“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be answerable to the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” Matthew 5:22

I recently met with a young lady wracked with guilt. She was very distraught having learned that a former classmate was suffering from a terminal illness. She and this classmate had never gotten along. Any encounter between the two of them was cold at best and venomous at worst. Yet now her nemesis was soon to be no more.

This young lady cannot fathom the idea that this person whom she had been at odds with would soon depart this earth. And even more difficult for her is the idea that she had been so cruel to this person. Now it is not as if this person was ever nice to my client. The knife cut both ways. The soon to be deceased was equally venomous in her interactions with this young lady. But what really trouble the girl was that there was no longer an opportunity to make amends.

It is a sad fact that when someone you know dies, you will likely remember every mean or spiteful thing spoken between the two of you. It is like a curse, punishing us for any hateful thing we may have once said to somebody. Sadly, we do not generally learn from this lesson and are quick to go right on feeling anger and hatred towards people whom we feel have wronged us. 

Christ was very specific about clarifying what murder actually is. He explained murder as a direct result of hatred. Hatred, even without physical repercussions, is a means of killing what angers us in someone else. It is clearly a sin to hold this kind of contempt for someone. But this is puzzling is it not? Why would a mere emotion be considered a sin? We often consider ourselves slaves to our emotions. we see them as feelings that we are powerless to control.

Well, Christian, we are powerless to control most of our sins, regardless. We can only control whether or not we deliberately seek to be sinful. Why is sin, more specifically anger, such a hot button with God? Well we must consider the fact that an offense against a person is greater, the greater that person. 

For instance, if you offend, your brother, that is bad enough. But if you offend the President of the United States, that is likely going to have greater repercussions. There is no one greater than our Father in heaven, the Creator of all things. To offend Him is the greatest offence. To display hatred toward another creation of our Father in heaven, is therefore a dire sin! We are acting against one of His own!

There is no such thing as a “small sin.” This is because sin is a direct defiance of God. Since there is no such thing as a small God, then there is no such thing as a small sin. To not punish sin would be an injustice on the part of God. We value the fact that we worship a just and loving God. But we must also understand that since we do so, then, our sins deserve punishment. Thankfully, our God loves us enough that He provided a means to wipe away our sins through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ. Through His death and resurrection, we can be certain that we have our debts paid for, and no longer have to be slaves to our nature’s.

The fact that we have to feel regret over lost opportunities, lost chances at reconciliation, and guilt over mean things said in the past is actually a gift. It shows that we are on the path to redemption. and if we accept Christ and what He did for us, we can take comfort in knowing that, imperfect though we are, we are loved and cared for, and forgiven.

While there is still time, Christ admonishes us to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters. God does not want us to have to live with the guilt of having offended Him through our offenses of one another. So take this opportunity to speak life into others, even those who you may be struggling to get along with. Because this life is fleeting, and we can never know how much time we have to make things right. It’s better not to go wrong in the first place!

~Pastor Brian Wattenbarger