No Place for Anger in God's Kingdom

Matthew 5:22

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 council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Jesus was absolutely crystal clear in defining His position about forgiving others.  He taught that there is no leeway given for those who are unwilling to forgive.  Whoever is angry with another without cause is in danger of judgement themselves.

When we consider whether we are justified to be angry with another, we need to look to Jesus Christ who is the essence of perfect love and forgiveness.  Jesus' anger was limited to those who took away from the glory of the Father.  He set aside His anger and replaced it with love and forgiveness when any other lesser offense was involved, whether it be directed toward Him or not.  His perfect standard is the same standard that we are all called to meet.  When we fall short of this standard in our daily lives, we are commanded to right ourselves before we come to Him with our offerings and our prayers.  Otherwise, our prayers will be ineffective.

The process of recognizing, reconciling and asking forgiveness for our shortcomings in sharing the perfect love and forgiveness of Jesus with the world around us is essential to our growth as disciples of Jesus.  It also prepares us to receive the fullness of His love and forgiveness in our own lives and makes us worthy to bring our prayers and offerings to the Father.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You have shown us.  We bless the name of Jesus who is the essence of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We pray, Father, that we may become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  May the world know us by our ability to set aside our anger unless it involves an action which takes away Your glory.  We ask all these things in the name of Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord of Our Peace, Jesus Christ.