Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court. 22 But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart ) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty – headed idiot!] shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell of fire.”
Proverbs 4:23 “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”
“That guy drives me crazy! How can he be so stupid? What an idiot!” How many times have we thought or said things like this? While we continue to excuse our bad behavior, we are more than willing to viciously attack others, either mentally or out loud. Some people seem to just go through life like a ping pong ball in a tile bathroom, continually bouncing off walls. Such people only know how to criticize and tear down, reacting in anger to any stimulus and rebounding from one mini – crisis to another. Associates of such people quickly learn to stay out of their way!
Murders do not happen in an instant; murders begin with someone hating and resenting another person and persisting in that hatred until it spills over into action. These verses speak of someone who is continually angry, persistently angry. “But I have never killed anybody,” you might say. No, but how many times have you descried someone as being foolish, or an idiot, or some other term that means the same thing?
Why is our thought – life so important? God is the only Sovereign Judge because He is the only one with all the evidence. The rest of us only see bits and pieces of situations. God sees our hearts – every dirty little insult we think about people, every time we are impatient and each time we feel justifiably fed up with people. If God were not infinitely patient, we would all have been vaporized a long time ago. Sitting in judgement, even mentally, is a very dangerous business!
How do we stop judging and criticizing? We must guard our hearts! Each time we find ourselves tempted to criticize or to mentally insult someone, we must stop and confess this as sin and ask God to forgive us and to cleanse our hearts and minds. “But I can’t do this completely,” you say. “What if I miss something?” You will miss something. And this is why we all need a Savior. None of us in ourselves is sufficient; only by salvation through Jesus Christ can we be completely clean.
PRAYER: Father, we confess that we sin in our thought life countless times each day! By ourselves we cannot stop these unworthy thoughts. We beg you for your help. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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