JUDGES, JURIES AND EXECUTIONERS
Attitudes about killing and murder are firmly lodged in the laws of all cultures. Therefore, it is no surprise to find a Biblical commandment that says “thou shall not kill.” It is so predictable that no one ever imagines that God might be using the literal language about physical murder to symbolically represent spiritual murder.
Jesus makes this point very clear in Matthew 5:21-22:
“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.
What Jesus is doing here is to reinterpret the original, literal, Hebrew scripture to explain it as God intends for it to be understood. Why did he find it necessary to do that? The reason is that the literal interpretation does not explain the full, deep, spiritual meaning of the commandment. Reinterpreting scripture was one of Jesus’ ministry functions and is the responsibility of all New Covenant disciples.
We see here that merely being angry, calling someone a good-for-nothing, or fool commits murder in God’s eyes. To fully appreciate the weight of this commandment it is necessary to understand the meanings of the Greek words translated as anger, good-for-nothing and fool. References below are found in Bible Hub’s Greek Concordances
Cognate: 3710 orgízō – be angry, as expressing a “fixed anger” (settled opposition). 3710 /orgízō (“to show settled-opposition”) is positive when inspired by God – and always negative when arising from the flesh. “Sinful (unnecessary) anger” focuses on punishing the offender rather than the moral content of the offense. See 3709 (orgē). Orgizo anger can mean to provoke or arouse to another person to anger, or it can mean to be personally provoked to anger.
4469 rhaká (apparently related to the Aramaic term rōq, “empty”) – properly, empty-headed. This term expressed contempt for a man’s head, viewing him as stupid (without sense) – i.e. a “numbskull” who acts presumptuously and thoughtlessly (TDNT).
3474 mōrós (the root of the English terms, “moron, moronic”) – properly, dull (insipid), flat (“without an edge”); (figuratively) “mentally inert”; dull in understanding; nonsensical (“moronic”), lacking a grip on reality (acting as though “brainless”). [This root (mōr-) “properly refers to physical nerves causing one to become dull, sluggish (so Hipp., Aristotle); used of the mind, dull, stupid, foolish” (Abbott-Smith); “flat/insipid” (WS, 1062). 3474 (mōrós) is used ironically of apparent stupidity in 1 Cor 1;25,27, 3:18.]
Obviously, Jesus’ definition of murder is much broader than the common definition which means to take a physical life. Basically, Jesus says that you are guilty of spiritual murder if you cause another person to be angry or if you are angered by another person. With that broad definition, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that all persons in all cultures have committed murder in their hearts because words that proceed from the mouth come from evil hearts. This proves once again that God judges righteousness by looking at our hearts.
Furthermore, because Jesus spoke for God, we must conclude that God’s definition of murder includes words and actions that make another person angry or hurts their feelings. Using this definition, we might say that everyone who has spoken harshly to another person with unkind, unloving words has committed murder. Since there are few people who have not crossed that line of hurting someone with words or provoking someone to respond to us with their own angry words has committed murder in God’s eyes. This is not easy to accept, but, this is clearly how God defines murder, and we are all guilty.
Even Jesus’ teaching about murder as being negative attitudes about a neighbor does not dissuade religious people from thinking of murder in strictly literal terms. There is nothing in most cultures that relates being angry or calling someone a fool as being an offense that is so serious that a court would send offenders to a fiery hell. Thus, for failure to try to understand what Jesus is talking about, Jews and Christians continue to think about God’s commandment regarding murder/killing in strictly literal terms.
The truth is that the Sixth Commandment is about the condition of the heart. More to the point, it is a statement about the differences between clean, pure hearts and evil, impure hearts. Or, taking those comparisons one step further, it is about the New Covenant and the Old/First Covenant. Or, to make the commandment even more clear, we can say it is about the circumstances that lead to conflict between kings and kingdoms.
From beginning to end, the Bible is a book of conflict. We see it in Cain and Abel, and we see it in the battles between good and evil in the book of Revelation. Anger in the heart is the root cause of all conflict. Or, thinking in terms of the Sixth Commandment, we can say that the desire in the heart to murder is the root cause of all conflict.
