Murder in the Heart

Introduction

Over the last three sermons we have looked closely at Matthew 5:17–20. As a reminder we see in verse 17 a declaration from Christ stating that His purpose was not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Then we have in verse 18, His affirmation that not one jot or tittle of God’s Word can fall before all is accomplished. Verse 19 emphasizes that no disciple and no teacher has authority to loosen even the least of God’s commandments. Finally, verse 20 reminds us that unless our righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Over all we see that standard was not lowered, we see that Christ fulfilled it. The Word has not weakened with age. It remains holy, righteous, good, and inviolable. The great warning is that outward conformity, polished religion, and public respectability cannot produce the righteousness Christ requires. The righteousness of the kingdom must reach deeper than behavior. It must reach the heart.

Now, beginning in verse 21, Jesus shows us what He means. Matthew 5:21–48 contains six examples in which our Lord exposes the shallow handling of God’s law and restores its true depth. These are not six occasions when Jesus corrects Moses. They are six occasions when Jesus corrects men who had reduced Moses. He does not set His authority against the authority of God’s Word, as though the Son were rescuing us from the severity of the Father. He speaks as the divine Lawgiver who gave the commandment, knows its full intention, fulfills its every demand, and possesses authority to expose every false interpretation. The words “But I say to you” are not the words of a rebellious rabbi. They are the words of the King.

This morning we will take a look at the first of those six examples, found in verses 21-26. This example concerns the sixth commandment: “You shall not murder.” The measure of obedience seems simple, has blood been shed. However, as Christ shows us, there is a deeper truth here, a greater standard. God measures this, not by the simple shedding of blood, but rather by whether hatred has been cherished. Man looks at the hand. Jesus looks at the heart. They asked, “Have you killed anyone?” Jesus demonstrates the true depth and asks, “What do you desire for the person who has angered you? How do you speak of him? Do you despise him? Have you pursued peace?”

In this first example Christ begins to open the conscience. His purpose is to strip away self-righteousness, reveal the murderous root of sinful anger, command urgent reconciliation, warn of judgment, and drive guilty sinners to the only One who has perfectly loved God and neighbor. With this truth in mind, I invite you to turn once again in your copy of God’s word to the gospel of Matthew as we read from the 5th chapter verses 21-26. Having found your place I ask you to...

Text

Please stand in reverence for the reading of God’s holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete and certain word.

Matthew 5:21–26 LSB

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not murder’ and ‘Whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. “Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last quadrans.

Our Father in heaven, we bow before You as the holy God who sees not only our outward actions but also every thought, affection, motive, and desire of the heart. Your Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it exposes us completely before You.

As we consider the words of our Lord Jesus, keep us from the shallow righteousness that judges only what can be seen by men. Reveal the anger, bitterness, contempt, and unforgiveness that we have excused or concealed. Humble us beneath Your law and show us our desperate need for the perfect righteousness of Christ.

Give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts willing to obey. Teach us to seek peace, pursue reconciliation, guard our tongues, and love those made in Your image. Above all, direct our eyes to Christ, who bore our guilt and reconciles sinners to You through His blood. We ask this in His holy and worthy name. Amen.

The King’s Law Reaches the Heart

Jesus begins, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘Whoever murders shall be guilty before the court.’” The command itself comes from Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17. The additional statement about liability to judgment reflects the common legal handling of murder. The teachers had not denied that murder was wrong. Their error was that they had confined the commandment to the outward act and its civil penalty.

That is always attractive to fallen man. We prefer a law that can be measured by visible actions because visible actions can be managed. We can compare ourselves with worse people. We can say, “I have never killed anyone. I have never committed that crime. I am not violent. I am a decent person.” A merely external law allows the respectable sinner to remain proud.

But Jesus says, “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.” He is not adding an unrelated rule to the sixth commandment. He is uncovering what the sixth commandment always required. The God who forbids murder also forbids the hatred, malice, resentment, vengeance, and contempt from which murder grows.

Calvin says that the commandment restrains “not only the hands, but all affections that are opposed to brotherly love.” That is the issue. The law is not satisfied because the hand remained still while the heart swung the weapon. The law is not fulfilled because the mouth remained quiet while the imagination rehearsed another person’s destruction. The law of God addresses the whole man—mind, affections, will, words, and deeds.

We see this truth recorded within the details of the first murder in Scripture. The physical action began before Cain rose against Abel in the field. Note Genesis 4:3-11 which reveals the movement from false worship to anger, from anger to hatred, from hatred to murder, and from murder to lying.

Genesis 4:3–11 LSB

So it happened in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell. Then Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is lying at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Then Cain spoke to Abel his brother; and it happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. “And now, cursed are you from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

Abel’s blood in the field was first hatred in Cain’s heart.

