"First Be Reconciled to Your Brother” | Matthew 5:21–26

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways.

Well, we are back with The Bible Guys, Platinum edition.

Wesley Woods is in the house. I'm Jeff Forster, and

we are so glad that we get to be with

you today. And this one is a big one because

we're talking about being reconciled with our brother right, and

sometimes this whole week we're talking about relationships. We're talking

about the importance of being connected to one another as

humans and as brothers and sisters and those things. And

so along those lines, I just thought, you know, Wesley,

you know this is true. And our listeners, our long

time listeners, know how important it is for us to

bring the finest news, yes to our listen, the highest quality.

We scour the internet or at least one website, yeah,

the Babylon b to find the most authoritative and helpful news.

Sometimes it's not sometimes it's a special interesting yeah, and

sometimes it's just about humanity in general. And so today

we thought the Babylon Bie, if you don't know, is

a parody website, and today's headline is Man's Christian love

for humanity shattered by trip to the airport. And this

is kind of in our life segment right lifestyle So Chicago, Illinois,

the world around a local man seemed to grow even

colder and dimmer as he expressed feeling that his Christian

love for humanity had been shattered after he took a

trip to the airport. Traveler Ryan Canter said he felt

good about the world and mankind in general just prior

to leaving the house for his trip to Florida. Upon

arriving at O'Hare Airport, every shred of hope he had

felt vanished within moments, leaving him despondent about the state

of human society. May God's wrath rain down upon every

one of you. Canter was heard muttering as he made

his way through the terminal. What a wretched world this is?

Look at the human refuse littered around me.

Where am I?

How have we fallen so far? We used to be

a real country. Dear Lord, have mercy upon us. Oh

sweet Moses, here's the TSA checkpoint. He hasn't even made

its cant then proceeded endure the horrifying ordeal of airport security.

I can't describe the things I saw there, He later recounted,

bodies stacked upon bodies, diseases, violence exposed toes everywhere. Why

would a loving god allow things like this to exist?

Why?

Why?

Witnesses reported last seeing Canter visibly seething with hatred toward

all of humankind after finding his place in a middle

seat between two morbidly obese passengers. At publishing time, Canter's

faith had reportedly been restored after the in flight movie.

Options included the extended editions of the Lord of the

Rings trilogy.

Well, I don't have much to say about that one.

I lived that one. Yeah, you know, I'll.

Do probably this year at airports all the time, probably

two hundred and fifty three hundred thousand miles this year.

Yeah.

And the entire airport experience from start to finish is

always miserable for me. It just it just and it's

little things. It's nothing big. It's just that you do

it so often. Every little thing just keeps stacking up,

stacking up, steake, and I have to work so hard

at keeping a good app I.

Remember the one time I was with you when we

were going to Africa. Yeah, lady would not let us

on the plane. I know, that was hilarious.

What was this about?

Man?

And then and then on that trip, is that the

one I got stopped and my bags got searched like

every single time bags I was randomly selected, right, it

was ridiculous. Oh you know what else happened on that trip?

So on the way home, remember my daughter went with us.

Yeah, so we were in Togo.

On the way home, my daughter started bugging me about, Dad,

once you come back and say, because I had some

premium seats, I got like a free upgrade. Yea, so

I'm flying all the time. I got free upgrade to

some premium seats. And then you and Jenna, my daughter,

were sitting further back in the night. And so then

Jenna's like, Dad, why don't you come sick, give Wesley

your nice seat and you come back and sit with me.

And it had already been kind of a miserable trip.

I was sick, rememberah sick on that trip, So just miserable.

But you know, I love my daughter, and I said.

Make sure you get your meat cooked well done.

Yeah, when you're in Togo.

So uh, so I I go back and I sit down.

I decided to do that, so I gave you my

good seat, and not three minutes after I give you

my good seat, they congratulations, mister Fort, you just got

upgraded the business class. Yeah, so you rode in business

class for eight hours and I'm sitting in that stupid

middle seat.

I remember stepping onto the plane, turning the corner and

it was like.

The angels, there's a glow from heaven.

The angels are singing.

You have your own little cubicle with a TV. It

reclines into a bed. You get an imass, and.

They put a crown on their head.

