I am a Jesus pusher!!! “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder’” (Matthew 5:21). “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22). If in the act of murder, the spirit of murder dominates the inner being of the individual, that is also true of anger. An individual’s anger for his brother does not exist merely in a tiny part of his spirit. You do not experience love and peace in most of your spirit, while anger flows in a small area of your inner being. Anger permeates and dominates the entire spirit of a person. If you are consumed by anger, every area of your life is captured by its influence. That is the concept exposed in our passage.
This anger eliminates the possibility that I am really not that bad. I do have some hate and anger towards a few people, but I am basically a loving person. Jesus explains that love and anger cannot dwell in the same person. The basis of His reasoning is the premise of His sermon. We are helpless in our spirit (Matthew 5:3). If Jesus does not fill us, our lives are sourced by self, a desperation of our helplessness, revealing hate and anger. However, even love is motivated by the same self-centeredness, explaining the abuse and pain I inflict on those I say I love.
My helplessness must be filled with Jesus, and I become an expression of His heart and mind. He alone must be the source of my inner spirit. I am a Jesus pusher!!!