This perspective does not make sense unless we understand that religion is God’s enemy. God and his army of true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, warriors, servants, shepherds and apostles are at war with Serpents, Devils, Satans, Adversaries, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs. And the weapons used by both sides are words.
Perhaps the best way to understand the sixth commandment is to look at the life of Jesus where we see the following:
All of these Biblical events are parables for what happens when God sends prophets/messiahs/warriors to tear down religious strongholds. Here is a brief summary interpretation of what happened to Jesus:
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The Easter Story, as it is commonly portrayed, emphasizes Jesus’ execution and resurrection. That religious leaders orchestrated the series of events is a convenient fact to overlook. The truth is that religious leaders conspired to have Jesus killed because he had rebuked them and criticized their religious practices. The truth is that this story is a parable of what happens when any true prophet comes to destroy religion and turn people to worshiping God in spirit and truth.
The only way to make sense of Jesus’ death is to look at Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as a parable and learn from it so that we apply its lessons to our personal lives. We do that when we quit judging others and start seeing them as our equals.
STUDY TIP: See People for understanding of how we should interpret Bible characters as parables.
Lacking understanding that every Bible story is a parable intended for personal application, religious people interpret it literally — not symbolically. Then they make religious rules out of the literal words. That is bad enough, but things get much worse when religious people convert their religious rules into legislation that applies to everyone. God calls any effort to control people with religious rules Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction.
Injustice happens when religious people judge (e.g. evaluate, compare, determine righteousness, etc.) other people on the basis of whether or not they follow their religious laws. For example Jews and Muslims judge Christians and find them to be lawbreakers because they will eat pork. And Christians judge Jews and Muslims and find them to be excessively religious because they have a rule about not eating pork.
Another example is found in the ritual of communion/eucharist. Catholics have their religious rules about the frequency and form of communion, and each Protestant denomination has its own rules.
STUDY TIP: See The main differences between Catholics and Protestants for examples of disagreement on religious doctrines.
Catholics have cultural norms that permit drinking of alcohol and smoking cigarettes. Fundamentalist Christians, however, look down on drinking and smoking. Religious groups may not openly criticize people in other religions for their beliefs and practices, but they judge them in their heart and find them and their religions to be deficient because their religious rules are different.
Thus, Jews find Christians and Muslims to be spiritually deficient because they do not follow the same religious rules. Christians feel the same about Jews and Muslims for the same reasons, and the same is true of Muslims about anyone who does not observe Islamic traditions.
Biblical references to eating and drinking always use religious rules about eating/not eating prohibited/permitted foods as examples of religious rules exercised with the body (i.e. flesh) in public view, and contrasts them with God’s spiritual laws which are observed in the heart that only God can see.
This habit of one religion judging the religious beliefs and practices of another religion is the essence of spiritual murder. When one religious person judges a person from another religion and says in his heart, or with spoken words, that the person who follows another religion is a good-for-nothing fool, the one who judges has committed murder in his heart. This violates the commandment to not murder.
This kind of murder is common throughout history in competition between religions. It is also common in politics and international conflict. It is especially egregious when religion and politics blend together seamlessly into populist movements that invoke God, the bible, and patriotism. Christian Nationalism in America is an especially toxic example of this kind of movement because it exploits and expands existing religious and political divisions.
God’s view of murder, therefore, exists when one of the following conditions exists:
- Religions judges other religions and find them to be inferior with respect to doctrines and practices.
- Members of one political party judges members of another party and find them to be stupid, evil, unpatriotic or ill-informed.
- People of one race/ethnicity judge people of other races/ethnicities and find them to be inferior in one or more ways.
- Wealthy people judge poor people to be lazy, or stupid, or deficient in some way that hinders them from gaining wealth.
- Educated people judge uneducated people to be lazy, or stupid, or deficient in some way that hinders them from gaining an education.
These are only a few, simple examples of the myriad ways that people judge others every day. This kind of judging is common to all people. No matter how opinions might be framed, these thoughts/opinions are all the equivalent of saying “my judgment is a true judgment; these people are deficient; they are not as good as I am.
The big problem with judging people is that they always look at external characteristics — not the heart. When they make judgments they say, in effect, that they know the hearts of others as well as God knows them. They equate their ability to judge with God’s ability to judge. This is idolatry which is a sin.
