the anger bug

Teaching about Anger

21 "You have heard that our ancestors were told, `You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.'s22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone,s you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot,s you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone,s you are in danger of the fires of hell.s 23 "So if you are presenting a sacrifices at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you,24 leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. 25 "When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison.26 And if that happens, you surely won't be free again until you have paid the last penny.

matthew 5

this was really cool. i got this this morning when i was jogging. there are three parts to this. the first part is about me. if i'm angry at someone, woo, it's bad already. Jesus starts raising the intensity too. if you call someone a name, you could be brought into court. put it into further action and curse someone? well, then it's pretty bad! i start seeing just how serious Jesus is about this. it's all about your heart, again. where your heart is, that's where your actions start heading as well. anger at another person is sin. straight up. sin is when you fall short of how God wants you to be. ergo, you sin when you hold your anger against someone instead of forgiving them. now, the second part is about someone else being angry at me. if someone else is angry at me, i'm supposed to take the initiative and make up with that person. you see how big Jesus stresses on unity in His body. this last part kind of stuck out to me. if we're on the way to court, we all kind of are when we leave this place, then we should settle our differences...later? next week? next year? nope. quickly. do it asap. we don't have that long to be here on this earth. and if we're going to just block each other out, then we lose out on unity and who God wants us to be.