I'm like, i could never travel any other way, but this, Yeah,

that was amazing. I remember when I woke up, I

hit missed dinner, because you know how your internal clock

is all off when you're doing like international travel, so

I think I fell asleep. When I woke up, dinner

had been served, and I'm like, oh man, I missed it.

The guy comes over, mister Woods, would you like your

dinner now? Yes, yes I would.

So they put a tablecloth on.

It, put it on for you. So they put the

tablecloth on. I'm like, I'm never traveling any other way than.

They bring you a hot towel your hands it's fabulous.

Yeah.

So afterwards, I sit down in my seat after they

said congratulations, yes, of course you got a great business class,

and I just look, can you get this big, big,

heavy look on your face?

And Jenna's like, just tell Wesley you changed your mind.

I said, I can't change my mind now because I

gave you my seat.

And then that seat got upgraded.

Yeah that was good. Yeah.

So I sat back in the cattle car while you're

sitting up there in luxury.

It was nice up there.

So this one really hits home for me. So I

can't I can't express any any thoughts about that, but

it is the little things. So it does cause me

to sometimes hate people.

Yeah, I would say that.

I just I'm not a very good Christian in the airport, Like, like,

here's what I hope God does. I hope God puts

like a ConA protection and forgiveness over every.

Airport in the world.

Serious, And when I go in there, I just I

lose my Christianity for a little while. I'm barely a

Christian while I'm in that airport. Then then when we

land and I get home, I'm like, Okay, I want

to be a good Christian again. But for a little while,

I'm like, just like that guy, God send judgment on

these horrible humans. Terr experience. So it is funny. I

will say, I'm not normally an angry person. I can

get provoked and I get there quickly. But when I'm driving,

bad customer service and flying, those are my those are

my three areas that I just have this short few

and I'm embarrassed by it.

Sometimes we don't even have time for this. But the

funniest story I think you ever told is when they

told you to get out in Jimmy John's. Yeah, that

was the best story. Oh they were already tired, overworked,

so the manager had left.

So Jimmy John's the sandwich store, the thing is freaky fast.

Yeah right, that's your slogan.

And I'd waited like forty five minutes, so I drove

over because I hadn't even delivered yet and didn't even

show it left the store. Yeah, So I drove over

there and walk in. I was like, hey, I was curious,

you know what my sanwich like forty five minutes ago

and I just hasn't even left a store yet. And

the guy's like, dude, we're not getting to it for

another thirty minutes because they're making make it. We had

this massive order come in. Yeah, I said, well, there's

four of you there, so yeah. He said, well, we've

got like twenty something more sandwiches to make for this

massive order. I said, right, but if you had one

person pull away and just make one sandwich, it'd still

be freaky fast for me. And he goes, he points

and he says, get out.

Yeah, he didn't take my order.

Yeah, just get out, and he kicked me out of

his store.

So sometimes I feel sassy, and the being sassy thing

is now the reality is if they just pause one

person and made my sandwich in two minutes. Anyways, let's

move on talking about anger, Yeah, because I get angry.

So this is not normally the favorite segment all of

our listeners have. Is what made Chris mad? Yeah, well

this is our opportunity to the airport, flying, driving, Jimmy

John's not making my sandwich quickly.

All those things make me mad.

Yeah.

So here's what Jesus says about it. And this is

where we get into the deep end. Right here in Matthew,

chapter five, verse twenty one six says, you have heard

that our ancestors were told you must not murder. If

you commit murder, you're subject to judgment. But I say,

if you are even angry with someone, you are subject

to judgment. If you call someone an idiot, uh oh,

you're in danger of being brought before the court. And

if you curse someone, you're in danger of the fires

of hell. So if you are presenting a sacrifice at

the altar in the temple and you suddenly remember that

someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at

the altar, Go and be reconciled to that person. Then

come and offer your sacrifice to God. When you are

on the way to court with your adversary, settle your

differences quickly. Otherwise your accusing may hand you over to

the judge, and who will hand you over to an officer,

and you'll be thrown into prison. And if that happens,

you surely won't be freeing until you've paid the last penny.

So Jesus is talking here about anger and the words

we use, and the kind of judgment that comes along

with that.

So let's talk about that.

There you go, what I like in verse twenty two,

how Jesus sets this up. It says but I say,

and this is Jesus talking if you are even angry,

because I think the thought process was I didn't do

anything to that person.

