He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first, Gen 28:19.

            Jacob had just wakened from his dream of a ladder.  God had earlier confirmed the blessing on him that his father Isaac had given him by mistake, proving that while Isaac might have been blind, God certainly was not—the right son received the blessing.  And so Jacob called that place “Beth-el,” the house of God.

            Fast forward several centuries and Hosea goes to Bethel, where Jeroboam I had set up one of his golden calves by which the people could worship Jehovah, “the god who brought you out of Egypt.”  At this point most of them weren’t even pretending to worship Jehovah any longer.  This was full-fledged idolatry.  Hosea refused any longer to call it “Bethel.”

            …Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the LORD lives.” Hos 4:15.

            Three times Hosea addresses the place that way.  It was no longer “the house of God.”  It was instead “the house of vanity,” or deception, or iniquity, or evil, or several other translated words, all of which made Hosea’s point quite plain.  Bethel was supposed to be a description of who was worshipped, adored, respected, and revered in that place, and it no longer qualified.  Instead of “Beth-el,” it had become “Beth-aven.”

            So let’s think about this today.  We use a similar description for ourselves:  “church of Christ.”  That means we belong to Christ, we obey him, we worship him, his is the opinion that counts, not ours.  Can you still say that about the group you are a member of?  Or has it become a social group with its own rules and its own “politics?”  Has it become a place where men get together and vote on things that have nothing to do with the mission Jesus left his disciples to complete?  Can you find authority--His authority—for everything you do?  Jesus himself said in Matthew 20 that authority can only come from two places—God or man, and his acceptance of that proves that he expected you to have it.

            Too many times we ask the wrong question:  what is a church of Christ?  The question we ought to be asking is this:  when is a church of Christ?  Is it time to change the sign on your door?
 
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Eph 1:22-23
 
Dene Ward

Was there ever a church with as many problems as Corinth?  We can easily make excuses for them.  Corinth was one of the most sinful cities in the world at the time.  In fact, “Corinthian” was an adjective describing a licentious lifestyle.  Certainly it was difficult to be a Christian in such an environment.  I have said before that if a person could remain pure in that city at that time, anyone can live a pure life today.
            Yet the apostle Paul obviously expected more out of them, and he told them their faults plainly. 
            They were factious (1:10-14); they were carnal and immature (3:1-3); they were arrogant (3:18,19; 8:10); they were selfish (6:7; 14:26-33).  They had little regard for one another and put their own interests ahead of the mission God gave them as His people (6:5-8; 8:9-13).  They glorified sin in their presence instead of removing its leavening influence so their worship could be pure before God (chapter 5).  They even corrupted the memorial meal that should have unified them, reminding them that they all came from the same humbling circumstance of sin, dependent solely on the grace of God for their salvation, (11:17-34).
            Yet despite all this, how does Paul end that first letter of rebuke?  With hope.  Yes, they had been “fornicators…idolaters…adulterers…effeminate…abusers of themselves with men…thieves…covetous…drunkards…revilers…extortioners,” but they had also been “washed…sanctified…justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (6:9-11).  Paul scolds them over and over, but he ends with the hope that they could change their lives, overcome their problems, and be “raised incorruptible” on that final day (15:52).
            Paul told even these bad boys and girls of the New Testament that they could live righteously and inherit eternal life.  Doesn’t it make you stop and think a minute before you consign someone to Hell by refusing them the opportunity to even hear the gospel because of their sinful, problem-filled lives?  Doesn’t it make you cringe a little at how carelessly we label congregations of God’s people “sound” and “unsound?”  And most important of all, doesn’t it give you hope when you fall yet again and have to pick yourself up and repent?
            Most of us would have simply bypassed Corinth if we had been making Paul’s itinerary for him.  To paraphrase Nathanael, “Can any good thing come out of Corinth?”  Yet Paul knew that where there is the greatest need, there will be the greatest response.  It may be tough going.  It may be that these folks will be “high maintenance Christians,” people who need a little more help, a little more support, and a whole lot more of our time, but who is to say that one soul is worth more than another?  We all stand before God as helpless sinners.
            And God holds out for us the same hope he gave those early Christians who had to fight their upbringing in a libertine culture even worse than ours. 
            O death where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Wherefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not vain in the Lord, 1 Cor 15:55-58.
 
