January 7, 2025
Adrian Rogers
Scripture Passage: Matthew 5:20-22
There is no fooling anyone. The golden facades and outer appearances we put on cannot hide a decaying spiritual life. It’s what’s inside that counts.
The Pharisees had an outward, external, and superficial form of religion that was ultimately hypocritical. They were careful with how they looked to others, careful to live straight-edge lives, but their hearts were still crooked.
Matthew 5:20 says, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven…”
Jesus ripped away the facade of self-righteousness and showed the Pharisees what was truly deep down in their hearts.
“’You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire’” (Matthew 5:21:22).
God’s law states we shall not murder (see Exodus 20:13). But to have hate in your heart toward another person is considered murder in God’s eyes, because God goes beyond the act and looks at the attitude behind it, and anger is behind murder.
This passage in Matthew explores different kinds of anger. Caustic is the natural feeling of being wronged by a brother. But when undealt with, caustic anger can turn quickly into contemptuous anger. Treating someone with contempt means you feel you are better than others.
Contemptuous anger then turns into condemning anger, which is always harmful for everyone involved.
Ephesians 4:31 says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”
Adrian Rogers says, “Bitterness is a feeling of resentment that settles down in your heart when you feel somebody has done you wrong.”
Bitterness leads to wrath, a word that means ‘slow burn’—like smoldering rags in a closet. But then someone opens the closet door and everything erupts into flames of anger.
But the anger doesn’t stop there. Next comes clamoring—raising your voice, shouting and crying. And once you’ve lost control of your tone, any sort of evil can come out, leading to expressing yourself in unbecoming ways.
Jesus reminds us of the requirement of righteousness. Self-righteousness is impossible. Real righteousness is imputed by Jesus’ blood and implanted by our new nature.
The only answer to the problem of our hearts is the righteousness of God—imputed and implanted when we are saved. Trust in Jesus and let Him give you a new nature and new attitude today.