Scriptures that warn against judging others are actually warning against committing murder. Judging others with a superior attitude is murder. God equates murder with judging in these scriptures:
Luke 6:37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.
COMMENTARY: The reason for judging is to determine guilt or innocence with respect to laws. The way God judges is by looking at hearts. He looks at hearts to see if his laws are written on them. When he finds his laws written on a heart, he blesses that heart by allowing it to hear his spoken voice. When he does not find his laws written on a heart, he curses that heart by withholding his voice.
Everyone has their own preferred set of criteria that they use to judge others. Religious people, for example, judge people of other religions by looking at speech, clothing, rituals, doctrines and other external evidence of religious belief.
What religious people do when they judge is compare the religious laws of other religions to the religious laws of their own religion. When they determine that the religious laws of the other religion are not the same as the religious laws of their own religion, they judge (i.e. make a legal decision) that says the religious people of the other religion are lawbreakers. And they judge that the other religion itself is deficient and aberrant with respect to the perfect religion which is their religion. In effect, religious people set up the laws of their personal religion as the standard of righteousness for all people and all religions. All people who make judgments use their own set of criteria (i.e. laws) when judging others.
Jews, Christians and Muslims feel confident about these judgments because the religious laws of their preferred religion are based on the literal words of their holy books which they consider to be God’s ultimate, definitive words about what the religion that people who believe in him should look like. The practice of making such judgments is fake faith. It is not true faith because true faith does not judge by what is seen and heard by natural eyes.
Luke 6:37 is a warning from God spoken by Jesus to tell religious people that they should not follow religious laws made by men and judge other religious people according to those religious laws. God warns against this practice because religious laws are not the ultimate standard of righteousness. The only standard of righteousness that God recognizes is his spiritual laws written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples.
Old/First Covenant religionists believe that the laws God wants people to obey are those contained in the literal words of the Bible or Quran. They are not aware that the laws by which God judges people are his spiritual laws. They are not aware that God judges obedience to his laws by looking at hearts — not by looking at external behaviors.
If religions did not exist, there would be no judging. If religions did not exist, there would be no special clothing, buildings or behaviors for religious people to observe and make judgments about. If there were no religions, there would still be conflict because there would still be people who had evil, impure hearts that inspire them to hurt others and cause conflict. But, if there were no religions, there would not be any conflict between religions. There would probably still be conflict because all people are capable of greed and cruelty, but when religious people get involved, they inject a heightened measure of passion because they believe that God wants them to fight and subdue other religions. Historically, we see that this inclination to engage in religious conflict has been true for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
However, if there were no religions there would be no judging, and no conflict between religions. People would be free to form close relationships with everyone –not just their religious tribe — and the the world would be a much more peaceful place. That is what God wants. That is the kind of world that would exist if God’s laws were written on the hearts of all people. That is the world that would exist of all people were New Covenant disciples.
Matthew 7:1-5 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
COMMENTARY: The reason for judging is to find guilt or innocence. People who are found guilty are condemned to suffer the consequence of their offense. People who are found innocent suffer no consequence and are set free. In God’s view, the offense is always with respect to obedience to his spiritual laws. Since his spiritual laws are written on the heart, he judges hearts.
Because he only judges hearts, God does not judge by external behaviors or appearances. He says in verse 1, therefore, that if you do not judge people according to external behaviors or appearances, he will not judge you and find you guilty of violating his spiritual laws.
The standard of measure in the world of religion is religious laws created by man. There are many religious laws in the world of religion because each religion creates its own laws. That means that religious people are doomed to violate the laws of all religions other than their own religion. And that means that all religious people are constantly judging people in other religions. It also means that God will judge all religious people because all religious people judge other religious people according to behaviors and appearances. Religious people judge by looking at the religious speech, clothing, rituals, music, doctrines and behaviors of other religions. They judge these beliefs and behaviors to be wrong because they are different from their own beliefs and behaviors. When they do this, God judges them guilty of violation of his spiritual laws which do not allow for judging according to external appearances.
It is helpful to look at an example: When Person A finds Person B guilty of violating the religious laws that Person A believes are God’s laws, Person A will be judged by God to be in violation of God’s spiritual laws because Person A has judged another person according to external appearances. God does not judge by external appearances. God judges the heart.