Yeah.

So Jesus is saying that this isn't about an hour

ord action. Internally, even if you're angry with someone, you

are subject to judgment. And Jesus talks about that in

another area of the Bible where he talks about committing

adultree in your heart. So not saying you actually went

out and did it, but did you commit adultree on

the inside, you know, with your thoughts so you're thinking.

So I just wanted to highlight that. I think that's

really good that Jesus is saying. It's not necessarily the

outward action that's the sin or the miss it's you're

thinking what you do on the inside.

Yeah.

So this whole passage Matthew five, six, and seven. I

say this every time we get into these these three chapters.

This is all the sermon on the mounta. This is

the biggest message Jesus preached, and he's really unpacking what.

It means to be a follower of Jesus.

He's kind of hitting reset a little bit on people's

perspective on the difference between religion and really living out

your faith in a relationship with Jesus. Right, So this

is what he's doing here. And so in these passages

when he talks about you've heard that it was said,

but I say, like you were talking about the lusting

versus you know, physical adultery. Now, most of us would say, hey,

there's a difference between those two things. Physically connecting with

somebody who's not your spouse is different than having a

naughty thought.

But what Jesus is.

Saying with that, and in this passage when you the

words you use really matter, even though you know you're thinking, well,

at least I didn't kill somebody. What Jesus is saying

is it all always begins in the heart. It begins

in the heart first. You don't just suddenly oops, I

had adultery and never have any plans for it before.

Yes, right, you just People may say that's what happened, But.

It's very very rare that you commit murder suddenly. It's

that the rage built up, that anger came out. It

started inside and then explodes outside. Even if it happened

in a sudden amount of time, it did start on

the inside.

It just wasn't like what happened, My hand just killed

that guy?

Right that it happened on the inside, it happened in

your heart. It happened in your mind, and that led

to So what Jesus is saying is, man, you've got

to be understanding the battle is in your mind. And

this is why in Romans chapter twelve it says, let

God renew your mind, change your mind. Let him make

you a new person by changing the way you think.

Is in Romans chapter twelve, verse two. And so how

we think will lead to how we feel. How we

feel will lead to what we do. And so this

is what he's talking about here, So let's talk about it,

because he's pretty precise here talking about I say, if

you're angry with someone, right, and in some manuscripts it

will say angry without a cause. So it's not saying

you shouldn't be angry about somebody abusing children. Obviously we

should be angry, right, that's not but without cause. That's

what he's talking about. So if you're angry with someone,

you're subject to judgment, and that's going to be like

a judge in general. And then he says, if you

call someone an idiot. You're in danger of being brought

before the court. Well, yeah, I probably should be in

the court a lot. Yeah, I kind of confessed that

earlier about my views of airports and people driving down

the road.

But when we look at this in the traditional language,

that word it was translated here in the NLT as idiot. Yeah,

but I think it carries a more harsher connotation. Yeah,

almost kind of like you, I don't want to say

complete idiot, but you know you are, You're just an utter.

Well, the actual the actual word, so this is Aramaic.

Jesus uses an Aramaic word here, the actual word, and

some of the translations, the literal translations will use it

is raka yeah, and raka means you empty headed.

Yeah, idiot. Yeah, So it carries.

It's like this really mean mean way of just like

you know.

It's like the ultimate insult kind of Yes.

Yeah, there are words today that we culturally don't say

the previous generations that you would say to somebody, you're

an empty headed idiot. Yeah, our listeners know what words

I'm talking about. Yeah, this is what Jesus is saying,

and and and it's kind of one of those things

you're in danger being brought before the court. So this

is a higher level than just judgment, like people are

going to be you know, have a negative opinion of character. Now, yeah,

this is this is hey, he's ruining mary petition. You're

kind of coming up on a on a libel kind

of situation. And that's why he says, now you're in

danger being brought before the court is if you actively

begin to try to ruin somebody's reputation. This is what

he's talking about. And then if you curse someone, and

that one is if you say fool, which is interesting,

and that is the Greek word moros.

It's where we get more on from.

He has this raka is that way also. But then

now he's saying that you know that you're going to

be in the dangers of the fires of and it's

Guiana is what he's talking about.

