Does Jesus Say Anger and Murder are the Same Thing in Matthew 5?

Does Jesus really equate anger with murder in Matthew Chapter 5? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. And normally you could watch Adriel right now on YouTube through our YouTube channel, but something happened yesterday here at the CORE Christianity office and we can't do that today. Yes, the offices got broken into last night and so we don't have our cameras anymore along with some other things. And so we're obviously upset about that, but we're thankful to the Lord that we're still able to do the live broadcasts. And so yeah, it's just really, really frustrating. I mean, one of those things when you get, you know, when a burglary takes place, somebody's, you know, messing with your stuff, you just feel so violated.

And so really kind of an unfortunate situation. But I did want to take just a moment right now to pray for whoever it was that was in our studio last night, breaking in and taking things that the Lord would convict them and ultimately that the Lord would save them. So Father, we thank you Lord that you are good and Lord that you are in control of all things. And we want to pray right now for the individual or the individuals who broke into our studio last night asking, Father, that you would draw them to yourself by the power of the Holy Spirit through your Son, Jesus Christ, that you would convict them of sin, that you would bring them to a place of repentance and that you would cause them Lord to receive your grace, your forgiveness, your goodness. Would you be with them Lord? And would you be with all of our listeners today as well? In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.

So the show must go on even without our cameras. You can definitely give us a call and ask Adriel your question about the Bible, theology, doctrine, whatever, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We also get voicemails here at CORE Christianity and here's one from one of our listeners named Mara. My question is as a female and trying to choose a doctor, for example, just obviously picking out a doctor for an example, a gynecologist, should I as a Christian be choosing a female or where is the line where maybe I shouldn't pick a male gynecologist even if it's a really good doctor? I felt convicted about it so I just feel like I should get a second opinion on what your thoughts are. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for calling with that question. Well the first thing I would say is you obviously don't do anything that makes you uncomfortable. And so if it's something that you're not comfortable with, you know, having a male doctor in this sense, then I would say well yeah, and I'm pretty sure, I mean, that just generally, you know, when you're going to the doctor that they are sensitive to that in particular.

And so don't do anything that you're not comfortable. I wouldn't say, you know, is this an issue of sin? Is it sinful for Christians or for a Christian woman to have a male OB-GYN? No, I don't think that I would say that.

I mean, I think you want to find the best doctor and the doctor who's going to, you know, the most educated, well-educated, and is going to do a good job at being a doctor. But again, you know, if it's something that bothers you in your conscience, then I would say certainly don't do it. I mean, the Apostle Paul said that whatever is not from faith is sin. And that means, you know, if it's something that just in your conscience you can't do, you don't feel comfortable doing, well then you absolutely should not do it. But I don't know that that's the case for every woman. And so I don't think that we could bind everyone's consciences and say, well, you couldn't have a male gynecologist or OB. And so, yeah, I would just say, sister, you know, go with that and do whatever you feel most comfortable with. You know, I was thinking about it, Adriel, we had both a male and a female OB-GYN for different kids and different births. And I appreciated so much, both of them and their skill and just their sensitivity in the way that they treated my wife and our baby. And so, you know, as you said, it really has nothing to do with gender when it comes to expertise.

But if she's uncomfortable with that, then find a female doctor. So thanks for that. This is core Christianity. And one of the questions we often receive here on this program is about the last days, the end times and the book of Revelation, which can be really confusing to a lot of people. And we actually have a wonderful Bible study on the book of Revelation available to you. You know, there are so many Christians that don't want to touch the book of Revelation with a 10-foot pole because they feel like there's just so much mystery and all the prophecies and all the imagery. How could I even begin to understand it? Well, we want to help you understand the book of Revelation with this study, this 10-week study through the book of Revelation that answers questions like, you know, how do we discern the signs of the end times?

Why hasn't Christ come back yet? You know, questions about things that we know our listeners, you are concerned about and want answers to. And so we're making this study available to you. Great for Sunday school classes, Bible study groups, informal gatherings, or even just as an individual if you want to go through this study. It's available for a gift of $20 or more. And it's gifts like these that help us create more studies, online resources that bless you and your walk with the Lord.

