Fear No Fear

“You have heard that it was said by the ancients, ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘Whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be in danger of the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-22, MEV). Jesus loves us even when we get it wrong. God had commanded the Israelites not to commit murder (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17). It was a clear command. And they got it. Physically ending the life of another human being outside of all legal channels (like as a soldier during war) was wrong and should not be done ever. Over time, however, they leaned into that definition and ignored everything else. When Jesus came, one of the reasons he came was to point out that the heart matters. That intent matters. That crushing and choking the emotional and mental life out of someone with our anger is EXACTLY as bad as physically ending their life. That the harm anger does to everyone, especially the harm we can’t SEE, is just as important as the harm we can see. They had gotten lost in the details of the Law and had in many cases forgotten the WHY behind the Law. Jesus didn’t come to toss the Law out (Matthew 5:17). He came to make sure we were looking at our hearts. To the INTENT of the Law. Jesus pointed to the two things that encompassed the entirety of the Law: love God before everything, putting Him first; and love each other as closely as we love ourselves. By keeping THAT in our hearts, all the other things also get kept. Jesus is STILL correcting us today. We STILL miss it. We ignore context or cherry pick translations or put our own assumptions into the scriptures. And Jesus loves us. He loves us enough to correct us. To turn our eyes toward what He means. What He is really saying. Jesus NEVER lets us go. He is ALWAYS willing to make sure that we understand what He says. It’s one of the reasons Holy Spirit was given to us. So that we had someone living with us who is ALWAYS talking to us. ALWAYS correcting us. ALWAYS reminding us of what Jesus has done for us. Because Jesus’ intent is the BEST THING for us every time and He loves us too much to stand there doing nothing and let us miss it.