This it's a place of the dead. It was a a.

Dump that perpetually burned outside of Jerusalem. It smelled bad,

it was it was just a horrible, horrible place, and

there was a certain amount of fear of that that

kind of environment. Anyways, and that's what he's saying is

there are stages the further you go with your anger

and your hatred, the more consequences there's going to be.

So I said, one time I was talking from stage

and I said something about and some idiot came up

and did whatever, and I was just being silly, and man,

people came to me and like, oh my goodness, you

know you're under judgment from God, you know, And I said, well,

I think it was a heart. I was being silly there.

I wasn't being I wasn't attacking that person. I was

being silly in the thing. So I don't think it's

about the letter of the law in this is because

it is. He's all talking about the heart here, and

the heart is. Eventually, these things they escalate. It goes

from a negative feeling to an angry feeling to I

wish they were dead feeling too. I'm going to go

do something about this. It all builds, and that's the

challenge Jesus is making it.

So the idea then would be to catch this early,

to catch it in its infancy before it grows and

develops and metastasizes and gets larger and larger, so you

don't get to the point where you're assassinating someone's character

or doing something, you know, worse against that person.

Yeah. So self control is good.

Yeah.

At least you didn't actually kill them. Yeah, at least

she didn't actually beat them senselessly.

Yeah.

But Jesus is also saying controlling our thoughts is equally important. Yeah, God, right,

And so that's really the application there. And so then

I think that let's pivot out of that. This is

more a heart issue than it is an action issue.

It's not about the specific word, it's about the fact

that it escalates, and so do the consequences.

Yeah.

But then in twenty three he says, if a person, So,

if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in

the temple and you suddenly remember that somebody has something

against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar, go

and be reconciled to that person, and then come and

offer your.

Sacrifice to God. Yeah.

So he says, if you were if you realize somebody

else has something against you, not if you have something

against somebody else.

Yeah.

So you understand our faith, we tend to make it

very personal and very private, like it's only us. Yeah,

And God is saying your faith is impacted by your relationships.

That's why Jesus said, love God and love people. Yeah,

and so if you realize that they have something against you,

go be reconciled.

Yep.

It's hard to be reconciled to God if you're not

reconciled to people.

Yeah, but sometimes we try that. I think with our

own thinking. We think that, you know, we can love God,

but then treat our brother wrong. And you know, the

Bible talks about that. You know you can't do that.

You know, if you say you love God, you need

to love your brother because God is in your brother.

Yeah. Yeah.

So the other day when we were in Matthew eighteen

if you miss that one. A couple of episodes ago,

we were in Matthew eighteen talking about being proactive in

a confronting bad behaviors or bad circumstances between people. And

here's another one where Jesus has an expectation that we

would confront it. So if you know that somebody has

something against you, it's not that you're feeling bitter towards them,

but if you know, then he says, go to them

and leave your sacrifice. So you're there about ready to

make this great sacrifice to God. You are gonna worship God,

and then guy says, before you worship me, go fix

it with them. And you want to know how important

it is. God would rather have you pause your worship

of Him and go fix your relationship with that person.

But okay, I'm gonna throw a curveball in here, Jeff.

There's someone listening that would say, Okay, that's good and fine,

but I feel like they started it. Yeah, they caused it.

Well that's not to say.

They did it, so I should didn't have to go

to them. It was them who started this old thing.

Yeah, he says, if you remember that somebody has something

against you, yeah, so yeah, that is exactly what Jesus

is saying. If you remember that somebody else started it, Yeah,

you go and try to reconcile it so.

They don't have an out. Right, you know, the person

doesn't have an out, You can't use that excuse.

Yeah, when they come to me, I'll forgive them. Yeah

that No, you go to them and let them know

you're forgiving them. You be reconciled, and that this reconciliation

is important. As a matter of fact. Later on, Paul

tells Us in Corinthians. He says that God's given us.

Jesus has reconciled us to God, and now he's given

us the reconcile. The ministry of reconciliation and reconciliation is

always between people, obviously, but it's also between us and God.

And so perhaps that person is going to have a

very hard time reconciling with God because they still.

Haven't reconciled with you.

