In Matthew 5:21-26, Jesus brought up an example from the Law, “You shall not commit murder”, to show how it should truly be understood.
We know not to commit murder. Everyone understands the consequences of that. However, Jesus went a step further and equated getting angry to committing murder. Why? Like Cain towards his brother Abel, our anger can lead us to the point at which we would destroy a person’s life.
Now, we would have expected Jesus to then tell us that it’s the one we’re angry at that we must quickly reconcile with, but he says something different. He instead points out that it’s the one who’s angry at us that we must reconcile with! Normally, we would think that we’ve done nothing wrong and question why we should apologize to them. But Jesus wants us to shift our thinking from who is angering us, to who we may have angered, and to seek reconciliation with them.
Can we surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in this regard? By our own efforts, to always have a heart to reconcile with those who are angry at us is very difficult, even impossible. To first identify whom we’ve wronged and angered, then to reconcile with them, and finally being aware of our actions and our speech toward others, this will require a change of heart. We need to have a transformation in our heart and this can only be done by God through Christ in us.
Summary by Evan