He used in Matthew 5:22 means \u2018a settled anger, malice that is nursed inwardly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Other theologians see Jesus making a reference here to humanity\u2019s first murder\u2014Cain\u2019s killing of his brother, Abel, as recorded in Genesis 4. Cain\u2019s criminal actions were not simply preceded by his jealous anger toward his brother\u2014that is to say, his anger didn\u2019t simply lead<\/em> to<\/em> the act of murder. Rather, the act of murder was actually begun<\/em> in Cain\u2019s sin of \u201cmalice that is nursed inwardly.\u201d The killing of Abel itself was the final, outward expression of the murderous sin that Cain had already been nurturing within himself, out of public view.<\/p>\n

It is in this sense that anger, unchecked, becomes equivalent to murder. Just as the seed of a rose contains all the DNA of a full-grown rose, unholy anger is the sinful seed that contains all the DNA of murder. Jesus thus strongly encourages his hearers to deal immediately with anger toward others\u2014pursuing reconciliation and forgiveness without delay. In this peaceful pursuit, the sinful seeds of anger are rooted out and rendered ineffective in a person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Taken in\u00a0the context of today’s often-divisive\u00a0political atmosphere, we followers of Christ would do well to heed Jesus’ warning about anger when pursuing our otherwise admirable\u00a0goals.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[BEC, 23; BKB, 115]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Matthew 5:22, Jesus is quoted as saying that anyone who is \u201cangry with his brother\u201d has committed a sin that\u2019s equivalent to murder. Bible scholar and teacher, Warren Wiersbe, offers this insight on that teaching: \u201cThere is a holy anger against sin (Ephesians 4:26), but Jesus talked about an unholy anger against people. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[135,134,16,129,136],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cross-referencecomparisons","category-matthew","tag-abel","tag-cain","tag-jesus","tag-murder","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 5:21-26; Murder (Cross-reference comparisons) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/08\/matthew-521-26-murder-cross-reference-comparisons.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:21-26; Murder (Cross-reference comparisons) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Matthew 5:22, Jesus is quoted as saying that anyone who is \u201cangry with his brother\u201d has committed a sin that\u2019s equivalent to murder. 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