So hope you take advantage. It's really a helpful study and we also have a discount available if you want to buy several for your Sunday school class or small group. To request a copy of this Bible study, just go to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation. That's corechristianity.com forward slash revelation.

And you can always call us for any one of our Bible studies or other resources at 833-THE-CORE. Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in earlier this week from one of our listeners named Steve. I have a question. Let's see here. In Matthew 5 22, it says, Lord, this is how I interpret it. You must not murder. Before you claim innocence, Jesus said, anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. I can't believe that I'm interpreting that right. Just because I'm angry, I get angry at people all the time, but it doesn't mean I murdered them. So I'd appreciate your insight on that. Thank you.

Thank you for that question and I want to provide some clarity here. So yes, this is the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 verse 21, Jesus said, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Now, first we have to distinguish, I think, between good and righteous anger and sinful anger. You see, throughout the gospels, it's very clear that Jesus himself, the eternal son of God, the word made flesh who was sinless, was angry at times and got angry. In particular, when the worship of God was being corrupted, you know, you would get angry about religious hypocrisy.

You think of Jesus cleansing the temple. He fed to the Pharisees and the religious leaders quite clearly. I mean, he called them fools.

Why? Because of their religious hypocrisy. And I don't think that Jesus sinned on any of those occasions. I think there are times in our lives where we should be angry about injustice, where we should be angry about idolatry and the corruption of God's worship that we see around us, even within the church. And so there are instances where it's right to be angry. And there are other times where it's wrong and it's sinful and it makes us liable to judgment. And it's those other times that Jesus is referring to here.

It's sort of interesting, but in verse 22, there are some manuscripts that add a phrase, ancient manuscripts that add a phrase. You have heard, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother, then some manuscripts will add, without cause. So this is unjustified anger. This is just that sort of cruel, contentious contempt that we can have sinfully. And so that's what Jesus is highlighting. And what he's doing here, he's doing a couple of things. One, the phrase that he starts with in verse 21, you have heard that it was said. He repeats that throughout the Sermon on the Mount, I think about six times.

And he's coming in and he's saying, but I say to you, in other words, he's putting himself on the level of the law giver. And this is a great text that we could point to for the deity of Christ, his authority as the one who declares the truth of God's word, the truth of God's law, and gives us the inspired interpretation, if you will. It's not just when you kill someone. Even the seeds of murder are in our hearts through that sinful anger that we can have. And so we need to repent. We need God's grace, God's mercy.

He's highlighting the fact that nobody perfectly keeps the law of God here. And so you're right, brother, we do get angry. And sometimes it is that sinful anger that we need to repent about, but there are instances where we can have godly and righteous anger as well. God bless you, and thank you for your question. I was just thinking of the break-in we had last night, and those thieves who robbed the core Christianity offices. And I was not as quite as gracious as you were when you prayed for them earlier. Yeah, I'm sure there was some righteous anger here in the office, you know, but we prayed for our enemies, you know, like Jesus says.

You talked about God convicting them, and I was hoping the police and the courts would convict them and send them away for a long long time, but okay. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we would love to take your call. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so. Here's the number to call. It's 833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Brian calling in from St. Louis, Missouri. Brian, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, sir. I'm calling before and I've got a kind of a complex question to ask. I had somebody recently ask me about what happened with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, how the serpent came and tempted Eve about eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And then after Adam, you know, partook of the food and their eyes were opened and they their conscious became aware that they knew they were naked they covered themselves and then after God asked what happened and then God pronounced the three curses one on man one on woman and one on the serpent.

The one that the guy asked me about is when the serpent because the Bible says that serpent was cursed to crawl his belly for eternity. I know that has a lot to do prophetically about Jesus having his foot over over the head of the serpent, but he asked me did the serpent when he was in the Garden of Eden and approached Eve did he possibly walk upright on two legs or four legs like an animal and I told him I really didn't know and I thought you might give me an insight about that. Yeah, was the serpent more of a lizard there in Eden?