Thomas Watson wrote, “Malice is mental murder.” First John 3:15 says the same: everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. James tells us that human anger does not achieve the righteousness of God. In Ephesians 4:31-32 Paul commands believers to put away bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice, and to become kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving because God in Christ has forgiven them (Ephesians 4:31–32).

We must be cautious however to distinguish sinful anger from righteous anger. God is angry with wickedness. Jesus looked upon hard-hearted men with anger in Mark 3:5 “And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,” recognizes anger while forbidding sin. There is an anger that loves God’s glory, grieves over evil, protects the vulnerable, and seeks righteous correction. We need to be very careful because our anger is rarely as pure as we imagine. We often baptize wounded pride and call it righteous indignation. We claim to defend truth when we are defending ourselves. We claim zeal for holiness while enjoying contempt for the offender.

R. C. Sproul’s simple and compact description can be a helpful reminder: “Sin is cosmic treason.” Sinful anger is not merely an unpleasant emotion. It is rebellion against God’s right to govern our hearts. It says, “My will has been crossed, my honor has been wounded, and I have the right to sit in judgment over another image-bearer.”

Jesus then moves from inward anger to outward contempt. He names the insults “Raca” and “You fool” and attaches escalating images of judgment. “Raca” was a contemptuous expression, something like empty-head, worthless one, or nobody. “Fool” here is not a careful moral evaluation such as Scripture sometimes makes. It is a weaponized word of hatred intended to erase another person’s dignity.

Christ is not establishing a mechanical scale in which one forbidden syllable automatically earns one specific tribunal. He is showing the dreadful seriousness and progression of contempt. Anger is nursed in the heart. Contempt forms a judgment of the person. The tongue then pronounces the sentence. The person becomes, in our mind, worthless, disposable, beneath patience, beneath mercy, perhaps beneath existence.

Spurgeon observed, “Murder lies within anger, for we wish harm to the object of our wrath.” That is why contempt is so dangerous. It morally removes the neighbor before it physically harms him. It says, “That person does not matter.” Yet every human being bears the image of God. James 3 tells us that with the same tongue we bless the Lord and curse men made in God’s likeness. Such duplicity should not be found among the people of God.

Consider how easily then respectable murder, murder that does not contain the physical act of shedding blood, enters ordinary life. It enters marriage through cold silence, cutting sarcasm, and remembered failures used as ammunition. It enters parenting when correction becomes humiliation. It enters the church when disagreement becomes suspicion, suspicion becomes contempt, and contempt becomes slander disguised as concern. It enters public life when political opponents are spoken of as less than human. It enters the workplace when we secretly delight in another person’s failure. It enters online speech when distance makes cruelty feel consequence-free.

John MacArthur summarizes the exposure plainly: “It isn’t the issue of murder alone; it’s the issue of anger and hatred in your heart.” The Pharisee says, “My hands are clean.” Jesus asks, “Is your heart clean?” The Pharisee says, “I have not struck him.” Jesus asks, “Have you despised him?” The Pharisee says, “No court could convict me.” Jesus says, “God already knows.”

This does not mean that anger and homicide are identical in social consequence or civil punishment. Scripture recognizes degrees of wickedness and assigns different temporal penalties. But both arise from a heart that violates love of neighbor, and both make the sinner guilty before God. The point is not that every sin has the same earthly damage. The point is that no sin of the heart is hidden from the Judge.

The King’s Worship Demands Reconciliation

Jesus next pictures a worshiper presenting an offering at the altar who suddenly remembers that a brother has something against him. Christ commands him to leave the offering, go first to seek reconciliation, and then return to worship.

The word “therefore” connects reconciliation directly to the command against murder. The opposite of murder is not merely avoiding violence. The positive demand of the sixth commandment is love that seeks the neighbor’s good. It guards life, protects reputation, restrains anger, rejects contempt, pursues peace, and moves toward reconciliation.

The scene Jesus paints is deliberately startling. A worshiper has traveled to Jerusalem. He stands at the altar with his offering. The solemn act has begun. Then he remembers that his brother has something against him. Jesus does not tell him to complete the ritual and deal with the relationship later. He says, in effect, “Stop. Leave the gift. Go. Be reconciled. Then return.”

This does not mean reconciliation is more important than God. It means that worship offered to God while we proudly maintain a wrong against our neighbor is false worship. The first and second tables of the law cannot be divided. We cannot love God while cherishing hatred toward those made in His image. We cannot sing of grace while refusing to seek forgiveness. We cannot praise the Prince of Peace while defending our right to nurture bitterness.

