About Anger*
Matthew 5:21–26 stands within the section of the Sermon on the Mount often called the "antitheses," where Jesus repeatedly says, "You have heard that it was said... but I say to you." He is not correcting Moses or setting aside the Law of God. As He has just declared in verses 17–20, He came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it, and He insists that the righteousness of His disciples must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. What Jesus does in this passage is press the sixth commandment, "You shall not murder," down to its true depth. The Pharisees had reduced the commandment to a bare prohibition of the physical act of killing. Jesus reveals that God's Law was never merely about outward conduct; it governs the heart. He begins by citing the familiar teaching: murder is forbidden, and the murderer is answerable to judgment. Then He escalates matters in a way His hearers would have found startling. Anger nursed against a brother, Jesus says, alr...