Well, you know, I don't know that we could say definitively. I think that the language that's used in Genesis chapter 3 verse 14 where God says to the serpent because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. Now of course the serpent isn't literally eating dust, it's this picture of humiliation of being down in the dirt close in the ground near to death unclean and so I think that's the focus of the text here. The focus of the text is not well this serpent used to be more like a lizard with four legs or with two legs and then he was cursed and so now he's on his belly that kind of a thing. No, it's this this picture of humiliation and also of enmity of strife war between you and the woman God says to the serpent between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel that's really the focus there and of course that that verse right there Genesis 3 15 has sometimes been referred to as the proto euangelion the first proclamation of the gospel this promise that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent and we see the fulfillment of that in Jesus Christ and so typically when I'm looking at this passage Brian I like to go there and just say look at how beautiful this is that here in the very earliest chapters of scripture in Genesis chapter 3 we already have a promise of the gospel of God conquering the evil one of the seed of the woman that is coming and has come and so that's what I would focus on too in your conversations with your friend I think we you know we don't want to speculate too much about the first part there in verse 14 we can say this is humiliation but also the promise of victory that God would bring about thank you for giving us another call and God bless you brother thanks Brian appreciate you being a regular listener here to core Christianity we appreciate all our regular listeners and by the way if you'd like to get involved in our program on a regular basis as a supporter we have what we're called our inner core you can learn more about that at our website just go to core christianity.com forward slash inner core to join that wonderful group of folks who believe in this program so much that they support us on a regular basis well our phone lines are open if you have a question about the bible or the christian life 833 the core that's 1-833-843-2673 let's go to harris calling in from nashville tennessee harris what's your question for adriel oh yes how you are doing thank you for taking my call angel i have a question i had heard um you yesterday about the um um homosexual lifestyle of a person should not be permitted to preach because of that their lifestyle and uh what you said about what it said in corinthians well my question is this about a woman being able to preach i know they said in first Corinthians uh uh fourth first Corinthians said that uh you know god's got an order and a woman keeps silent in the church knowing that i know it also said in timothy that you know let a woman keep silent let a woman learn the silence and that she's not supposed to sort authority over man and also in first Corinthians 11 the order uh of god has you know where it says that you know god's got a father to hear the christ and christ to hear the man and man to hear the woman my question is this is that if a woman is a pastor or so-called pastor of the church or whatever whether she is or not isn't she over every man in that church and there's no certain authority over a man when she's the pastor of that church and she sees over those men harris thank you for that question brother and um i'm grateful that you are a frequent listener that you were listening yesterday and uh you were bringing up you know the same passages of scripture that i would go to you know with with this question we've been asked this question before if i believe um that that women should serve as pastors in the local church or as elders and you know i'll go to first timothy three where paul gives the qualifications or first corinthians chapter 14 or the other text you brought up is in first timothy chapter two um where i think i think it is clear in scripture that the office of elder is reserved for men who are called and qualified and competent and so that that's that's my view i don't think i know that this is something that genuine followers of jesus christ differ on i don't think this is one of those issues in the church um that we should you know look at look at people who think differently than us and say oh that that person must not be a christian maybe they're not a believer it doesn't strike at the core vitals if you will of the christian faith it's not like somebody who denied the resurrection or the deity of jesus christ um and so i you know i i have friends dear brothers and sisters in christ who who differ with me and my interpretation of those texts in first timothy two and in first corinthians uh chapter 14 and and elsewhere um one thing you know that i i like to to say when we're having this discussion um just about you know um roles within the church and in particular the office of elder it's very clear when we read the new testament that women are indispensable and were indispensable to the ministry of the church and to the advancement of the gospel in in the ancient church and i would say even today you see this over and over again you see this in the ministry of of jesus our lord you also see this throughout the book of acts and and in the epistles as well i like to go to the story that we see in acts chapter 18 where we read in verse 24 a jew named apollos a native of alexandria came to ephysis he was an eloquent man competent in the scriptures and he had been instructed in the way of the lord and being taught and fervent in spirit he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning jesus though he knew only the baptism of john he began to speak boldly in the synagogue but when priscilla and aquila heard him they took him aside and explained to him the way of god more