Calvin wrote that outward worship becomes “a false and empty profession” when joined to injustice and haughty disdain. The prophets said the same. God rejected Israel’s songs, assemblies, and sacrifices when their hands were full of blood and their lives were marked by injustice (Isaiah 1:11–17 ““What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says Yahweh. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats I take no pleasure. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of convocation— I cannot endure wickedness and the solemn assembly. “My soul hates your new moon festivals and your appointed times, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Indeed, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. “Wash yourselves, purify yourselves; Remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Execute justice for the orphan, Plead for the widow.” ; Amos 5:21–24 ““I hate, I reject your feasts, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. “Remove from Me the tumult of your songs; I will not even listen to the melody of your harps. “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” ). David understood that God desired truth in the inward parts. Religious activity cannot cover an impenitent heart.

Notice also that Jesus addresses the person who remembers that his brother has something against him. He does not say, “Wait until your brother approaches you.” He places responsibility upon the one who has likely caused the offense. Spurgeon remarks, “The offender is almost always the last to seek a reconciliation.” Pride hopes time will erase duty. Pride says the other person is too sensitive. Pride revises the story until our sin becomes their fault.

Christ says, “Go.” Do not hide behind a worship service. Do not use prayer as a substitute for repentance. Do not sing louder to drown the voice of conscience. Do not say, “I have asked God to forgive me,” while refusing to acknowledge the person you harmed. Zacchaeus showed the fruit of repentance by making restitution. Paul returned Onesimus to Philemon with an appeal for restored fellowship. Gospel repentance turns toward God and also deals honestly with the neighbor.

This command does not mean that every accusation against us is true. Jesus Himself was falsely accused. Nor does it mean that peace always becomes possible. Romans 12:18 carefully limits our duty to what is possible and what depends upon us. Reconciliation requires truth. Forgiveness must not be confused with pretending that evil never happened. Peace does not require us to call darkness light, abandon justice, ignore danger, or place the vulnerable back into the hands of an unrepentant abuser.

Spurgeon gives the needed balance: seek “peace at any price except the sacrifice of righteousness.” The Christian is not commanded to purchase superficial calm with truth. But he is commanded to remove every sinful obstacle on his side. He must confess without excuse, seek forgiveness without manipulation, make restitution where possible, forgive as he has been forgiven, and refuse revenge even when the other person will not respond.

The 1689 Baptist Confession says that believers are sanctified “really and personally” through Christ’s power, Word, and indwelling Spirit. Reconciliation is one place where that real sanctification becomes visible. Grace does not merely change our destination; it changes how we speak, apologize, forgive, and pursue peace. Paul Washer has said, “The regenerate heart hears these things and wants to follow God’s law.” Not perfectly, but sincerely. Not to earn acceptance, but because acceptance in Christ produces love for God’s will.

The King’s Warning Demands Urgency

Jesus gives a second picture: an accused person is traveling toward court with an opponent. Christ commands him to come to terms quickly, before the opponent hands him to the judge, the judge to the officer, and the officer sends him to prison. He warns that the prisoner will not escape until the final small coin has been paid.

At the immediate level, this is practical wisdom. If you have wronged someone and the case is moving toward court, settle the matter while there is still opportunity. Once the case reaches the judge, the time for private resolution may be over. Unresolved conflict hardens. Small grievances grow. Words multiply. Positions become entrenched. Delay is not neutral; delay feeds anger.

But the solemn language also points beyond an earthly courtroom. Throughout this passage Jesus has moved from human judgment to divine judgment, from the local court to the Sanhedrin, and finally to fiery hell. The road to court becomes a picture of life moving toward the judgment seat of God. Now is the time to repent. Now is the time to seek peace. Now is the time to be reconciled. The Judge is not absent. The court is not canceled. We are “on the way.”

The last quadrans was a very small Roman coin. Jesus’ point is not that the condemned sinner can eventually pay his way out of divine judgment. It is the opposite. The demand is exact. God’s justice overlooks nothing. The debt must be paid to the last fraction, and the sinner has no resources with which to satisfy it. Delay therefore becomes terrifying. The person who refuses mercy now will meet justice then.

J. C. Ryle wrote, “Without a mighty mediator we should every one be condemned in the judgment day.” That is where this passage must take us. It is not enough to say, “I need to control my temper.” Christ has exposed something deeper than poor emotional management. He has shown that anger, contempt, hypocritical worship, and resisted reconciliation reveal guilt before a holy God.

Who among us has never harbored resentment? Who has never rehearsed an argument in order to win again? Who has never secretly enjoyed the humiliation of an opponent? Who has never spoken with contempt? Who has never entered worship while protecting bitterness? Who has never delayed an apology because pride wanted the other person to suffer?

The law closes every mouth. The respectable sinner stands beside the criminal as guilty before God. The law does not merely prohibit the final fruit; it condemns the root. It does not merely inspect the hands; it searches the heart. It does not merely ask whether we have killed; it asks whether we have loved.

