Matt 5:21–26 — Jesus Teaches And Applies the Sixth Commandment

Matthew 5:17–20 forms the foundation for the teaching that follows. Jesus fulfills the law and then teaches its true depth to his disciples. They must not treat any part of God’s moral will as dispensable, and their righteousness must exceed the merely outward righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees because it reaches the heart.

Jesus begins with the sixth commandment. He does not set aside “You shall not murder,” but exposes the angry attitudes and words from which murder grows. We will consider the root of anger, its consequences, and its antidote in the grace of the gospel.

The Root of Anger

In our text, beginning in verse 21, Jesus starts off by quoting from the sixth commandment, which is found twice in the Old Testament, once in Exodus chapter 20, and then again in Deuteronomy chapter five. It is the sixth commandment, which literally says, you shall not murder. Although interestingly, Jesus adds to it.

He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, that is to the people of God in the Old Testament at Mount Sinai, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. That last part there about whoever murders will be liable to judgment is not a direct quote from anything in the Old Testament, but it is a paraphrase of the teaching of the Mosaic Law. For example, In Exodus chapter 21 verse 12 it says, So clearly there is some a court system out there that if somebody commits murder in that way, intentionally murdering someone out of anger, The Mosaic Law also distinguishes that from manslaughter, but if there’s this intentional striking a man out of anger so that he dies, then there’s going to be some a court case, and as a result, he shall be put to death. And so that is what Jesus is referring to here about being liable to judgment. Also, later on in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 19, verses 15 to 21, there’s a whole paragraph that you can look at at your own time that gives all the procedures for courts.

There’s going to be judges. There’s going to be witnesses. Things have to be established in the testimony of two or three witnesses. And then only then can someone be found guilty. And then it talks about the way that punishment should be executed, a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. In other words, the punishment should fit the crime. So whoever commits murder then should be put to death. So there are these rules that are given in the Mosaic law for court procedure, and that’s what Jesus is summarizing here when he says whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But Jesus is going beyond that. He’s teaching this commandment, but not simply looking at the outward actions that are forbidden in this commandment, literally committing murder, but he’s going beyond that to teach us the sinful attitudes of the heart that lie beneath that sin of murder. Jesus is teaching the sixth commandment, but he’s also applying it, and he’s giving concrete illustrations of it.

Jesus is a good preacher. He knows how to talk to the audience in a way that’s very specific and concrete. He doesn’t just speak in abstract terms. He doesn’t just leave it with verse 22, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will also be liable to judgment. He could have just ended right there, but he goes on and he fleshes it out like a good preacher.

He applies this commandment, and he gives us specific illustrations of it so that we can then have a more concrete understanding of what the Lord desires of us in this commandment. I have three points in the sermon tonight because Jesus is talking primarily about the underlying sin behind the sin of murder, which is anger, and so I have three points that focus on anger.

First, the root of anger.

Second, the consequences of anger. And third, the antidote to anger. So Jesus very clearly teaches that the root of murder is anger, and the root of anger is the heart. It is from the heart that the sin of anger flows. Remember later on in Matthew’s Gospel, in Matthew chapter 15, there’s this very interesting passage, which I’ve mentioned before, where Jesus is having a debate with the scribes and the Pharisees over the ritual of hand washing.

hand-washing was not a hygiene issue. It was a ritual that symbolized being in a state of ceremonial cleanness. But it was a man-made tradition. Hand-washing was not something that the Mosaic law required of God’s people. And so in this controversy over hand-washing, Jesus gets into this issue of the heart aspect of the commandments. And he condemns the Pharisees for reducing the commandments to the outward level and thinking that they could be clean and pure simply by outward washing without being concerned about their heart. He says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And then he goes on to talk about This whole issue of where does sin come from? It doesn’t come from outward things. It doesn’t come from being exposed to outward impurity. It comes from the heart. He says, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. This defiles a person. He says, do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And that is what defiles a person. Matthew 15 verse 19, for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander, and so on. And so Jesus here is teaching that same concept and applying it specifically to the issue of murder and anger. He’s saying the root of anger is the sinful desires and thoughts of our hearts.

