Hateful Speech
Matthew 5:21-24
21 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.’ 22 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. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your git there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
Anger is a dangerous emotion. How many injuries, even murders have been committed in a fit of rage. If anger is held in your heart toward someone, it can become like a boiling pot ready to boil over. If allowed to continue, seething within you, you are putting yourself in a dangerous position. Whenever we demean and insult someone, especially fellow believers, we will be held accountable before the Lord for that. To call down curses and evil remarks on others, our verses tell us we are in danger of hell fire. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk that close to the edge of the burning eternal volcano of hell. When our children were small, each of them knew instinctively how to provoke the other siblings to anger. One way was to hum a little diddy, teasing and antagonizing their brother or sister about a supposed classmate. They would say that classmate liked them and they secretly liked them back. Even tapping the rhythm of the diddy on the dinner table was enough to set off hysterical yelling and tears. Words can kill, especially angry ones. The word “Raca” can mean “spittle” or “lunatic.” It is a word that could imply calling a fellow believer demon-possessed. The Greek definition is “worthless fool, imbecile.” No one enjoys being called these hurtful names. There are times I have heard conversations about someone where these exact words were not used in talking about someone, but angry, vile descriptive put downs, filled with sour vernacular. I have often thought how much this would hurt and damage this talked about person if they heard what was being said about them. I know it would me. The term “fire” is also called the Gehenna of fire. Gehenna which was an actual place where garbage was burned outside of Jerusalem, became a figure of speech for hell in the days of Jesus. It used to be the site of child sacrifice to the god Molech. See 2 Chronicles 33:6. The old saying we should probably practice that is worth repeating is “If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all,” for their sake and for yours.
What about you? Do you understand how hurtful your words can be to others? Do you understand how you put yourself in danger and out of alignment with God when we talk so flippantly about others? Let’s ask the Lord to help us to tame our speech, and if we have nothing good to say, to stay quiet and distance ourselves form evil conversations. Have a peaceful day in the Lord.
