A CHRISTIAN LOOKS AT MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
Loosing our cool
Reading: Matthew 5:21-26 Click to view passage
In the remaining part of chapter five Matthew, Jesus gives us examples of the how Pharisees nullify and invalidate bible teaching with their legal chicanery. He begins with anger. He says that this is where murder really begins; it ends in a physical act, but it starts in the mind. It is an activity of the heart long before the hand actually strikes. He says that anger nursed in the heart or expressed in contemptuous speech is actually no different from murder. Jesus extends the act of murder back to the motivating thought or word.
Instead of anger we need to direct our thoughts to reconciliation and restitution. Note: “First go. . . . . .then come” (v24).
Meditation: Think over the whole question of anger. What is it that causes me to lose my temper? Often at the root it is something quite selfish which can’t be justified at all.
Prayer pointer: Help me to see the pointlessness of losing my temper and show me how much it hurts you and others.
Loosing our cool
Reading: Matthew 5:21-26 Click to view passage
In the remaining part of chapter five Matthew, Jesus gives us examples of the how Pharisees nullify and invalidate bible teaching with their legal chicanery. He begins with anger. He says that this is where murder really begins; it ends in a physical act, but it starts in the mind. It is an activity of the heart long before the hand actually strikes. He says that anger nursed in the heart or expressed in contemptuous speech is actually no different from murder. Jesus extends the act of murder back to the motivating thought or word.
Instead of anger we need to direct our thoughts to reconciliation and restitution. Note: “First go. . . . . .then come” (v24).
Meditation: Think over the whole question of anger. What is it that causes me to lose my temper? Often at the root it is something quite selfish which can’t be justified at all.
Prayer pointer: Help me to see the pointlessness of losing my temper and show me how much it hurts you and others.
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