It’s an amazing thing to think about, but before you even do anything outwardly, whether it’s with words or with your actions, it is possible for you to have murderous thoughts in your heart. In fact, you can murder someone in your heart. It’s an amazing thing to think about. But think about that. Think about the situations yourself when you have been so angry with somebody that you are murdering them in your heart. You are, as it were, exing them out. You want nothing to do with them. It’s like you are trying to annihilate them. That angry emotion that you have in your heart, that is the root of murder, and that is the root of anger. It is that desire to negate someone and to have them be removed from this world. And of course, there’s this process that happens? Where you see how sometimes it just begins in the heart, but then it begins to express itself outwardly through your words. Angry emotions lead to angry words. And so Jesus talks about that. He says, I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. And whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

Jesus here not only talks about anger, he also talks about angry words that flow from anger, the angry words that flow from our angry heart. Insults, name-calling, mockery, contempt, slander, these are all words that are murderous in their intent and that have the effect of giving vent to our angry feelings and emotions. And then finally, of course, it can lead to angry actions, not just murder, but other things as well, such as physical assault.

Or even he mentions in this text here something interesting, which I find surprisingly modern. He talks about lawsuits? Angry people sometimes sue people in court out of anger, right, to get back at them. That can happen too. That is an angry action that is not murder per se, but it is an expression of murder. At least it can be. I’m not saying that every lawsuit is necessarily an expression of anger, but it can be.

It’s an outward expression of an inward emotion that is a heart that is defiled by this murderous anger. So the root of anger is the heart, and Jesus talks about that in the various ways in which it expresses from the heart outwardly to words and then to actions.

The Consequences of Anger

That brings us then to the second point, which is the consequences of anger.

Interestingly, this passage spends a lot of time talking about the court system, the Jewish court system? Notice all the language that’s used here. For example, the word liable is used four times in the text. Whoever murders will be liable to judgment. That’s a legal term. Again, in verse 22, liable to judgment, liable to the counsel, and so on. That term liable is a legal term that focuses on being legally liable to judgment and to punishment. Of course, the fourth time he uses the word liable, he escalates it to this higher court, which is the hell of fire.

It’s unexpected,. He’s talking about these earthly courts, probably the Jewish courts that I was talking about before in Deuteronomy 19, where the judges of Israel would have judicial process to deal with criminals and those who had committed these great grave sins. But Jesus just drops this new court onto us in verse 22. At the end there he says, whoever says you fool will be liable to he doesn’t say the Supreme Court or some other court. He says to the ultimate court, to the hell of fire, to Gehenna, to the place of eternal punishment. So he’s talking about both elements here. He’s talking about the court of man, and he’s also talking about the court of God.

he’s saying here, let us think about the consequences of anger. We might be thinking this really only makes sense if you’re talking about murder. Murder itself, I understand how that could have actual consequences in a literal court, a Jewish court. Or even a modern-day court, right, where you could be arrested and on trial for murder. But Jesus is not really talking about murder per se.

He’s actually talking about anger and angry words? He says, but I say to you that everyone who’s angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and so on. I think Jesus teaches that Yes, he’s going to get to the court of God and he’s going to talk about hell. But before we even think about that, he’s saying that even in the earthly arena, even in the arena of society and our relationships, there can be serious consequences to anger. Serious outbreaks of real deep anger can have a heavy consequence in this life and in this world. Just think about the things that can happen? You could be literally sued in court for slander and defamation. You could be ruined financially in a court or in the court of public opinion. And there’s also relationships that can be completely broken as a result of these extreme excesses and outbursts of anger. That can happen.