Dene Ward

Today’s thought-provoking post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
Jn 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life.

”Comforting words,” “The Central and golden text of the Bible,” I have heard that verse described.   But, for years, I have missed a most important and significant point that it teaches:

If God loved the world so much that he would crucify and slay his Son by the hands of lawless men in order to save it, what would he do to me (or you), his “sons,” in His loving pursuit of the salvation of the world? There is absolutely no limit other than His mercy that “There is no temptation taken you but such as man can bear”. With Job as witness, that is a lot!

These thoughts may help explain why good people suffer. God is using Satan’s works to bring about His purposes, just as he did with Job and at the cross. Who knows how deafness, blindness, lost jobs, dying spouses or children, or any other number of trials bring about good toward someone else’s salvation? We see most of these as purposeless. But God who works, KNOWS.  Our part of the equation is to believe that and trust.
 
Keith Ward

I have learned to be careful when I feed the birds.  The feeder is right up against the house next to my “sitting window,” behind the azaleas.  The azaleas run five to ten feet tall so that three foot tall feeder is well hidden, and so am I when I load it up.  As I make my way on the leaf-mulched bed, I watch where I put my feet and also look over to the side down through the twisted limbs where those popular members of the rhododendron family disappear into the ground.  Too many times I have scared away a snake, always the harmless variety—if you don’t count the heart attack they might give you upon spying one that close by—but you never know.  In fact, I have the dogs trained to go into the narrow opening against the house ahead of me to clear the way, good little protectors that they are.

            So I was feeling perfectly safe the other day, when something made me look up to the side.  At eye level, only a foot from my face, a tree snake was lying on an azalea limb, perfectly still and exactly the same color as the limb.  No, I didn’t scream.  I did duck though and get past him a little faster than I ordinarily would have, loaded the feeder and scrambled out of there.  Keith saw it that evening, even closer to the feeder, trying its best to snatch an easy meal off its surface.  He donned a pair of gloves, grabbed him and threw him over the fence.

            Three days later he had not been back, so I was feeling safe again.  I had learned not only to watch the ground, but the limbs between me and the feeder too.  I made it all the way to the feeder, and started loading, edging my way to the end which sits smack up against the old antenna tower, the only reason we have to go the long way around through all those azaleas anyway.  As I made my way back, I looked over my shoulder and there was a garter snake, this time lying on the limb of an azalea at the east end of the bed, well past the point where I had been watching.  When I had my back to it, I was probably not more than three feet from it.

            That evening as we made our after-supper stroll around our place, we spotted him again.  This time he lay right out in the open, a good six feet from the lush, leafy shelter of the azaleas.

            You can think you are safe.  You can think you are watching where you need to be watching.  Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of the evil, the Proverbs writer says.  Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on, Prov 4:14,15.  If I stay out of the bars and away from the bad side of town; if I watch the company I keep, surely I will be safe from sin. 

            And don’t you know that Satan knows that’s how we think?  Who had Judas been with for over three years when he decided to betray the Lord?  What company had Peter been keeping the morning before the evening he denied him?  If anyone could have been safe from sin, strong enough to endure temptation because of their surroundings, surely it would have been those two, who traveled with the Lord himself.  But no, they fell even more catastrophically than the others, who simply ran and stood afar off.

            So are any of us safe?  Am I saying we are all doomed?  No.  I am saying that we need to be careful all the time, no matter where we are, no matter whom we are with.  Jesus once looked at Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, Matt 16:23.  He understood that temptation can come when you least expect it, even from those you consider your support group.  That doesn’t mean they are out to get you too; it just means they sometimes fail just like you do. 

