Our Hearts and the Sixth Commandment
The ten commandments are inside-out. They deal with the heart as much as they deal with actions or words. The sixth commandment, “You shall not murder,” is no different, and it was Jesus who raised the bar. He said this in the Sermon on the Mount:
“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 council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
From that heart-level view, which one of us could honestly say that we have never committed murder? Jesus tells us to look beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. He calls us to examine our hearts and to be honest about what comes out of our hearts through our mouths. You see the progression in Jesus’ example. It starts with a feeling of anger. We get angry at someone; it is an emotion we indulge every day and very rarely could our anger be called “righteous.” If someone pushes their way in front of me when I am waiting to order a cup of coffee, there is not a shred of righteousness in my anger. Jesus said anger can also lead to an insult. Out of the heart, our mouth speaks. I may call the person who cut in line a jerk, which would escalate the emotion to a harmful and potentially dangerous action. If I am really angry, I may resort to calling the person a fool or a term in the modern vernacular that would express my utter contempt for him. That person who would delay my caffeine intake by mere minutes suddenly becomes a person I speak to as though he does not deserve to live.
This is a pervasive sin even among Christians where the issue may not be coffee but things much more serious. It may be that our hurts are much deeper and our contempt is on slow burn all the time for the person who has wounded us. Dallas Willard wrote, “Contempt is a kind of studied degradation of another…it is never justifiable or good…In contempt, I don’t care if you are hurt or not. Or at least I say so. You are not worth consideration one way or another. We can be angry with someone without denying their worth. But contempt makes it easier for us to hurt them or see them further degraded…The intent and effect of contempt is always to exclude someone, push them away, leave them isolated.”
What are we to do, then? We should examine our hearts and ask ourselves, “Why am I angry? What provoked me just now?” Or to use the modern term, “What triggered me? And…is this my normal attitude when provoked?” Willard also wrote, “Our exaggerated responses reveal that we did not simply become angry in the instance, but that we carry a supply of pent-up anger with us at all times.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “I am more and more convinced that most people get into trouble in the living of the Christian life because of their molly-coddling of themselves spiritually.” Ouch. We know there is a pattern of sin in our lives but we refuse to do what is necessary to change. We must do the serious heart work of examining, acknowledging, confessing, and renouncing the deadly fires of anger and contempt we see there. Because that would honor Christ. And because these patterns do much damage to our family, friends, church members, and co-workers.
As I pondered this heart-work, I remembered working in our flower beds at home a few weeks ago, trying to get ahead of the spring explosion of weeds that are coming. I was too late. They were everywhere and in every flower bed: front yard, side yard, and back yard. I kept mumbling to myself, “Uggh! Why did I wait so long to take care of this?” What could have been easy was made much more difficult because I put it off. This matter of the heart, our anger and contempt, is something that we cannot afford to put off. It grows and festers and boils as it damages our own witness and all who are in its path.
What is the good news in all of this? We have a Savior who drank the cup of God’s wrath on our sins in our place. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” He drank every drop of the cup that was stored up for you and me. He took the wrath of God on the cross that you and I deserve because of our sin, our anger, our contempt. He kept God’s Word perfectly to pay for the sins of those who break God’s commands every single day.
And He opens His arms wide and invites us to come to Him and find rest.