But I Say Unto You

In Matthew Chapter 5, between verses 22 and 44, after describing what has been said of them of old, Jesus says the phrase "But I say unto you" six times. Six times Jesus told those who would listen to leave behind the old, collective wisdom. The best minds of generations had spent years of their lives struggling through trial and error to come up with even a single grain of sand's worth of wisdom. And they would add it to the heap and over the generations there may even be a pretty impressive pile of sand, but Jesus invites us to give up our attempts to build our lives on that pile of sand. He has a much more solid, much firmer foundation upon which we can build. Perhaps it was said of them of old that as long as you don't murder you're basically fine, but I say unto you that is not enough. If you're walking around angry all the time there will come a moment that the anger gets a little too hot and suddenly you're doing something you would never do. Don't risk it. Don't let yourself get angry and you'll never have to find out if you're strong enough to stop yourself from doing something truly terrible when you've finally snapped. Christ doesn't want us relying on our own strength or our own willpower. If we've got a problem, let's go to Him. If we notice that something our brother or sister does makes us angry, something small, like the way they chew their food, or the way they talk during a movie, we've got two choices. We can try to ignore or repress our anger and let it stew and fester and hope that we don't ever get so angry that we snap and try to kill them. Or we can notice that we are angry and do something about it. We can stop pretending that the problem doesn't exist and stop pretending that we aren't weak, fallible creatures and stop pretending that there doesn't exist a real set of circumstances that would actually put us under enough strain or pressure at precisely the moment that we are at our weakest that would actually cause us to kill or commit adultery or get divorced or swear or take an eye for an eye or hate our enemies. But I say unto you, don't do it. Don't build your life on a pile of hopes and wishes that are going to slip and slide like sand beneath your feet. Don't try to walk right on the edge of the lake of fire. Don't get comfortable with being angry all the time. Don't flirt or let your eyes wander and tell yourselves that it's harmless. Don't give up on your marriage just because it's no longer easy or fun or effortless. Don't get into the habit of making promises you can't keep. Don't believe for a second that you can soothe your hurts with someone else's pain. Don't buy into the lie that some people really do deserve your hate. This world is big and complicated and scary and we are so very small and weak and stupid. We should not ever think that we need or have to do this all on our own. Christ doesn't want us to have to find out if we are strong enough to stop ourselves from committing murder when we are furious and we can feel the blood pumping in our ears and our vision has gone all red. He would much rather we run to Him every time we are even a tiny bit angry so that we can learn a little at a time how to completely and perfectly master our anger. Christ's way may not make the most sense to us, it may not offer as much instant gratification, but I say unto you it is better in every way imaginable.