            Sometimes I am the Satan that gives bad advice, or makes a careless comment.  Sometimes you are.  We must watch all the time.  We must look for that snake on every limb, under every bush, and sometimes right out in the open where you least expect him to be.  As soon as he thinks you aren’t watching, he will sneak up over your shoulder and nab you.

            Do you think I am not two, three, four times more careful when I go out to feed the birds now?  That’s exactly how we need to be every day of our lives.  If you only wore your seat belt on the day you knew you would have an accident, would you go anywhere at all that day?  You need to be on the lookout for temptation every day.  Don’t just avoid the obvious places.  Look in the places where you least expect it. 
 
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one…to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, Eph 6:16,18.
 
Dene Ward

If you are familiar with the prophets, you know they often told stories and then made spiritual application.  We can read from Jewish histories that the rabbis did the same thing.  It was a standard teaching method.  In fact, some of the stories had the same elements, just as many jokes begin, “A rabbi, a priest, and a lawyer…”  I have read in at least one source that the rich man and the poor beggar were staple characters in teaching stories all across the mid-east, even as far west as Egypt, one reason we should be careful about calling Luke 16 a “true story.”  Jesus was known as a rabbi because he used some of the same methods.

            I have known people who insisted that preachers and teachers should not “tell stories.”  The Bible has plenty, they say, so use them.  While in the past I agreed more than I disagreed, I have come to a change of mind.  Yes, Jesus used some of the events from the Old Testament in his teaching, but far more often he used the events of every day life in stories we call parables.  So I tell stories too.

            Some people ask me how in the world I come up with the applications to all my stories.  The answer to that is another reason I tell them.  Some of them come easily but often I have to think for awhile to find a spiritual application.  Guess what I am not doing while my mind is busy with spiritual things?  Guess what does not happen while I search the scriptures trying to find pertinent passages?  Far better to spend your time searching for applications to the events in your life than to brood over them, becoming depressed and bitter.  Far better to see a way to improve yourself than to blame others as if the whole world were out to get you and you are the only one these things happen to. 

            Life is the training ground for an eternal existence.  If I cannot become spiritual enough to handle things here, how will I ever become suitable for a spiritual existence with a Spirit Deity?  That is our goal, but the way some of us lead our lives, never learning from them, I wonder if we know it, or even care. 

            Try today to make some spiritual applications from the things that happen to you.  Think about your past and the many times you could have learned a lesson if your eyes and ears had been open to them.  It is really not that difficult.  If I can do it, anyone can.
 
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing you shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing you shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which you hear, and heard them not, Matt 13:10-17.
 
Dene Ward

Last Tuesday, several of my sisters in the Lord met for an intense Bible study.  We were at it for well over an hour.  We opened our Bibles and read and discussed topics that were deep and heavy.  We came away with many new insights, some of them probably different than if it had been a mixed class or a class led by a man.  Women do have a different perspective.  The Tuesday before that we did the same thing, and the Tuesday before that, and the one before that, as far back as 25 years.  We call it the Ladies’ Bible Class, not because it is some organization separate from the church which has a name, but just to identify to others who might be interested what it is, a group of women, Christians with the same roles in life and the same problems those roles entail, who meet and study together. 

            But let’s just consider the past two months’ worth of classes—about 12 hours.  What if, instead of meeting 8 times for an hour and a half each, we met two days for 6 hours of study and discussion each day?  Would that be wrong?  If we are studying the same thing, participating in the same activities, why isn’t it just another means to edify?  And if, because we have a chance to study without children sitting in our laps (due to Christian husbands who are concerned for their wives’ spiritual education), we decide to have it someplace besides the meetinghouse, but we each pay our own way and nothing comes out of the church treasury, isn’t that too just another ladies Bible class?  That is exactly what a women’s retreat is—time to get away from the distractions of life for an extended period and do some in-depth Bible study and encourage one another.

