Matthew 5:21-26

Bird's-eye view

In this section of His great sermon, the Lord Jesus begins to unpack the true and radical nature of the righteousness He requires in His kingdom. He is not setting aside the law of God, but rather scraping off the centuries of traditionalist barnacles that had attached themselves to it. The scribes and Pharisees had reduced the law to a set of external, check-list requirements, making it manageable for the proud. But Jesus presses the law down to its true home, which is the heart of man. He begins with the sixth commandment, demonstrating that the sin of murder is not simply the physical act of taking a life, but is in fact a seed that sprouts first in the soil of a bitter and angry heart. He shows that contemptuous words are murderous words, and that such attitudes of the heart have eternal consequences. This leads directly into a practical application concerning worship and relationships. True worship is impossible when relationships are broken. Reconciliation with a brother takes precedence over religious ceremony. The urgency of this is then illustrated with a final, practical warning about settling accounts quickly, lest the consequences become dire. In short, Jesus is teaching that the righteousness of His kingdom is a righteousness of the heart, one that works itself out in peaceable relationships, and it is a matter of ultimate urgency.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This passage, Matthew 5:21-26, is the first of six antitheses that Jesus presents in the Sermon on the Mount. Each one follows the pattern of "You have heard that it was said... but I say to you..." In giving these, Jesus is not contradicting or abrogating the Old Testament law. He has just finished saying that He did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17). Rather, He is correcting the superficial interpretations of the scribes and Pharisees. They had domesticated the law, making it about external actions only. Jesus reveals the law's true, deep, and spiritual intent. He is showing what the law has always meant. This first example concerning murder and anger sets the tone for the rest. The righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20) is not a more rigorous externalism, but rather a righteousness that flows from a transformed heart. This is the nature of the kingdom He has come to inaugurate.

Key Issues

Verse by Verse Commentary

21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.’

Jesus begins by quoting a precept that was universally accepted. He starts on common ground. "You have heard..." refers to the oral tradition and rabbinic teaching that had grown up around the law. He cites the sixth commandment from the Decalogue (Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). The second part, "whoever murders shall be guilty before the court," was the scribal application of it. And of course, it is quite true. Murder is a capital crime and ought to be judged by the civil magistrate. The problem was not that what they said was false, but that it was radically incomplete. They had reduced this profound commandment to the mere physical act of homicide. So long as you didn't actually plunge a knife into someone, you could check this box and consider yourself righteous. Your heart could be a cauldron of hatred, but on their view, you were not a murderer. This is the kind of legalistic minimalism that allows a man to be rotten to the core while maintaining a pristine public reputation.

22 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, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Here is the great antithesis. "But I say to you..." With these words, Jesus asserts His authority as the true interpreter of the law, indeed, as the Lawgiver Himself. He is not offering a new opinion; He is delivering the verdict. He traces the act of murder back to its source: the heart. Unjustified anger, He says, makes one liable to the same judgment as the act of murder. He is not prohibiting all anger. Scripture shows us instances of righteous anger, not least in the Lord Himself (Mark 3:5). The anger prohibited here is causeless, selfish, simmering anger against a brother. This internal sin, Jesus says, puts you in the same jeopardy as the external one. He then gives two examples of this murderous anger expressing itself in words. To say "Raca" to a brother, an Aramaic term of utter contempt meaning something like "empty-head" or "numbskull," is to commit murder with the tongue. It is an act of despising a man made in the image of God. Jesus says this makes one liable to the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jews. The sin is escalating. Then He says that whoever calls his brother a "fool" shall be in danger of the fiery hell, or Gehenna. The word here is moros, which implies a moral and spiritual vacuity. It is to declare someone as a reprobate, worthless in the sight of God. This is the ultimate verbal assassination, and Jesus says it makes one liable to the ultimate court, the very judgment of God. The progression is clear: from the local court, to the supreme court, to the court of Heaven. Jesus is teaching that sins of the heart and tongue are not minor infractions; they are capital crimes in the kingdom of God.