Actual human relationships, marriages, and other things like that can be completely permanently shattered because of these outbreaks of anger, of this murderous rage, these outbursts of sinful anger. So Jesus is warning us here. He’s not simply talking about, in the Mosaic Law, there’s this process for courts for murder, but he’s trying to bring out to our thoughts and to our consciousness that anger, when it’s in this extreme form, these outbursts of deep anger that have this murderous intent to them, that it can have serious consequences in this life. But ultimately, he wants to point out that the ultimate consequences are in the court of God. And that’s why he says, whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Just a brief comment on that word hell. The word hell in our English translations is actually rendering the Aramaic word Gehenna. Gehenna is the word that Jesus uses almost every place in the Gospels when Jesus talks about hell. It’s the word Gehenna.

It’s an Aramaic word that means the Valley of Hinnom. The Valley of Hinnom was an area southwest of Jerusalem where back in the Old Testament days, the Israelites used to, remember when they were being caught up in idolatry and one of the really bad elements of idolatry was that they were burning their sons and daughters in the fire as a sacrifice to the god Molech.

Remember that? That’s pretty incredible to think about. But that happened in this area called the Valley of Hinnom, in the southwest area of Jerusalem, where that terrible sin of not just idolatry, but murder? Offering their own sons and daughters in the fire as a sacrifice, child sacrifice, to this pagan horrific god, Molech.

That happened there in Gehenna, in the Valley of Hinnom. Later on, as the history of Israel progressed, and you get into the time after they returned back from the land, and so on, that area, that same region where that terrible sin of child sacrifice was happening, was turned into a trash dump. And so they would just take their trash out there and the trash would constantly be lit on fire to seek to get rid of it. And so this whole area then just became like this area in southwest Jerusalem outside the city that was just like, that’s Gehenna, that’s where it’s just nonstop burning going on. And there’s also this memory of the earlier sins. Of sacrificing their children in the fire to Molech.

It became a visual metaphor for hell. Now, is hell literally going to be actually literal fire consuming the bodies of those who are in hell forever? I’m not 100% sure if we can take it that literally, because there are places in the Bible where hell is described as a place of outer darkness. So how do you have fire and darkness at the same time?

I think these are metaphors to seek to explain the idea of God’s judgment against sin. It’s not, we shouldn’t take all these things so literally that we come up with this ghastly understanding of what hell is. It is simply God’s judgment. It is simply being abandoned to God’s wrath and separated from God for all eternity. But the fire aspect is still very real.

It may not be literal fire as we think of it today, but that fire aspect is still very significant because it symbolizes the wrath of God and God’s judgment and God’s hatred of sin. So what is Jesus saying then? Is he saying that if you as a disciple of Christ have one moment of anger where you insult somebody and say you fool that you’re automatically going to hell? Is that what he’s saying?

I don’t think he’s saying that because of course we know that there is repentance. There is the possibility of forgiveness. We did that just tonight. We gathered together. We confessed our sin of murdering our brothers in our heart, and we received God’s forgiveness.

I don’t think that’s what he’s saying here. He’s not saying that if you make one mistake, one outburst of anger, that you are destined for hellfire forever. But I think what he’s trying to do is he’s trying to make a point. Jesus is trying to teach us that This is what sin deserves.

word liable that’s used throughout here. He says you’re liable to judgment, you’re liable to judgment, you’re liable to the hell of fire. That’s what the sin of murderous anger deserves. It deserves. You’re liable to the hell of fire that Jesus warns against. He’s making a strong point to warn us, to show us that it is really serious. I don’t think we really grasp how evil this sin is until we see it in light of the punishment that Jesus describes here.

Later on in the New Testament, in Galatians chapter 5, Paul is talking about, passage about the fruits of the Spirit? But he also has a passage about the works of the flesh? And one of the works of the flesh that Paul lists there, in addition to idolatry and immorality and so on, is fits of anger. Fits of anger. And that’s what Jesus is talking about here.