            These groups are not making themselves into an organization of any kind at all.  They are simply doing what the word says—retreating.  Jesus “retreated” when he went to be alone and pray.  Isaac “retreated” when he went out into the field in the evening to meditate (Gen 24:63).  Did that make what they were doing an organization?  Even if they had taken a friend to discuss spiritual things with them, no organization existed, just a few people who were spiritually minded enough to set aside the time to study together or pray together.

            I have also read the accusation that any time women retreat for Bible study it shows a dissatisfaction with the edification the church can provide.  That the church is supposed to be where we find all our spiritual blessings, including prayer, teaching, and encouragement.  That women who do these things may have good intentions, but they are doing it in an unscriptural, unauthorized way, separate from the church where they should be finding all their needs met.

            The Bible tells us that some of the church in Jerusalem met in the home of Mary the mother of Mark to pray for Peter when he was in prison (Acts 12).  Was that wrong?  We can easily infer that it was not the whole church—no one’s house is big enough for that.  That means a group of Christians that was not the church met for something besides the regular worship, not because they didn’t pray enough at their assembly, but because they felt the need to pray even more.  Does that mean they were not satisfied with God’s arrangement?  Are we not allowed to come together for even more prayer than we have on Sundays?

            A few members of the church meeting somewhere besides the appointed meeting place for more study does not constitute setting up an organization.  If women’s retreats, or week-ends as they are sometimes called, are wrong, so are Ladies’ Bible Classes.  So are Men’s Training Classes.  So are gospel sings in people’s homes or out in the park or in an auditorium somewhere.  So are personal Bible studies.  But of course, none of those things are wrong.  God has ordained that the older women and men teach the younger women and men, that children be taught, the unbelievers be taught by all of us, not just the preacher.  In the early church they often met “house to house.”  Weren’t their needs being met in the assembly?  Of course they were, so this is obviously something other than an attempt to go beyond the purpose of the church.

            And then we have that group of men who met to show others exactly what God wanted them to do about Judaizers and their demand that Gentile Christians be circumcised (Acts 15).  They did that with a long meeting where they gave approved examples, read the scriptures, discussed and prayed.  It was not the church.  In fact, it was members of more than one church.  Some people call it a Council.  What people call it does not make it what it is not.  These men “retreated” from daily life for the sake of edification.

            “Women’s retreat” is not a name any more than “church of Christ” is a name.  Both are descriptions.  Maybe some of us need a little more edification about that. 

            Some of us have become so wedded to our traditions that we have forgotten what is and is not tradition, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.”  Fulfilling generic commands to teach and edify with “new” methods does not make them automatically wrong or you had better take that power point away from your preacher. 

           And just what makes this retreat thing “new” anyway?  Aside from all the Bible examples already given, Lydia met with a group of women down by the river.  I think we are in good company.
 
Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, Acts 16:24-25.
 
Dene Ward

I learned a long time ago that any position of authority comes with more responsibility than the right to wear the title is worth.  As head of the string section of our district competition, having to deal with teachers who would stalk the judges if their students did not get the ratings they thought they deserved (anything less than a superior regardless how they performed), I had to learn how to confront those same teachers while cajoling judges to return even after the word had spread about the unprofessional behavior in our district.  I had to deal with parents who wanted their child to be the exception to every rule.  I had to decide when an exception was truly warranted and when it wasn’t, then live with the flak my decision caused. 

            When I was appointed head of the vocal department for the state competition, things just got worse.  Everyone knew how to do my job better than I did, even if they had never had a voice lesson in their lives.  They might think that diphthongs were women’s underwear, but they could judge a voice better than a man with a doctorate in vocal performance and 20 years experience on the stage.

            The more authority you have, the more responsibility you have, and the more troubles are laid at your door.  Anyone who goes around looking for it had better love the cause since s/he will get far more grief than s/he ever bargained for.  And that is only right because headship is not about privilege; it is about doing what is best for those in your charge, even when it isn’t what you really want to do.

