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UNDERSTANDING MATTHEW 5:22 “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: 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.” (Mat. 5:22) It is reasoned by some that a believer who calls his Christian brother a “fool” could lose his salvation and be damned to hell. I can hear them now: “That’s what it says! Either you believe it, or you don’t!” Lol . . . and either you believe the REST of the Bible, or you don’t. No sound Bible student or teacher ever charges through the Bible grabbing and quoting verses indiscriminately without giving due consideration and respect to other portions of scripture that are just as inspired. Doing so leads to confusion at best, and it often leads to downright heresy. “But isn’t Matthew 5:22 true?” you might ask. Of course it’s true, but so is the rest of God’s word. To claim that a Christian must go to hell just because he calls another believer a “fool” violates the sound doctrine of eternal security, a doctrine that is well established and supported by many portions of scripture. Furthermore, it puts both the apostle Paul and Jesus Himself at risk of hell fire! In I Corinthians 15:36, addressing any skeptical believer who might doubt the reality of a literal resurrection, Paul said, “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.” Then, in Luke 24:25, Jesus called His own disciples “fools” for their own lack of faith in His resurrection: “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” No one believes that Jesus and Paul are in danger of hell fire, so why claim that any Christian living today is in danger of hell fire for using the word “fool” toward another believer? I am not suggesting that we start using the word loosely or carelessly, only that we gain a better understanding of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 5:22. Neither Paul nor Jesus made their statements out of an angry heart, and that was the context of Matthew 5:22: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause . . .” The issue of Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is the unrighteous human heart and how unfit it is for the holy kingdom of God. Matthew chapter five is the first chapter of the sermon on the mount where Jesus sets forth the basic law of the land for the coming millennial kingdom. The Jews of His day, especially the Jewish leaders, believed that they were ready for the kingdom to come, so Jesus “lays down the law,” if you will, and illustrates the fact that the moral code of His righteous kingdom will be much higher and holier than anyone expects. That’s why the phrase “but I say unto you” is found six times in Matthew chapter 5, and that’s why only two verses BEFORE Matthew 5:22, Jesus said, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Mat. 5:20) The Jewish law of Moses held to certain strict standards of holiness, but Jesus “raised the bar” by addressing the very spirit of the law, rather than just the letter of the law. For instance, the Jews believed in the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exo. 20:14), but Jesus knew that merely not committing adultery did not necessary mean that a man was pure and spiritual in his heart, so He issued the higher standard of the coming kingdom of God by saying, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Mat. 5:27-28) In other words, Jesus wanted it to be understood that true righteousness flows from a righteous heart, not from having the will power to observe strict religious codes as did the self-righteous Pharisees. So the whole spirit of the sermon on the mount is “you people aren’t as ready for the kingdom of God as you think.” A truly holy and righteous people would not desire to hate their own brethren and belittle them with mean-spirited name-calling, so Matthew 5:22 is given for the purpose of showing the high and holy standard of the kingdom and how unfit we are for it without regenerated hearts that do not harbor bitterness and anger toward others. C. I. Scofield offers a very good note on the sermon on the mount in his 1909 Scofield Reference Bible. His note on Matthew 5:2 reads as follows: “Having announced the kingdom of heaven as "at hand," the King, in Mt 5.-7., declares the principles of the kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount has a twofold application: (1) literally to the kingdom. In this sense it gives the divine constitution for the righteous government of the earth. Whenever the kingdom of heaven is established on earth it will be according to that constitution, which may be regarded as an explanation of the word "righteousness" as used by the prophets in describing the kingdom (e.g.) Isa 11:4; 32:1; Da 9:24 In this sense the Sermon on the Mount is pure law, and transfers the offence from the overt act to the motive. Mt 5:21-22,27-28. Here lies the deeper reason why the Jews rejected the kingdom. They had reduced "righteousness" to mere ceremonialism, and the Old Testament idea of the kingdom to a mere affair of outward splendour and power. They were never rebuked for expecting a visible and powerful kingdom, but the words of the prophets should have prepared them to expect also that only the poor in spirit and the meek could share in it (e.g.) Isa 11:4. The seventy-second Psalm, which was universally received by them as a description of the kingdom, was full of this. For these reasons, the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These are found in the Epistles. Under the law of the kingdom, for example, no one may hope for forgiveness who has not first forgiven. Mt 6:12,14-15. Under grace the Christian is exhorted to forgive because he is already forgiven. Eph 4:30-32. (2) But there is a beautiful moral application to the Christian. It always remains true that the poor in spirit, rather than the proud, are blessed, and those who mourn because of their sins, and who are meek in the consciousness of them, will hunger and thirst after righteousness, and hungering, will be filled. The merciful are "blessed," the pure in heart do "see God." These principles fundamentally reappear in the teaching of the Epistles.” Scofield’s comment that the sermon on the mount is the “divine constitution for the righteous government of the earth” is very good. Spiritually and morally, we obey the sermon on the mount principles today as well, since Christians are spiritually in the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17), but as a literal enforceable law, the “constitution” of Matthew 5-7 is not fully applicable until Christ rules from Jerusalem with a “rod of iron” in the Millennial Kingdom ((Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). So, no Christian has to worry about losing his salvation, if he happens to call someone a fool. Salvation is not earned by good deeds, so salvation is not lost by bad deeds. Anyone who believes that a Christian today can go to hell for merely calling someone a fool clearly lacks an understanding of basic dispensational truth and of the doctrine of salvation itself.