Fits of anger. That selfish, murderous rage that we sometimes indulge in. That we know it’s wrong and we just express it in a way that afterwards we just hang our heads in shame. And what Jesus wants us to see is that without repentance, just as Paul says in Galatians 5, without repentance these are serious sins that exclude one from the kingdom. Of course, there is the possibility of repentance. There is the possibility of forgiveness. But that is how serious it is. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. So don’t take this sin lightly. Don’t make excuses for it.

one of the ways that we tend to minimize this sin is that we use the excuse that, well, it was righteous indignation. There was something that the person did that was really, really bad and really, really wrong, and so it was righteous indignation. And yes, that’s true. It is possible to have righteous indignation. We see it in Jesus himself. He’s the spotless Lamb of God. He was perfectly obedient to God’s law. He never committed this sin of murderous anger. And yet, he did express righteous indignation when he cleansed the temple to get rid of the money changers who had turned the temple, which was supposed to be a house of prayer, and turned it into a place of just fleshly money-making. And had defiled the holy temple of God with their commerce, bringing it into the very temple itself. So he did have righteous indignation. So righteous indignation is possible. But how many of us can say that we have really been able to have that spotless, pure, holy, righteous indignation that is only concerned about the glory of God, and in no way selfish, and in no way motivated by sinful anger and murderous thoughts? I don’t think very many of us could say that. There have been some very godly men in the history of the church that have expressed righteous indignation from time to time. I think of John Calvin. He’s a good example of someone who did. He was so concerned for the glory of God that he did have righteous indignation. But I would bet, I would guess, that even Calvin, if you were to ask him, he would probably admit that yes, even in his most godly moments when he was only concerned for the glory of God and for the purity of the church, that he didn’t do it perfectly and that he had to ask the Lord’s forgiveness for the selfish elements of that righteous indignation that came through.

let’s not make excuses for it by looking back and saying it’s just righteous indignation. Let us really see the depth of what this sin is that it leads to. We’re liable to the hell of fire. It leads to that. That’s the logical endpoint of it. And that I think is helpful because then it helps us to mortify that sin. When we see that this is where it leads and we see how serious it is, then it helps us to really repent of it and to really see that we need to receive the Lord’s grace to grow in this area. And so that logically leads us then to the antidote to anger. What is the antidote to anger?

The Antidote to Anger

It is a transformed heart? If the problem is heart, the heart is the source of these sins, out of the heart comes all these evil things, then the antidote, the answer, is a transformed heart. One of my favorite commentaries on Matthew that I’m using a lot as I go through Matthew is by Donald Hagner, and he says this, he says, since the spring of a person’s conduct is the heart, That’s what Jesus taught? The spring of your conduct is the heart. The transforming power of the kingdom must be especially experienced here in this particular area of the sin of anger. But how do we get a transformed heart?

It’s only because of the whole context of the Gospel of Matthew up to this point that we’ve been looking at. Which is the kingdom, which is the gospel that Jesus Christ proclaims. Remember all the way back to Matthew chapter three, when he was baptized and he was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He is the perfect, spotless, beloved son of God with whom the father is well pleased. How he’s tempted by the devil, how then after his temptation is successfully passing the test, he then begins his ministry and proclaims that the kingdom is at hand. And he says, repent for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near and then he calls the disciples to himself and says come follow me and you will have all the blessings of this glorious kingdom of grace and salvation and then it says in Matthew 4 verse 23 he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Yes, he literally healed diseases. He literally gave new life to those who were dead. He gave spiritual life to those who were spiritually dead. But all of that was a symbol of the transforming power of the gospel. It was an outward sign of an inward grace. The transformed heart is one of the primary benefits of the kingdom that Jesus brings.

How do we see this in our text itself? Well, if we keep reading in verses 23 through 26, we see some interesting applications as Jesus, the great preacher, applies this commandment to us. In verses 23 to 24, he says, if you’re offering your gift at the altar and there your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. In other words, Jesus is saying here, let worship be the occasion that reminds you of that you have been forgiven by God and that therefore you need to forgive and be reconciled with your brother.

