“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, You fool! will be liable to the hell of fire. The but I say to you is Jesus' assertion of personal authority over the tradition — not thus says the Lord, not the prophets said, but I say. The escalation from murder to anger to insult to name-calling communicates that the commandment against murder is about the whole spectrum of relational destruction, not only its end-point. 1 John 3:15 says anyone who hates his brother is a murderer — the interior violence of hatred is already the death of the relationship that the external act of murder only makes visible. The graduated consequences (judgment, council, hell) communicate the graduated seriousness of the violations.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a note on this verse
0/2000
No notes on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!