From the Inside Out

It all starts with our thoughts. If our thoughts do not change, our words, actions, habits, and character will not change. In the sermon on the mount, this is what Jesus is getting at. He is making the case that unless change begins internally, there is no external change.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at the sermon on the mount and seeing that the people who are in God’s kingdom are different. They are characteristically different. We saw this through the beatitudes. They are meant to make a difference. We saw this through the metaphors of being salt and light. They also have a different relationship to the law, and that relationship begins to unfold in the next section of the sermon.

In this section of the sermon, a new understanding of the law develops through six examples marked by the phrases, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” Jesus cites six specific laws and how they were taught, then teaches the true intent of the law and how it applies to people’s lives. We look at the first today.

Matthew 5:21–26 NASB95

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to 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, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; 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 cent.

The command prohibiting murder comes from Exodus 20:13, one of the ten commandments. Jesus takes this command and elevates it by saying that one who is angry with his brother is guilty before the court. This would have been a shocking statement to the audience. Consider what they grew up hearing and learning all their lives. Sin is committed when you do or do not do what the law requires. There was a focus on the external. Jesus is pointing out that the problem is much deeper than that.

Sin is not merely external, but internal.

This is a fact that we understand in the church. We have heard it taught all our lives. It is not the external behaviors we do that are sinful. It begins in our thoughts, which informs our motives, which determines our actions. Jesus makes the point that one is corrupted from the inside out, not the outside in. We see this in other statements he made like,

Luke 6:44–45 NASB95

“For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

It is not the mouth that impacts the heart, it is the heart that impacts the mouth. The understanding of the day was that abstaining from external behaviors was the same as avoiding corruption. Jesus is pointing out that they were already corrupted. The inside is the source of what we see on the outside.

This is why Paul writes in Romans,

Romans 12:2 NASB95

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

There is a reason he says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and not the renewing of your eyes, your mouth, your hands, your legs, or your feet. Only a change of mind will lead to a change in behavior. We cannot merely fix up the external. We need inward transformation.

So as it comes to the prohibition of murder, Jesus says it is not a matter of whether you have actually taken a life or not, but being angry with someone carries the same weight. He provides a few examples of insults that are just as condemning as murder itself. calling someone a good-for-nothing or a fool carries the same weight as plunging the knife. Your issue with that person began in the heart and will manifest itself externally if you allow that to fester.

So Jesus offers a solution. People of God do not go around insulting people in their anger. In the next part of this passage, he offers a better solution: go resolve conflict. When there is disharmony between you and someone else, you should seek to bring that relationship back into harmony.

Disharmony hinders worship.

Verses 23-25 say that if your brother has something against you, leave your offering at the altar and go be reconciled to your brother. When that has been done, then come present your offering. This works both ways. If you have something against your brother or sister, or your brother or sister has something against you, there is friction in that relationship. The friction in that relationship hinders your authentic worship of God. Why? Because God does not want his children to be angry toward one another. There are thousands of other things to be angry at. Your fellow brother or sister should not be one of them.

How can two people in the same room despise one another and pretend to worship God together. The answer is you cannot. If we want more of God, it will come at the cost of working through challenging relationships. You may not have such friction right now, but you probably will some time in the future. So the question is if, but when.

The problem is we avoid conflict and deal with other people’s attitudes or behaviors instead of addressing them in a loving and compassionate way. We buy into the lie that it is just easier to put up with someone than deal with whatever that issue is. The other option, which is the option I think most people take, is that the one offended or hurt by another disengages. They simply stop coming. Maybe they get upset and go to another church or maybe they just stop going altogether. Neither is healthy. Neither is God’s plan.

The reality is this: we have said our mission is to help people find forever family through Christ-centered relationships. We recognize, based on Galatians 4:4-5, we were spiritual orphans adopted by God into a spiritual family, making us all brothers and sisters in Christ. Because that is true, it calls us to live with one another in that way. Every family experiences conflict, including the family of God. Our call is to model reconciliation within the family and God uses that as a testimony for everyone else to understand what being a part of his family is like.

We cannot live in a right relationship before God and experience disharmony among each other. Your worship is important, but how you work through relationship challenges is important as well. We cannot neglect disharmony among us. When we understand this, we understand that we must change our minds about what God wants from us, then we will change our behavior. It is a process that begins internally and manifests itself externally. We solve this problem by settling our differences and rallying behind the common cause of exalting Jesus in our own lives and as a family.

Make peace before somebody else does.

For those of you who have siblings, did you ever fight with them when you were a kid? Of course you did! Did you ever do something to your brother or sister and they said, “I’m telling Dad when he gets home”? Those are frightening words! When this happened to me, I attempted to barter with my brother or sister so we could resolve the issue before Dad got home. I knew if I could take care of it then, it would be better than Dad taking care of it. If Dad got involved, I knew it would be way worse.

You start promising to do laundry for a month or clean their room or give them something of yours right? The goal was to solve the problem before the one with greater authority came in to solve the problem. That’s what Jesus is saying here.

Matthew 5:25–26 NASB95

“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 cent.

In my first church, I got a call one night from one of my youth parents. Their son was at a Christmas party and the kids came up with this scavenger hunt game. His task was to come back with a candy cane. He was walking down the street and saw in someone’s yard those candy canes people put on the edge of their property, kind of like a fence. He took one out of the yard. The owner saw him, ran out, and called the police. The boy called his parents, they showed up and the parents and the homeowner escalated. They called me. I told them they need to figure out how to make peace before the cops show up or it will get ugly. They listened and everything worked out.

At the beginning of the sermon, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Brothers and sisters, we are peacemakers. We do not resort to hatred and violence. This is something that has to be modeled in our relationships with one another. This is the way of God.

People have a sense of self-righteousness, thinking that they do not deserve the wrath of God because they never killed anybody, slept with someone’s wife, and so on. But Jesus shows us that our own wickedness runs much deeper. It begins on the inside.

“Watch your thoughts, they become words;

watch your words, they become actions;

watch your actions, they become habits;

watch your habits, they become character;

watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

If we are going to live right before God in his kingdom, we need transformation from the inside out. We cannot rely on polishing up the external.

The kingdom of heaven is the only kingdom that will last. Your only way into heaven is through Jesus Christ. Are you here relying on your own sense of self-righteousness hoping you are good enough to please God? What you must know is that is impossible. Instead, you need transformation from the inside out by believing in Jesus, knowing he paid the penalty for your sins, offers a new way of life by taking up residence in you through the Holy Spirit and taking control of your life. Do you need to place your life in his hands today?

Are you a child of God? Are you in conflict with someone else? Please understand that you will stunt your own growth as his child if you will not seek reconciliation with your brother or sister. You ought not go home today before you make a plan to speak to that individual. I am here to help you walk in that.

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