Notice this emphasis here on the altar. He talks about the altar, offering your gift at the altar, leave your gift before the altar and go and so on. The altar is the place where God’s people prior to the coming of Christ, knew that restored relationship with God through the sacrifice that was offered upon the altar. This is the gospel right here. He’s saying when you gather together for worship with God’s people, or even when you’re praying to your Heavenly Father in the privacy of your own home, you are experiencing afresh the reality of your restored relationship with God through Christ, through the sacrifice offered upon the altar.

That ought to give you an opportunity then to think about the need for healing of those broken horizontal relationships. In the Gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 11, verse 25, Jesus says this, which I think is a helpful interpretation of our text. He says, whenever you stand praying, So whenever you’re about to offer your gift on the altar, whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

In other words, Jesus is saying this, how can you say, how can you come to God in prayer, whether in your private prayer life or in corporate worship, How can you come to God in prayer and lift up your thoughts to your Heavenly Father and say, thank you God for forgiving my sins that I’ve committed against you? How can you say that? How can you think that? How can you have that experience of that alter relationship with God? If you’re unwilling to forgive those who have sinned against you, if you’re unwilling to humble yourself and cleanse that anger from your heart and be in a right relationship with your brother.

The gospel is implied right there in our text when he talks about offering your gift at the altar. That is the antidote to anger. Is realizing the gift of grace that God has bestowed upon us in Christ, and that then ought to encourage us to be reconciled to our brother. And then he goes on in verses 25 and 26 to say, The focus here is on taking the initiative.

Come to terms quickly with your accuser. Your accuser is about to take you to the court and to demand the last penny from you because of what you’ve done. Rather than fighting it out, he says, come to terms quickly. In Greek, the verb that’s used there is not quite so literal as that. It’s not, like, come to terms sounds like settle the lawsuit? But in Greek, it’s more be friendly disposed.

Take on a positive, friendly, kindly attitude towards your accuser. A soft answer turns away wrath. It’s almost like saying, be nice. Change that attitude of anger towards just be nice to that person, even though they’re really angry with you and they’re about to get the last pound of flesh out of you. It’s amazing how things can quickly change if you just take the initiative to just humble yourself and seek to make things better and to mend the relationship. Jesus is calling his disciples to actively seek to mend broken relationships. Come to terms quickly. Be nice. Seek that restoration. It takes humility to do that though? If you’re still harboring anger and that person is still angry with you, it takes humility and it takes a lot of grace to take the initiative and to seek to restore a broken relationship. But that is what God did for us? He sought us out even when we were unreconciled to Him, and we were at enmity with God, He sought us out and had mercy upon us. He took the initiative in His grace. 1 John chapter 4, verses 10 through 11, which is also the silent meditation, says, In this is love, not that we love God? It’s not that we took the initiative to seek to fix our relationship with God, but that He loved us? Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, even while we were at enmity with God and shaking our fists in anger against Him, He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, that’s the application now?

From the from the vertical to the horizontal. If God so loved us, if God took that initiative to love us, to be quickly reconciled to us while we were on the way, we’re trying to take God to court, but he was quickly reconciled to us. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to extend that same love and grace to one another in the body of Christ. Now of course we have to always apply these kinds of passages in two ways. There’s with the believers and with the unbelievers? Within the community of God’s people. And then there’s outside, those that are opposed to the Lord. And so it takes different forms?

Within the body of Christ, we should seek to be reconciled. We should forgive one another. We should express that same love that God has given to us to one another. We have to extend that same love to others, that same grace to others that God has extended to us.

Reconciliation is not always possible, especially when the other person remains hostile. Paul therefore says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18). We cannot change another person’s heart, but we can refuse to nurture hatred, seek peace where possible, and pray that God will reconcile our enemies first to himself and then to us.

Jesus’ teaching on the sixth commandment reaches the heart, yet it is rooted in the gospel. His warning about the hell of fire reveals the true severity of anger; his reference to the altar recalls the grace by which God restores sinners to himself. Those who have received that grace are called to seek reconciliation, come to terms quickly with their accusers, and cultivate hearts committed to peace.