            Miriam forgot that.  Miriam found herself leader of those Israelite women who fled Egypt along with their men.  After the victory at the Red Sea, she led them in song, praising God for their victory.  God also made her one of His prophetesses.  Micah makes it plain that God considered her a leader:  For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam, (6:4).

            But Miriam was not happy with her calling.  In Numbers 12:2 she and Aaron came before God and dared to say, Has Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses?  Has he not also spoken with us?  Notice in verse 1 that Miriam’s name is listed first, which usually means something in the scriptures.  In addition I found at least one commentary that says the literal Hebrew in that verse is, “And she spake, Miriam and Aaron, against Moses,” making it clear that Miriam was the ringleader of this little rebellion.

            Miriam was not satisfied with the place of honor God gave her—it wasn’t enough.  She could tell that God held Moses in higher esteem, even than her brother Aaron, and she was not happy about it.  Yet she had proved that she was not capable of handling the responsibilities of the job.

            In Exodus 32, when Moses left the people in her and Aaron’s charge, she allowed them to make the golden calf.  How did she allow it?  By saying nothing.  As a leader she should have spoken out against their sin.  God expects that of any leader, and she failed miserably.  No, Aaron did not do any better, but then was he the one who complained in Numbers 12?  No, he just went right along with it like he did in Exodus 32.  Nothing about Aaron changed from one time to the next.  Miriam’s complete failure to even try to stem the tide of idolatry at the foot of Mt Sinai showed her unfit to be a leader of God’s people.  For her to then come along and demand that position in Numbers 12 showed that she wasn’t even perceptive enough to see her own failures, much less lead a group that failed over and over in the years that followed.  It also shows that she sought the honor rather than the responsibility of leadership.

            So what does God expect of us? 

            How does a man react to his selection as an elder?  Does he follow the path of least resistance when it is time to make a decision?  Does he avoid making a decision at all, hoping to dodge unpleasant consequences?  Or does he make the tough decisions that are best for the good of those he shepherds, even knowing it will cause him problems with those same people?

            How does a man handle the headship of his family?  Is it all about getting to do things his way, and only his way?  Is it about telling everyone else what they should be doing, while sitting around being waited on?  Or does he do what is best for each member of his family, even if it makes more work and worry for him?  Does he understand that God holds him accountable for the success or failure of his family?

            How about an older woman in the church, in a family, in a community?  Does she stand for the truth in whatever capacity she finds herself?  Is she strong enough to do right even when it isn’t popular, or when it causes her personal pain?  Can she remove herself and her feelings far enough from a situation to see the problems and help solve them, even if it means others will disagree?  Can she stand for the truth even when it breaks her heart?

            Too many people desire the perks and not the works.  Jesus came looking for servants at every level, not just the bottom rung of the ladder, and those servants are judged by the deeds they do, not the glory they receive from men.  Be careful what you wish for.
 
Likewise you younger, be subject to the elder.  Yea all of you gird yourselves with humility that you may serve one another.  For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble 1 Pet 5:5.
 
Dene Ward

One of our favorite parts of camping has always been the food!  Every night we cook over a wood fire—burgers, chops, steaks--everything tastes like it came from a five star gourmet restaurant when you have oak and hickory burning under them.

Keith starts the fire about a half hour before we need it, stacking one inch square split pieces of wood in an open crisscross pattern.  The flame is often three feet high and roaring.  Do you think that is when we cook?  No, not unless you want scorched raw meat.  The fire must burn down to the point that the flames are gone and all that is left are red coals.  Now it’s time to cook.  That inch or two of quiet embers is far hotter than a three foot high roar.
He opens the folding grill over them to burn it clean, and places the meat of the night six to ten inches above the heat, sometimes over to the side if, as is the case with chicken, we need to make sure it gets done all the way through before the outside chars. 

