THOU FOOL: DID CHRIST CONDEMN HIMSELF?
Whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
---Matthew 5:22
The “confusion” is that the
Lord went on to call people “fool”, at least four times, including His own
friends. He said to the Pharisees, “Ye fools and blind...” (Mat. 23:17, 19; Lk.
11:40), and to His two beloved disciples, “O fools” (Lk. 24:25). In fact at the
end of the said Sermon on the Mount He declared, “Everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man...”
(Mat. 7:26).
Furthermore, the Apostle
Paul called the unbelievers ‘fools’ (Rom. 1:21-22). He also said that anyone who
does not understand or believe in the future resurrection is a fool (1 Cor.
15:36). As if that wasn’t enough, the Apostle actually told the Galatian church, which he himself pioneered, that they were foolish and in fact bewitched (Gal.
3:1, 3).
So has the Lord, as well as
Paul, condemned Himself by His own initial verdict that whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in
danger of hell fire? One more issue with this particular verse is that it
even condemns anyone who gets angry with someone, regardless of the
offence:
Whosoever is angry with his
brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement.
It is worthy of note that
the phrase “without a cause” in the above verse was supplied by the KJV
translators as they grappled with the theological difficulty of the verse. That
is to say, the phrase does not exist in original manuscripts. So the true
rendition is, Whosoever is angry with his
brother shall be in danger of the judgement. The problem is that there is no
human being who doesn’t get angry, and justly so! Nor can any Christian promise
God to never be angry. As a matter of fact, the Lord got angry many, many times
during His earthly ministry. So has the Lord, again, condemned Himself this
way?
The answer is No! Heavy No. Far from it. Nothing
like it.
We can only misconstrue these holy commandments of the Lord if we take them off their contexts. But in context, they are perfect. “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul (Ps. 119:89; 12:6; 19:7).
In this occasion, the Lord
Jesus was speaking on the theme of murder. He quoted from the Commandment, “Ye
have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement” (Mat. 7:21). Here in
the New Covenant the Lord transcends outward, superficial observance of the Law
into inner, spiritual righteousness of the heart. So He says in essence that
anyone who has murder intent in his heart----which manifests in form of anger or
bad language (e.g., “Raca”, “Fool”, etc.)----is as guilty of murder as one who
actually takes someone’s life, and thus shall receive the full penalty of
murder. It’s a matter of the heart.
The same rule goes for
verse 28: whosoever looketh on a woman to
lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. It is
not mere looking that is the sin, but lustful looking----looking with desire for
sex with someone who isn’t your lawful spouse. In the Old Covenant, only one who
actually had physical intercourse with other persons was guilty of sexual sin,
and were duly punished, but not without a minimum of two witnesses. In the New
Covenant, however, lust is the same as adultery----requiring no witness besides
God----and bearing equal punishment from God. But bear in mind: not the mere
looking of the eye, rather a sexual looking.
In the same token, not a
mere anger at offence is sin, rather a murderous anger----which may result to
cursing or insults (fool, raca,
etc.).
When you curse (opposite of
bless), you wish for destruction on that person because you couldn’t kill them
at that moment. This is murder already, Jesus says. It is much like one who
lusts because, for some reason, they couldn’t engage in the physical sexual sin
at the moment.
Murder in the heart leads
you to speaking insults, like calling someone “a fool”----not because he is
truly ignorant or stupid (which is what the word in itself means), but because
it would serve you well to see them turn from normal to foolish or even die.
This kind of anger (manifested in curse or insult) is murder, and such person is
“in danger of hell fire,” says the Lord. It is same as one who speaks sexual
words because they are filled with lust for someone but couldn’t fulfill their
sinful desires with the person at that moment.
God sees and judges, not
only the outward manifestations, but also inward conditions of the
heart.
In conclusion, anger in
itself is not sin (Eph. 4:26); murder in the heart, whether or not expressed, is
indeed murder; using insulting words as a means of getting even at someone is
same as murder.
The Lord and His apostle
Paul weren’t wrong in calling people fool because:
1. They were right: those
people who the Lord and Paul rebuked, by their deeds and thinking, were indeed
foolish;
2. The people (of which many
were the Lord’s adversaries) did not object, but instead actually conceded,
though tacitly, to their own foolishness;
3. The Lord and Paul, from
their position of spiritual authority, were not insulting but rebuking the
people.
4. The Lord and Paul were not
vengeful in their statements; neither did they mean murder nor any vengeful
imprecation.
Ye have heard that it was
said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be
in danger of the judgement: But I say to you, That whosoever is angry with his
brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement: and whosoever shall
say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall
say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
----Matthew
5:21-22
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