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

The word "Therefore" connects what He has just said about the gravity of anger with our central activity as religious beings, which is worship. Jesus presents a scenario that would have been very familiar to His hearers. A man is in the Temple, about to offer his sacrifice. This is the high point of his religious duty. He is at the very altar of God. But in that moment, he remembers something. Not that he has a grievance against his brother, but that his brother has a grievance against him. The offense is his. The alienation is his fault. This is a crucial distinction. It is easy to worship when we are nursing our own wounds, but Jesus says the thing that must interrupt our worship is the knowledge that we have wounded another.

24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

The instruction is radical. Do not finish the act of worship. Do not say, "I will deal with this later." Leave the sacrifice right there. The Greek implies an abrupt halt. Walk away from the altar, find your brother, and be reconciled. The priority is unmistakable. Horizontal reconciliation is a prerequisite for vertical worship. God will not accept the worship of a man who is not right with his brother. This is not because relationships are more important than God, but because God has commanded us to love our brother, and to come before Him in worship while in a state of active disobedience is hypocrisy. It is to offer Him a lie. The command is "first be reconciled... and then come." Peace with man must be settled before you can have peace with God at His altar. This cuts the legs out from under all forms of pietism that pretend to love God while despising or ignoring a brother.

25 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.

Jesus now shifts to a different illustration, but the underlying point is the same: the urgency of reconciliation. He uses a common-sense example from the legal world. If you are on the way to court with someone who has a case against you, the wise thing to do is to settle with him immediately. Be eager to make peace. The word for "make friends" means to be well-disposed, to come to a quick agreement. Why? Because once the formal legal process begins, it is out of your hands. The adversary will hand you to the judge, the judge to the bailiff, and the bailiff will throw you in prison. The window for mercy and personal settlement closes, and the impersonal machinery of justice takes over. This is a practical, worldly-wise piece of advice, but it serves as a powerful parable for the spiritual reality. Our adversary is not just our brother, but ultimately God Himself, whose law we have broken. We are on the way to the final judgment. The time to be reconciled is now, on the way, before we arrive at the courtroom from which there is no escape.

26 Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last quadrans.

The conclusion of the illustration is grim and absolute. "Truly I say to you" underscores the certainty of the outcome. Once you are in that prison, you will not be released until the debt is paid in full. A quadrans was a Roman coin of the very least value, like a penny. The point is that the full measure of justice will be exacted. Nothing will be overlooked. In the human legal example, this might be possible, however difficult. But in the spiritual reality it represents, it is an impossibility. Our debt of sin against God is one we can never repay. This stark warning about the finality of judgment is meant to drive us back to the previous point: the urgency of reconciliation. Settle the matter now, while you are on the way. For the believer, this settlement has been accomplished by Christ. He has paid our debt in full. But the outworking of that great reconciliation is that we must be a reconciled people. We must eagerly pursue peace with our brothers, because we understand the terrible alternative, and the glorious grace that has delivered us from it.

Application

The teaching of our Lord here must be applied at the level of the heart, where the sin begins. We live in a culture that is marinated in anger, outrage, and contempt. It is the air we breathe. But Christians are called to be different. We must begin by taking our own sinful anger seriously. When you feel that flash of bitterness, that desire to belittle someone with a contemptuous word, even in your own mind, you must recognize it for what it is: murder in seed form. Confess it as such. Do not excuse it or justify it.

Second, we must take the initiative in reconciliation. Notice that Jesus says if you remember your brother has something against you, you are the one who must go. It does not matter if you think his grievance is only 10% valid and yours is 90%. You go. You make the first move. Our worship services and small groups should be populated by people who are diligent to keep short accounts with one another. A church where people are offering sacrifices of praise while harboring bitterness toward one another is a church offering strange fire.

Finally, we must live with a sense of gospel urgency. The reason we should be quick to forgive and seek reconciliation is that we have been forgiven an infinite debt. We are on the way to the final judgment, but our case has been settled out of court by the blood of Jesus Christ. Living in light of that reality means we cannot stand on our rights or nurse our grudges with our brothers and sisters for whom Christ also died. To do so is to forget the gospel. Therefore, let us be a people who hate the seed of murder in our own hearts, and who are quick to make peace, for the glory of the God who has made peace with us through His Son.