Anger
There you have it,
anger is not an external behavior but a position of the heart, as
Jesus said. The most frustrating thing can be to deal with or counsel
a person that sees anger as the stereotypical yelling match or
slammed door. According to the way Jesus compares it with murder,
sinful anger is an internal desire to see your neighbor hurt. This is
not as extreme as some might think.
Hanging up on
people, gossiping, refusing to let other drivers merge into our lane
of traffic are momentary acts of hostility toward another human
being.. What are we thinking in these moments? One could guess that
the well being of that person is the last thing on our minds. We want
them out of our faces, not caring where they end up. Murder in the
mind is still murder.
Lust
Likewise,
as with anger, Jesus takes the commandment much further than how the
religious leaders had taught it. People began to realize that God
demanded more of them than to grit their teeth and bear it, God
actually wanted them to reject sin in their hearts as well as their
bodies, for they were both created to glorify God.
The
danger of refusing to treat sin at the heart level is to risk falling
into a growing pile of sin. Its no different from a child is told to
clean their room, the room may appear spotless and without clutter,
but open the closet...and out tumbles a mountain of clothing and
filth onto the floor. The only real solution for our hearts is a
thorough cleaning and organizing, which is what only Christ can
accomplish in us. To top it off, our hands are thoroughly muddied.
This
is why pornography a sin like all others, the man that watches a
woman with lust in his heart, has in a sense, already engaged in an
affair with her. The one that looks upon a woman with thoughts of
using her for their satisfaction has already defiled them.
Questions:
- How can we better guard our hearts against sinful anger and lust?
- How do these present themselves as temptations in your life?
- How should we react when we are the victims of another's anger? Lust?
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