Children look at the two fires and it seems totally counter-intuitive to them.  Surely the bright high flames make the hotter fire and the softly glowing embers the coolest.  Then they hold their hands out and discover their mistake.
Babes in the Lord can make the same mistake about the faith of others.  Surely the loud showy faith is the real one.  Surely the person who shouts amen and holds up his hands is more passionate about his love of God than the member who sits and quietly listens or bows his head.  I have lost count of the number of young people I have heard say they admired someone’s faith when it was the former type and not the latter.  The loud faith may well be just as sincere as the quiet, but if that’s all you look for, you will miss some of the best advice, the best encouragement, and the best examples of resilient faith in a life of trial that ever sat in front of you—or behind you, or even right next to you on the pew.

You are smart to look for help and encouragement in another’s faith.  Just be smart about the signs you judge it by.  Loud might just as easily be hot air as roaring fire.
 
Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols. But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Amos 5:23-24
 
Dene Ward

I have been thinking about that old saying the past week.  I think it means that if I don’t want people to think I’m stupid, I should stop acting that way.  I thought about it when that snake came back the fourth time.

            I looked out one afternoon across the birdfeeder built right up against the house to the azalea bushes just beyond it.  One limb looked a little odd. I must have stared at it for ten minutes before Keith noticed, and looked too.  “There’s a garter snake in the bushes,” he said.  I had thought so, but could not see it clearly enough to be sure.  Finally after three years, a snake had figured out that someone had put an all-you-can-eat bird buffet out for him, and he was sitting there just waiting for his meal to light.

            We did not want to hurt the snake.  A near relative of his had lived under the house for a few years and kept our rodent population down to something we could handle.  We hoped he would do the same, but that did not mean he could go after my birds.

            So Keith put on some gloves and knocked him out of the bush.  Magdi was on him before we could stop her, but Keith yelled and took the snake away from her, flinging it over the north fence.  We were not certain it would have survived her vicious shake—she treats them like a bull whip and usually breaks their backs with only a couple of cracks.  Not to worry.  Two days later I looked out and there was the snake again.

            This time Keith went out with an old rake handle and knocked him off the limb.  Magdi knew what was up this time, but despite her increased vigilance, the snake slithered away under the steps and we could not get it to come out.

            Until two days after that.  I was getting ready to leave that morning and looked out to check the feeder and there he was again.  Not being as fearless as Keith, I stood way back and whacked that bush so hard I broke the branches, but once again the snake got away from Magdi.

            The fourth time he did not wait two days.  He was back in one, and I was home alone again.  I grabbed the pole and set off for the bird feeder.  I stood there for several minutes thinking he had left because I could not find him through the limbs.  Suddenly I thought to step back and look up, and there he was about a foot higher in the bush than he had ever been before.  But that meant that when I knocked him out he had farther to fall and must have been a little more addled because Magdi got him before he could crawl away. This time she shook until that snake was a lifeless rubber hose.  I could almost hear his spine cracking as she slung it about.

            I am sorry about that.  I will be sorrier this winter if I have a mouse or two in the house.  But really—how long does it take some snakes to learn? 

            Are we any smarter?  How long does it take for us to learn?  I have seen Christians put themselves in spiritual danger over and over and over all my life.  “I can handle it,” they say, despite the Biblical warnings to flee, to abstain, to be watchful; despite the things God lists in black and white as the biggest dangers to our soul—wealth, power, sexual sins, anger, pride, and the tongue.  We all think we are different; that we won’t be tripped up and fall. 

            I have seen it happen too many times to ever think it could be different for me.  If we choose to defy the odds, sooner or later we will be knocked “out of our tree,” and Satan will jump on us and shake us until our spiritual back is broken and we can no longer stand against him.

            Stupid is as stupid does.
 
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall, 1 Cor 10:11,12..
 
Dene Ward

This is the first part in a middle of the month series on Anger, by guest writer Lucas Ward.

