Matthew 5:21-26
The Challenge of Reconciliation

In these verses Jesus shows the type of attitudes and actions that are essential in maintaining love, unity and harmony in the Body of Christ. This is a teaching DIRECTED TO THE CHURCH.

SHARPE'S LAW OF INEVITABLE CONFLICT: "WHEREVER 2 OR 3 ARE GATHERED THERE SHALL BE A FUSS."

Conflict that goes on unresolved destroys the unity of the church and has DIRE effects.

Negative Effects of Unresolved Conflict

1. Unresolved conflict is an opportunity for the devil. Just like a sore that is left untreated can become infected and gangrenous, unresolved conflict invites spiritual infection.

"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Eph. 4: 26-27

2. Disunity and unresolved conflict go against the expressed will of Jesus Christ.

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:20-23

3. Disunity literally cripples the Body of Christ in the same way as an amputation, it severs members from the body. (The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" 1 cor. 12:21).

4. Disunity disgraces the church of God before unbelievers. IT DESTROYS OUR WITNESS.

I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. 1Co. 6:6-8

5. Because it profanes the Body of Christ unresolved conflict ultimately brings JUDGEMENT.

In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.... For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 1 Cor. 11:18,29

Some people die of unresolved conflict!

So anger must be strictly controlled. Some people have the mistaken idea that one deals best with anger by giving it free reign in expression. Nothing could be further from the truth psychologically or spiritually. Anger is a self-perpetuating emotion. Once we give into it, anger feeds upon itself and escalates. So "venting" is usually destructive to ourselves and those around us.

Look up:

• James 1:19,20

• Proverbs 14:17

• Proverbs 14:29

• Proverbs 15:18

• Proverbs 19:11

• Proverbs 29:22

• Psalm 37

The word Jesus uses in Matthew 5 for anger is orgizesthai. This type of anger is long-lived. The kind of anger that one nurses to keep his wrath warm. It is a brooding anger that is not allowed to die. This type of anger is absolutely forbidden by Jesus! It is a selfish and self-absorbed anger. This is the anger that will not forget, that will not be pacified.

Verbal abuse is also forbidden. To call someone "Raca" was to call them a contemptible, empty-headed fool.

The ruining of someone's reputation, "moros!", is the worst display of anger yet. Moros means a moral fool, a man who has lived an immoral life. To take a reputation is to kill without taking the life of the person we attack.

I am more deadly than the screaming shell of the cannon. I win without killing. I tear down homes, break hearts, wreck lives. I travel on the wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea and often as innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive. My name is Gossip. -- Morgan Blake, sportswriter for the Atlanta Journal

Such an attack deserves hell!

Is There Justifiable Anger?
The immediate flash of anger that is an emotional response to a to some stimulus is not what is condemned in the Matthew passage. What we are responsible for is how we deal with the first flare of anger. Is it controlled or do we immediately act out our anger? Do we cherish and nurture our anger? Do we immediately turn that emotion over to God and ask him to be Lord even of our anger?

There is an anger that is permitted – the anger that sees injustice or oppression or evil and cannot tolerate such things. Such anger spurs us onto taking action that is in keeping with God's will. But we must be extremely careful that we are not giving into unrighteous anger. One good way of discerning the difference is to ask yourself some questions:

• Am I angry because I have been personally wronged and hurt? If so then I am experiencing selfish anger.

• Or am I angry on behalf of someone else who has been oppressed and ill used.

• Is my anger consistent with the person of Christ revealed in the Bible?

• Is my anger motivating me to hurt someone or to correct a hurtful situation?

Where Reconciliation Begins
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24

Going to the altar represents a person's relationship with God, the "vertical relationship". Sacrifice was a means of mending a broken relationship with God under the Old Covenant. But Jesus says that one's relationship with God was dependant on the willingness to mend a broken relationship with one's neighbors. This truth is reiterated in Matthew 6:9-15. What does it mean when we pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"? We are actually praying that God will offer us exactly the same measure of forgiveness that we offer other people – people who have intentionally and grievously wounded us!

There can be no reconciliation with God if we refuse to be reconciled with our enemies. Why? Because God expects us to be as forgiving to others as he has been towards us.

In Matthew 5:25-26 Jesus gives a very practical command to "settle matters quickly" with one's adversary. If we wait, the poison of the unreconciled relationship will grow and fester making reconciliation more difficult in the long run and causing dissension to grow.

So how do we deal with conflict in the Christian community?

1. Recognize that if you go to church somebody is going to hurt you feelings eventually!

2. Realize that different people are going to have widely varying gifts, abilities, emphases, viewpoints. Our unity is in Jesus Christ (one Lord, faith, baptism) not in our interests. (See Rom. 12 and 1 Co. 12) I have worshiped from storefront Charismatic churches to high church Episcopal and have found that Christ is alive in both places.

3. Commit ourselves to the reconciling love of God. THE RECONCILING LOVE OF GOD ACTIVELY SEEKS TO HEAL BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS.

• If you remember your brother/sister has anything against you... THE BURDEN IS NOT JUST ON THE ONE WHO HAS BEEN HURT. We can't say, "Well, if they have a problem they need to come to me, it's there problem, not mine."

• This is SCARY BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN GET HURT! I am vulnerable when I seek to be reconciled.

• Reconciling love ALWAYS INVOLVES A CROSS. Broken relationships are not easily mended and we have to die to ourselves to have them mended. Jesus died to heal the broken relationship between God and humanity.

• But this act of obedience to God in offering reconciliation CONFORMS US TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST AND RELEASES THE POWER OF GOD IN OUR LIVES!

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