The Danger of Angry Words

Ye have heard that it was said of 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. Matthew 5:21-22 (KJV)

I believe we see a progression here, from a wrong anger to the point of thinking of or actually doing someone harm verbally or physically. We can verbally harm someone when we say things out of anger that is hurtful or destructive to someone. And if not stopped, it can lead to the point where we want to physically harm them.

Angry words lead to raca. Raca was a term of abuse, insult, and utter contempt. To call someone raca meant you were saying they were intellectually empty. We can go from words of anger to verbal abuse. The language gets worse and the words hurt deeper and deeper until you essentially call someone a fool, thus totally devaluing them. The word fool refers to someone who is dull, slow-witted, silly, stupid, mentally inept, incompetent, or morally worthless. According the Jesus, to call someone a fool put you on very dangerous ground.

We must be angry for the right reasons. For example, we can be angry with injustice, mistreatment of others, abortion, sin, etc. We are not to be angry and allow it to progress to an attack on another person. A wrong anger is to hurt someone verbally or to go as far as to cause them bodily harm. We must not allow wrong anger to lead us to insult people and say things in the heat of anger that we’ll regret later.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 (KJV)

We are to love our enemies- by choice and by obedience to God. We’re to bless them and not curse them, doing them good and praying for them. As we do thi, we perfect, or mature, in God’s love and we become like our heavenly Father. He is even good to sinners, the evil, and unjust, giving them opportunities to turn to Him.

We must remember that everyone is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). In showing respect to others, we show respect to God. Remembering this can help us to control wrong anger and to love and not hurt (Ephesians 4:26-27). As we remind ourselves of others’ worth, we will see their value and treat them the way God treats us.

As we choose love over anger and wrong words, we can more easily stay calm and maintain self-control. We can think, feel, speak, and act in a godly way towards others. As we value life, we’ll value others and try to do the best for them. We’ll lift one another up and not try to knock them down. We’ll walk in the highest law of God; the law of love.