Eight-year-old Joey lived in a low income housing development in Southern California. Church buses made periodic runs through his neighborhood to gather children for Sunday School and other special events.
Nice people invited him to a party at their church. But he only had 15 minutes to get dressed before the bus left. Joey ran home and exploded with excitement to his mother. “There’s a party at that big church this afternoon, and I’m invited, like at school a few months ago.
It was an early season Christmas party, and his family never had enough money to really celebrate holidays. So he assumed it was a Halloween or Thanksgiving party.
He went to work on an outfit. Fifteen minutes wasn’t much time, and their funds were even more limited than their minutes. He rummaged around and thought, “Why not go as a haystack?” He took his old brown sweater and stuffed it with weeds. He even put some of the straw on the outside of the sweatshirt just to make it look more real.
Poor Joey was more than surprised when the party turned out to be a Christmas play, not a costume party. Embarrassed, he hung around the fringes of the group. Then he heard one of the leaders say they couldn’t find the manger.
“Can I help?” He asked. “I’m good at finding things.” The leaders explained to Joey that what they were looking for was a box full of hay where baby Jesus could be laid. It seemed that someone had borrowed with the one the church used each year. How could they have a Bethlehem drama without it?
Forgetting his embarrassment, Joey, now feeling very resourceful, looked down at his costume: baggy brown sweatshirt with weeds stuffed in it and straw sticking out everywhere. “I could be a box of hay” He lay down on the floor and announced, “I’ll be your manger. Let Jesus be born in me!”
Let Jesus be born in me, too, oh God!

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4) NIV

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“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

The seventh commandment protects the sanctity of marriage, and anyone who relies on external righteousness to keep it is prone to break it. Just as anger equals murder, lustful desire equals adultery.
In Jesus’ admonition, “looks” indicates intentional and repeated gazing. Therefore He means purposeful looking that arouses lust. In contemporary terms, it condemns a man who sees an X-rated movie, watches a salacious television show, or visits pornographic websites. It encompasses any thought or action done to arouse sexual desire.
Jesus is not referring to accidental exposure to sexual temptation. It is no sin if a man looks away from a provocative scene. It is the continued look that Christ condemns, because that demonstrates an adulterous heart. And by inference, this prohibition would apply to women also, who must not gaze at men or dress in seductive ways to elicit stares.
In earliest redemptive history, Job understood these principles: “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?. . . If my step has turned from the way, or my heart followed my eyes, or if any spot has stuck to my hands, let me show and another eat, and let my crops be uprooted” (Job 31:1, 7-8).
If the adulterous heart gives in to temptation, the godly heart will protect itself, praying, “Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways. Establish Your word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You” (Psalms 119:37-38; 2 Timothy 2:22).

Ask Yourself:
What could replace your next lustful thought or glance? Instead of focusing on what God has graciously restricted, what blessings, privileges, and freedoms can capture your attention instead?

“Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.” (Matthew 5:25-26)

The time for reconciliation with others is always now, just as it is with salvation. Tomorrow may be too late. No excuse is valid to allow bitterness, anger, hatred, or any other sin to keep us separated from another person. Jesus illustrates here that we should make good on any debt or settle any grievance before it’s too late and we’re imprisoned.
In the Roman Empire, two opponents at law could settle an issue on the way to court, but not after a judge became involved. To avoid judgment and imprisonment, the guilty person had to pay “the last cent,” or everything owed in debt.
Being thrown into prison and not being able to get out until a debt is paid is Jesus’ analogy to the Father’s punishment. We can’t miss the Son’s teaching here: we must make every effort possible, with no delay, to mend any broken relationship with a brother or sister before we can avoid divine chastening and have a right relationship with God.
We know that because of sin, none of us is ever completely at peace or perfectly related to one another. And since it’s impossible to have perfectly right attitudes toward others or God, no worship is ever fully acceptable. All of Jesus’ teachings in this passage and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount show us again the utterly perfect standard of God’s righteousness and the absolute impossibility of our meeting that standard on our own.

Ask Yourself:
There’s no denying the pain of strained and severed relationships. But there’s nothing like knowing you’ve done everything you can to make it right.Can you live in the Lord’s peace even if nothing changes?

“Leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” (Matthew 5:24)

No matter who is responsible for a severed relationship — and often both sides bear some guilt — it’s essential to reconcile before going to God in worship. Even if you have nothing against the other person and the fault lies entirely with them, you should do everything possible to settle things. You can’t change another’s heart attitude, but you should desire to close the gap between yourself and the other person and hold no grudge against him or her — then you can enter freely and fully into divine worship.
Better music, more eloquent prayers, or more classic architecture — none of these will enhance true worship. Even better or more biblical preaching will not of itself improve our worship experience. However, a contrite and religious attitude toward God and our brothers and sisters will enhance genuine worship. Sometimes the drastic measure of staying away from church for a time until a broken or strained relationship is right is the only action that will make our worship God-honoring.
Long before Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, the prophet Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). After that, the psalmist said, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalms 66:18). If sin remains unconfessed and relationships remain broken, there will be no integrity in our worship.

Ask Yourself:
Again, you are responsible only for the condition of your own heart, not another’s. But can you honestly say today that you have made peace in your heart with those who have been at odds with you? Have you forgiven? Have you sought renewed relationship?

“Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you.”

Outward acts of worship are unacceptable to God as long as we harbor internal sin. They are particularly offensive if we retain a hateful attitude toward a brother or sister and yet attempt to come before God.
Worship is important for most religious people today. They can spend much time in places of worship, offering prayers, giving tithes, and doing all sorts of religious activities. But, as with the scribes and Pharisees, none of it is meaningful if carried out with the wrong attitude.
Presenting an offering at the altar was a familiar scene for Jesus’ listeners. On the Day of Atonement, for example, worshippers would bring animal sacrifices and give them to the priest as sin offerings. But that process must halt if the worshippers were to remember some hatred between themselves and someone else. Unresolved conflict has priority over external ceremony and must be settled.
Sin between us and other brothers & sisters must be resolved before we can bridge the gap of sin between us and God. The Lord told Israel, “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me? . . . I have had enough of burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of Bulls, lambs or goats. . . . Wash your selves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good” (Isaiah 1:11, 16-17a).
Not to be at peace with someone else and yet to attempt to worship God is a hindrance to genuine fellowship.

Ask Yourself:
This is a call for worship to matter, and for relationship with God to be taken seriously. More than a Sunday morning verse, it’s a principle demanding conciliatory action in the days prior to the Lord’s day. Is there such a matter occurring in your life situation right now?

“Whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into fiery hell.” (Matthew 5:22c)

No one wants to be called a fool, and on the other side of the coin, no one should fix that label on someone else. That’s especially true when we realize that the word in this verse translated “fool” is from the Greek word from which we get the word moron. The word also denotes one who is stupid or dull of mind. Greek literature sometimes used it to refer to a godless or obstinate person. And it was perhaps parallel to a Hebrew word that means “to rebel against.”
Twice the psalmist tells us “the fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Psalms 14:1; 53:1; 10:4). The book of Proverbs contains many negative references and warnings to fools (Proverbs 1:7; 10:8, 10; 14:9). Jesus used a related but less severe term when He reprimanded the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25).
Because of these and other testimonies in God’s Word, we know people engage in foolish thoughts and actions. Therefore it is not wrong for us to warn or rebuke someone who is acting or speaking foolishly and clearly opposing God’s will. In fact, we are supposed to take this action! The Lord is warning us here, however, that it is sin to slanderously call someone a fool out of personal anger or hatred. Maliciously calling another a fool is again equivalent to murder and worthy of eternal punishment in hell if not repented of.

Ask Yourself:
Most of our slanderous remarks are not made to others’ faces but rather behind their backs. What guiding principles can you set in place to guard yourself from being ugly and unkind to others, even when speaking about them in private conversation?

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“Whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court.” (Matthew 5:22b)

The word (RACA), translated by the New American Standard Bible as “good-for-nothing,” has been variously rendered elsewhere as “brainless idiot,” “worthless fellow,” “blockhead,” and the like. It was a term of malicious abuse and slander that really has no precise modern translation. David graphically described persons who use slander as those who “sharpen their tongues as a serpent; poison of a viper is under their lips” (Psalms 140:3). The Roman soldiers who tortured and crucified Jesus could well have used the term to mock and disrespect Him (Matthew 27:29-31).
According to Jewish legend, a young rabbi had just come from a session with his famous teacher. He felt especially proud of how he had handled himself before the teacher. As he basked in those feelings of superiority, he passed an especially un-attractive man who greeted him. The young rabbi responded, “You Raca! How ugly you are! Are all men of your town as ugly as you?” “That I do not know,” the man replied, “but go and tell the Maker who created me how ugly is the creature He has made.”
To slander someone made in God’s image is to slander God Himself and is the same as murdering that person. Jesus called such harsh contempt murder of the heart. The contemptuous person was as much as “guilty before the supreme court” (the Jewish Sanhedrin, which tried the most serious cases and pronounced the ultimate penalty — death). We dare not trifle with any kind of contemptuous language toward others.

