The Sermon on the Mount · Matthew 5:21-26

Anger and Reconciliation: Whosoever Is Angry With His Brother

Matthew 5 to 7 · Jesus’ greatest sermon, the manifesto of the kingdom

Taking the commandment against murder, Jesus traces killing back to its root in the heart, in contempt and unresolved anger. He warns that the anger that despises a brother stands under the same judgment as murder, and He makes reconciliation so urgent that it should interrupt even our worship. The teaching is not that anger and killing are identical, but that the road to violence begins in a heart we must let God heal.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 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. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.Matthew 5:21-26 (KJV)

What Jesus said

Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not kill. Everyone agreed murder was wrong. But Jesus presses further: whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of judgment, and whoever hurls contempt, calling a brother worthless or a fool, is in danger of hell fire. He puts the settled, contemptuous anger of the heart in the same category as the crime it can grow into.

Then He turns to action. If you are bringing your gift to the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave the gift, go, be reconciled, and then come and offer it. He even counsels settling with an adversary quickly, before the quarrel hardens into something that lands you in a prison of your own making.

What it meant then, and what it means now

In Jesus' world, honor and insult were serious matters, and words like Raca, an insult of contempt, were the sparks that lit feuds. By naming those words, Jesus exposed a violence that hid behind a clean legal record. A man could keep the letter of the sixth commandment and still be a murderer in the currency of scorn.

We do the same. We would never lift a hand, yet we assassinate people in our thoughts, in our speech, in the quiet verdict that someone is beneath us. Jesus says God sees that, and it is not harmless. The command is not merely to avoid killing but to refuse the contempt that treats another image-bearer as disposable.

How it goes to the heart

This is the first of several places where Jesus takes an outward command and follows it down to its source. Murder begins long before the blow, in the moment we decide a person no longer deserves our respect. Deal with the anger, He is saying, and the fruit it bears will die on the vine.

Notice that Jesus does not say all anger is sin; He warns against anger without cause and the contempt that dehumanizes. There is an anger that grieves over evil, as Jesus Himself was angry at hardness of heart. But the settled resentment that nurses a grudge and looks down on another is exactly what He calls us to bring into the light.

How it has been misapplied, and rightly applied

Some read these words as a rule of absolute passivity, as though any strong feeling were damning, and end up in a false guilt that suppresses honest emotion instead of healing it. Others shrug the passage off, treating hidden contempt as normal because it never becomes a crime.

Rightly applied, it does two things. It humbles the respectable, showing that a spotless record can hide a murderous heart, and it makes reconciliation urgent. Jesus does not merely forbid the anger; He sends us to mend the relationship, even if it means walking away from the altar to do it. Worship and unforgiveness cannot sit together.

A closer look at the words

Jesus names three steps down a single staircase. To be in danger of the judgment points to the local court, to face the council points to the highest court in Jerusalem, and to be in danger of hell fire uses the word Gehenna, the smoldering valley outside the city where refuse was burned. The escalation is the point: contempt is not a small thing that grows into a large one; it already carries the seed of the worst.

Raca was a word of contempt, something like empty-headed, and to call a brother a fool was to write him off as worthless. Both are ways of murdering a person in speech, denying the dignity God gave them. Jesus refuses the comfortable line we draw between hating someone and harming them, showing that the second begins in the first.

The scene at the altar would have struck home hard. A worshiper who had traveled to Jerusalem with a costly offering is told to leave the gift, walk away, and be reconciled first. Reconciliation is so urgent to God that He would rather have the mended relationship than the interrupted sacrifice.

Living this today

The practical weight of this teaching falls on initiative. Jesus does not say wait until your brother comes to you; He sends you, even when the offense is his against you, to take the first step toward peace. That runs against every instinct to wait, to justify, and to keep score, and it is one of the clearest marks of a heart being changed by grace.

It also calls for dealing with resentment while it is small. His advice to agree with your adversary quickly, before the quarrel hardens and drags you into a prison, is wisdom for every strained relationship. Grudges left to age grow walls, and walls grow bitter. The time to seek peace is now, not after the anger has set like concrete.

None of this means pretending you feel no anger or burying real wrongs. It means refusing to let anger curdle into contempt, telling the truth about the hurt, and moving toward the person rather than away. Before you bring anything to God in worship, ask whether there is someone you need to go and find.

How it points to Christ

Jesus commands a reconciliation He came to accomplish. While we were still His enemies, He did not wait for us to come to the altar; He left heaven and came to us, and made peace by the blood of His cross. He is the reconciled and reconciling brother who takes the first step every time.

He also bore the judgment His words describe. The anger and contempt of the world fell on Him, and He answered not with retaliation but with, Father, forgive them. Because He has reconciled us to God, He gives us both the motive and the power to be reconciled to one another. We forgive because we have been forgiven a debt beyond counting.

A note for every tradition: the Sermon on the Mount is honored across the whole church as the heart of Jesus’ teaching. This is faithful, mainstream exposition, holding the hard sayings with both honesty and grace. Above all it points to Christ, who alone lived this sermon perfectly and gives grace to all who follow Him.

Continue in the sermon: The law and the prophets fulfilled · Love your enemies · The Beatitudes · The whole Sermon on the Mount