The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount is about the internalization of religion. Jesus tells us that our religion should be who we are, not just rites that we do. He also talks about sins of the mind: how refraining from sin because of fear of the consequences all the while fantasizing about doing the sin doesn’t win us any points. It’s just as bad as the sin itself. We usually jump to Matt. 5:27-28 which says that looking upon a woman to lust after her is committing adultery in our hearts. We gravely, and appropriately, warn young men about the sin of sexual fantasy. We preach against pornography and urge self-control. We ask our ladies to dress with their poor, weak-willed brothers in mind. And all of this is right. But in jumping to this passage, we jump right over the warning that Jesus gives first.

The first thing Jesus speaks of along these lines is the dangers of anger. Whereas mental lusting, or sexual fantasy, is equated to adultery – which is bad enough – anger with one’s brother is called murder! If there is anything more universally condemned in the Bible than adultery it is murder. This, and the primacy of place given to this topic by our Lord, indicates that we should be even more aware of this danger than that of lusting. And, yet, we seldom talk about this. When we study the Sermon on the Mount we read this passage and quickly move on. This isn’t right. My intent is to write three entries about this issue, studying anger from a couple of different viewpoints. First, let’s examine what Jesus says about the issue.

Matt. 5:21-24 “Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 but I say unto you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire. 23 If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, 24 leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

Many translations have “angry with his brother without cause” and there is some evidence for that reading. There are a lot of ancient manuscripts that include that phrase. Roughly half, in fact. Of course, that means that roughly half leave out “without cause”. Literary professors, whose career is built on reconstructing ancient texts as nearly as possible based not only on the quality of the manuscripts used but also on the known tendencies of copyists, seem to lean to the conclusion that “without cause” was added in. It is the type of thing that a copyist would add to help explain an otherwise hard reading/hard saying of Jesus. On the face of it, we know that anger alone is not sin (Eph. 4:26), but then we also know that merely desiring a woman is not sin either. Men are designed by God to desire women, actually, and that desire has a God-given outlet. So it seems that in both passages Jesus is driving His point home by speaking very emphatically. By exaggerating for the point of emphasis. The dangers of anger are so great, as are those of sexual fantasy, that the warning is equally powerful.

Looking at the actual passage, notice that anger with one’s brother is equated with murder. It isn’t said quite as baldly as Jesus does with adultery in vs 28, but the consequence for murder is named as the judgment, and the consequence for anger is named as. . . the judgment. In giving the same consequence to both, Jesus is making them equal. Just as sinful lusting after a woman is more involved than merely acknowledging an attraction, anger here is more than just feeling the emotion. Have you ever thought “Of course, I’d never murder anyone, but boy what I’d like to do to so-and-so if I could get away with it” and proceed to fantasize about epic beatdowns? “Give me a baseball bat and five minutes alone with him in a closed room, please.” These are the thoughts that are under discussion.

Of course, we need not always murder someone. We can assassinate their character. Jesus deals with this as well. “Raca” is a contemptuous insult. Apparently it doesn’t translate well, but all cultures/languages have their own unique ways of showing contempt. This was the Hebrew way. Jesus also adds in “fool”. Notice the consequences of these: the council and the hell of fire. Someone who won’t kill but doesn’t mind destroying another’s reputation will face the same condemnation as the murderer. The sin is the same, whether we carry it out in our minds, in our words, or in actuality. Anger, and the actions proceeding from it, is dangerous.

Finally, note the urgency that Jesus places on dealing with this problem: “ If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee,  leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” If there ever was a time that one might think it appropriate to put off dealing with a brother’s anger, it would be while participating in the worship of God. “Surely I should finish offering the sacrifice first, as God is most important, and then deal with my brother later, right?” But, no, Jesus says drop the offering and go fix the problem with the brother first. Anger is so dangerous that the greater urgency in placed upon reconciliation, even above worship. This should open our eyes to the fact that this is a topic that demands both attention and caution.

Having seen some of what Jesus says on this issue, we will next turn our attention to what can be learned about this from the Wisdom Literature.
 
Lucas Ward