Ask Yourself:
Remember, this is not just an injunction against speaking unkind, judgmental words, but also of thinking them in our minds. When God has led you to seasons of victory in your thought life, how has He accomplished it? What stopped evil thoughts from ever coming up?

“Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.” (Matthew 5:22a)

From Jesus’ own life, we know He does not forbid every form of anger. In righteous indignation, He twice cleansed the temple of its defiling, profaning influences (Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:14-15). The apostle Paul instructs Christians to “…be angry, and yet do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). Faithfulness to Christ sometimes demands that we exercise a righteous anger. Many of the current cultural trends, the surges of violence and grossly dishonest and immoral practices, and the un-biblical ideas promoted even within supposedly evangelical circles need to be opposed with righteous anger. That’s because such things undermine the kingdom and glory of God. The psalmist wrote, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day” (Psalms 7:11).
In His sermon, Jesus did not speak against legitimate, righteous indignation, but against a selfish anger toward someone for doing something against us, someone who’s just rubbed us the wrong way. The word the Lord used for “angry” indicates a simmering anger that a person nurtures and refuses to let die. Examples of such anger are the long-standing grudge or the smoldering bitterness that refuses to forgive someone. This kind of anger does not want reconciliation and can become so profound as to be a “root of bitterness springing up” (Hebrews 12:15).
Jesus says anyone who harbors such severe anger against another person is the same as guilty before the civil court of murder and deserving of the death penalty in God’s eyes.

Ask Yourself:
So, are there names and faces that come to mind when confronted with this stark reminder from Scripture? Is there personal anger that needs instant removal from your heart?
(BEF)

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.” (Matt. 5:21-22a)

With just two sentences, Jesus shatters the rabbinic view of murder, which was so complacently sel-righteous. Because of their externalism and legalism, the Jews had an inflated view of themselves. But Jesus destroyed that thinking with the declaration that a person guilty of anger, hatred, cursing, or defamation against another is guilty of murder and worthy of a murderer’s punishment.
All anger, hatred, etc., is incipient murder, as the apostle John writes, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15a). By that biblical standard, we are all guilty of murder — after all, who has not hated someone at one time or another?
Not only does Jesus here sweep away the rubbish of the rabbinic, traditional view of murder, His total indictment blasts away any notion of self-justification so common to everyone. The way the Jews thought in Jesus’ time is identical to people’s prevalent thinking today. Even believers can feel proud that they are “…not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers…” (Luke 18:11) — and we could add “murderers.” Jesus, in that parable and in this passage, says we are all potentially capable of the worst sins, even murder, because of the sometimes evil attitudes of our hearts.
Not to consider the state of your heart and confess thoughts of anger and hatred, which can lead to taking someone’s life, is not to consider that the Lord can hold you guilty of murder.

Ask Yourself:
What benefit is found in knowing that you and I are capable of the most heinous crimes imaginable? Does recognizing this startling piece of information have an effect on your relationship with God and your manner of living?

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the Supreme Court; and whoever say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into fiery hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22)

Throughout history, most decent people rest assured that at least one sin they have not or never will commit is murder. The conventional wisdom limits murder to physically taking another person’s life. But Jesus’ teaching on murder shatters the self-righteous complacency of so many good people.
God’s original command, “…you shall not commit murder,” was, of course, scriptural (Exodus 20:13). But the Jewish practice of taking murder cases to civil court fell well short of the biblical standard in 3 ways: it did not prescribe the death penalty (Genesis 9:6), it did not take God’s holy character into consideration (His role in meting out judgement, the sinfulness of taking a life made in His image, or the general disobedience to the law), and it said nothing about the heart offense of the murderer. These omissions ignored David’s statement in Psalms 51:6, “You [God] desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part, You will make me know wisdom.”
With the transitional words, …But I say to you…”, Jesus begins to point us to a scriptural understanding of murder and its implications. Murder goes much deeper than physically taking someone’s life. It originates with evil thoughts in the heart, and is still a serious sin, whether or not it culminates in violent action against another person.

Ask Yourself:
If Jesus is making this harder than before, then what is so freeing about being free from the law? Why is this more helpful than a black-and-white statute?