accurately and god was using this couple this this woman priscilla and her husband aquila um to help apollos learn the scriptures better they explained the word of god to him more accurately um and and actually priscilla and aquila it's it's this really amazing couple in in the new testament they're referred to by the apostle paul as co-workers with the apostle in romans chapter 16 verse 3 um in fact they even had a church that probably met in their home paul makes this this uh this point in first corinthians chapter 16 and so you know i i just i just want to i want to say you know we have differences here there are differences within the church and my view is that the office of pastor or elder should be for men but that doesn't mean that women aren't used and don't have a specific roles um and and gifts for the good of the church even gifts related to i think teaching in certain contexts and so um i i just want to emphasize that because i think we can get so caught up in this discussion that we just okay well you know a woman can't be a pastor so then i guess i don't know what what can she do that that sort of a thing well we want to value all of the gifts that the lord gives to his people to be used within the body of christ in the manners that are good and inappropriate and in line with scripture so appreciate your question brother and uh pray the lord blesses you you're listening to core christianity with pastor adriel sanchez a reminder that we have that revelation bible study available for you today if that's a book of the bible that trips you up you struggle with some of the things that are discussed by the apostle john in revelation we'd like to get that into your hands for either you individually or for your small group or sunday school class you can learn more about that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation let's go to tracy calling in from saint louis missouri tracy what's your question for pastor adriel hello pastor adriel and thank you for your ministry and for taking my call i was just wondering i can't seem to find in the bible when satan was cast to the earth i ask that because i would like to know if he was cast to the earth before god created man from the dust of the earth or if he was cast after um he created man from the dust of the earth thank you yeah well the the passage of scripture that my mind goes to immediately is in the book of revelation chapter 12 and and with regard to the you know the timeline that you asked about that this would be um after now verse 7 of revelation 12 now war arose in heaven michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven and the great dragon was thrown down the ancient serpent who is called the devil and satan the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him and i heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our god and the authority of his christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our god and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death in a parallel passage to that text right there in revelation 12 7 and following is revelation chapter 20 with the binding of satan so there was this definitive judgment that was executed on the evil one satan through the work of jesus christ the redemptive work of jesus christ primarily his death and resurrection and so he's lost his power he's been cast out of out of heaven if you will as the accuser now you know he's going about like a roaring lion seeking to devour the people of god but he was in us is greater than he who is in the world and so with regard to this idea of being cast out of heaven and to earth those are the passages you're going to want to look at revelation 12 and revelation chapter 20 god bless this is core christianity with pastor adriel sanchez we do receive email questions here and here's one from robert he says could you please explain why god demanded animal sacrifice in the old testament and why he spelled out in great detail how this was to be done i don't understand why god would be so interested in having the animal slaughtered so precisely and why god would demand the exact measurements at the tabernacle it seems so strange that god would care about those things yeah um well i mean we just have to understand you know what what was happening there in the history of redemption um it's it's clear from the old testament that man fell into sin we were talking about genesis earlier and so how does man get back into the presence of god into the good graces of god well god you know gives them the tabernacle institutes the sacrificial system that we hear about and read about in places like the book of leviticus and you're given all of these details about the sacrifices because they're these pictures of if you will the removal of sin and the best place to go to really get the the the new testament you know interpretation on this is the book of hebrews where it talks about jesus christ as the last sacrifice for sin the final sacrifice for sin so that we can say because he suffered once for all we have hope the hope of eternal life and so that's that's why we have this um that's why we see this all over the place again hebrews chapter 10 is is going to be the place where you want to go specifically um in order to to um to understand this in verse 11 says every priest stands daily at his services offering repeatedly the same sacrifices that can never take away sins in other words the the old testament sacrifices could never take away sins but when christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand right hand of god brothers and sisters we have the once for all sacrifice of jesus christ you know your sins are forgiven thanks for listening to core christianity to request your copy of today's special offer visit us at core christianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673 that's 833 the core when you contact us please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of god's word together