So if you're a person that is bringing worship to God,

it doesn't say anything about whether they are a God

worship Yeah, but if you're a person who's bringing worship

to God, God says, listen, more important, go fix it

with them. Maybe that's the thing that's holding them back.

I'm coming to God too. So you do it for

God's reputation, not just for years. You do it so

that others will be reconciled to God, not just to you.

That's a big part of this, And so leave your

sacrifice there. I don't think anybody instinctively would think there

was ever a time when God say that. God would say,

pause your worship of me and go fix something with

another person. I don't think it's not in me to

instinctively understand that that's what God would want. Yeah, that's

why Jesus had to say it out, because we wouldn't

have ever figured that out on our own.

Now, Jeff, I don't even know if we have enough

time to cover this, but I want to hit on

this verse twenty five. When you are on your way

to the court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly.

What do you think about Christians being in legal dispute

with each other? Oh, and I'm talking about Christians, so

not an unbeliever, or these are Christians against Christians.

In Corinthians, Paul says we should never go to court.

He said, it's a shame on us if we go

to court against other Christians. He's not saying don't ever

go to court. I mean if you have to have

a legal thing resolvedly. But when it comes to moral issues.

When it comes to legal issues, he said, you guys

should be resolving these things independently of that because it

brings a bad reputation on christ when Christians are fighting

with Christians.

Now, when it comes to.

Criminal things, I think we have to you know, people

being criminal. But what he's talking about personal things, Hey,

you owe me fifty bucks. Yeah, I'm going to sue

you kind of thing.

There's a dispute over the fence line. Yeah, yeah, with

that fence is technically on my property, I'm going to

sue you.

You know that's right, those kinds of things. Then Jesus said,

you just need you need to settle it.

Is what he says.

Paul says, if you can't settle it between you on

these non criminal issues, if you can't settle these things

between you, then you need to go to somebody.

Surely.

As matter of fact, in Corinthians, he says, there's nobody

wise among you, among all the believers, there's not.

A wise person that you got one person.

And remember when we read in Matthew eighteen, Jesus says,

whatever that person binds on earth is bound in heaven.

So it's possible for you, the two of you, to

elected a wise judge and then let that that Christian

judge solve this thing for you, right, rather than making

it a legal issue and then giving Jesus a black

eye publicly, these Christians can't get along because you know

the reason why this is important is Jesus said in

another place, this is how all men will know that

you're my disciples. If you love one another, So our

love for one another should get society's attention. But instead,

when we're suing each other over property lines and one

hundred dollars and you know here and there, one thousand

dollars whatever, a little bit of money, it's not a

criminal offense. It's just a personal offense, he says. Man,

you're bringing such a bad reputation. It's exactly the opposite

of the loved one another. And when we read about

love in First Corinthians, love keeps no record of wrong.

Yeah, right, and so so this is it.

Jesus would expect us to figure out how to resolve

it before we go to court. Now this is for everybody,

not just Christians. This is solve it with your adversary

and settle your differences quickly.

He said.

A little bit of compromise might keep you out of jailah,

a little bit of compromise might keep you out of

collections court.

And a little bit of compromise may save you thousands

of dollars in legal fees and feet.

Yes, this is the beginning of the idea of a

win win solution, right, yep, right. So I was talking

with some leaders overseas and they had never heard of

the concept of a win win solution. Yeah, and they

looked at me like, what are you talking about? So

I begin explaining it, and they're like, this is brilliant.

So in their culture, it's somebody wins completely and the

other one loses. Yeah, that's they And I think we

have it a little bit in our culture where we

have to win completely and if I give any ground

I've lost as opposed to the best win is when

we make sure both people win, which means we both

have to compromise a little bit to a good win.

But then that keeps us out of the more devastating

solutions and results. So yeah, it's really powerful. Wesley, I'm

glad you brought that up. I'm glad we got into

that piece of it.

Yeah, I think that's it.

Okay, Well, hey, if you know somebody who has something

against you, you go solve it today. Attempt it at least.

Go make peace today. Be careful with allowing things to

escalate from just a bad attitude to actually moving into

bad behaviors, all those things that God's concerned about. Your

heart first, but then if it's possible, go make peace

with the people around you today. And I think you're

going to put a smile on Jesus face when you

make those attempts. So God bless you and we will

see you next time on the Bible.

Guys.

Yeah,