The King Who Reconciles Murderers

If the sermon ended there, every one of us would leave condemned. But the One who speaks these words is not merely the Lawgiver and Judge. He is also the Mediator and Savior.

Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the sixth commandment. He never cherished sinful anger. He never spoke from malicious contempt. He never treated an image-bearer as worthless. He loved His enemies, prayed for His persecutors, welcomed the despised, touched the unclean, defended the weak, and gave His life for sinners.

He was hated without cause, yet He did not return hatred. He was insulted, yet He did not answer with sinful reviling. He was falsely accused, beaten, mocked, and crucified, yet He prayed for His persecutors. The only Man who never committed murder in hand, heart, word, or desire was murdered by angry men.

And the cross reveals more. Our greatest problem is not first that we are unreconciled to one another. It is that we are enemies of God by wicked works. We have broken His law, despised His rule, and accumulated a debt we cannot pay. Yet Romans 5 announces that while we were still sinners and enemies, Christ died for us and reconciled us to God through His death.

At Calvary, Christ was handed over to judgment in the place of His people. He bore the curse. He endured the wrath. He paid the debt—not to the last quadrans only, but fully, finally, and forever. He did not leave prison after satisfying a temporary sentence. He entered death, exhausted its claim, rose in victory, and now grants peace with God to all who trust in Him.

Voddie Baucham reminds us that our strongest instrument is “the Word of God itself.” That Word does not tell us to reconcile ourselves to God by moral improvement. It announces that God reconciles sinners to Himself through Christ and entrusts to His church the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–21 “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their transgressions against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. So then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” ).

Therefore, come to Christ with your murderous heart. Do not defend it. Do not rename it. Do not compare it with another person’s worse sin. Confess your anger, contempt, bitterness, and hypocrisy. Receive the righteousness that surpasses the scribes and Pharisees—the righteousness of Christ credited by faith. Then, by the Spirit, put sin to death and pursue the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

The gospel does not say, “Because you are forgiven, anger no longer matters.” The gospel says, “Because you are forgiven, bitterness no longer owns you.” Christ justifies the ungodly, and Christ sanctifies those He justifies. He gives a new heart. He writes His law within. He teaches former enemies to become peacemakers.

Conclusion

The question is not merely, “Have you murdered anyone?” The question is, “What lives in your heart toward the person who wounded your pride?” What names do you call him in your mind? What story do you repeat about her? Whose failure would secretly please you? What apology have you delayed? What bitterness have you carried into worship? What relationship remains broken because you insist that the other person move first?

Hear the command of the King: do not murder—not with the hand, not with the heart, not with the tongue. Put away anger, malice, slander, and contempt. Seek peace. Pursue reconciliation. Do it quickly. You are on the way to judgment, and delay hardens the soul.

But hear also the mercy of the King. There is a Mediator for murderers. There is cleansing for the hateful. There is pardon for the contemptuous. There is a new heart for the bitter. Jesus has fulfilled the law you broke, borne the judgment you deserved, paid the debt you could never pay, and risen to make His enemies His brethren.

Do not stand at the altar defending your resentment. Leave your gift and go. Do not walk toward judgment trusting your own righteousness. Flee to Christ. Be reconciled to God through His blood, and then, as much as lies within you, be reconciled to your brother.

The righteousness of the kingdom is not a polished exterior covering a murderous heart. It is Christ’s righteousness counted to the believer and Christ’s character formed within the believer. The King who commands peace is the King who purchased peace. The King who exposes anger is the King who can conquer it. The King who warns of judgment is the King who bore judgment for His people.

So search your heart. Guard your tongue. Go to your brother. Seek peace quickly. And above all, come to Christ—the righteous King, the crucified Reconciler, and the only refuge for murderers of the heart.

Closing Prayer

Gracious and merciful Father, Your Word has searched us and shown us that the sin of murder begins long before blood is shed. Forgive us for the anger we have cherished, the bitterness we have protected, the contempt we have spoken, and the injuries we have refused to release. Forgive us for entering worship while remaining unwilling to confess our sins or seek reconciliation with those we have wronged.

We confess that we cannot satisfy the demands of Your law or pay the debt of our guilt. We therefore flee to Jesus Christ, our righteous Mediator, who perfectly fulfilled the law, bore the judgment of His people, and made peace through the blood of His cross.

By Your Spirit, put to death every hateful and vengeful desire within us. Give us humility to confess our faults, courage to seek forgiveness, wisdom to speak truth in love, and grace to forgive as we have been forgiven. Make us peacemakers who reflect the character of our King. Guard our hearts, our homes, and our church from bitterness, division, slander, and contempt.

Send us from this place determined not merely to avoid outward violence but to love our neighbors sincerely from the heart. May the peace of Christ rule within us, and may our lives display the reconciling power of the gospel. We ask these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.