People who judge by external appearances are Old/First Covenant Religionists — not New Covenant disciples. People who judge by external appearances are judged by God to have evil, impure hearts — not clean, pure hearts. This judgment by God explains scripture that says “in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” In other words, if you judge someone to be impure in some way, God will judge you that way.
Verse 2 in Matthew 7:1-5 has another meaning about God’s judgment. In this meaning, religious people who judge other religious people are judged by God as violators of God’s spiritual laws which specify that people should not judge. Therefore, people who judge other religious people are judged guilty by God of breaking his spiritual laws.
In other words, if you judge other religions by the standard of your religious laws, they will judge you by the standard of their religious laws. That is the “measure for measure” principle. In this system of mutual judging, everyone is found guilty of violating the religious laws of one religion or another. This is a situation that breeds disunity and conflict — not peace. Peace can exist only when no one judges others.
God sees this situation and wants to correct it. The way he corrects it is to write his spiritual laws (which preclude making judgments of others) on the hearts of everyone. When he does that, there will be no religions and no judging because everyone is obedient to God’s uniform spiritual laws — not to man’s many, varied religious laws, cultural laws, or personal laws by which they judge others. When that happens, judging ends and peace reigns in the hearts of all men.
3“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
COMMENTARY: Because religious people (i.e. Jews and Christians) are firmly convinced that they alone understand God’s laws because they are faithful to follow the letter of Biblical commandments, they are quick to judge anyone who does not interpret the Bible exactly like they do. This is what is meant by “looking at the speck in your brother’s eye.” The speck refers to the breaking of the literal law as represented in the literal words of the Bible. When they see the speck in a brother’s eye, they see how the brother sins by breaking religious laws.
Filled with the self righteousness that comes to people who interpret the Bible literally, Jews and Christians are ready to tell non-Jews and non-Christians that that they (i.e. Jews and Christians) know the truth and will share it with non-believers. This is what the verse means by taking the speck out of a brother’s eye. If the brother adopts the beliefs of Jews and Christians, and obey their religious laws, the speck is removed.
4“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?
COMMENTARY: The speck of breaking religious laws (i.e. sin) is compared to a greater sin (i.e. log) of interpreting the Bible literally and not listening to God’s spoken voice. Self righteous pride prevents religious people from seeing their sin (i.e. log) of interpreting the Bible literally instead of listening to God’s spoken word.
Romans 2:1-2 Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
COMMENTARY: Religious people are locked into a system of mutual and reciprocal judging. This is the world of religion in which people from all religions are always judging people from other religions. Sometimes they do this outwardly, vocally and with physical violence (e.g. war.) Most of the time, however, the judging happens quietly, in the heart. Whether observable or not, God calls this judging murder. This kind of judging is the context of the sixth commandment.
Religious people feel confident in their judgments of other religions because they construct their religious laws on the literal words of the Bible. In their eyes, God’s expectations are clear and unassailable because they find scriptures that support their beliefs and practices. The problem is, of course, that what is clear and unassailable to one religion is not clear and unassailable to other religions. If Biblical justification based on the literal words of the Bible for any one religion was perfectly clear and unassailable, there would be only one religion — not many religions. But that obviously is not the way it is in the world of religion.
Whenever someone judges (i.e. condemns) someone from another religion, he/she earns God’s condemnation of himself/herself. God’s standard of righteousness is his spiritual laws — not man’s religious laws. Thus, whenever a religious person judges another religious person according to religious laws — not God’s spiritual laws — the one who judges violates God’s spiritual laws which include commands to not judge as specified in Matthew 7:1-5.
2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
COMMENTARY: This verse affirms the truth found in Matthew 7:2 which says “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” People who judge others according to their obedience to religious laws based on the literal words of the Bible will be judged by God according to those same laws. This seems reasonable, and maybe even doable, until we recognize that it is impossible for anyone to obey all of the literal commands found in the Bible. There are too many complex commands for anyone to obey.
For religious people who insist on obedience to the written law, God sets an impossible standard which is that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” God’s judgement, therefore, is a finding of guilt for people who judge others according to obedience to religious laws based on the literal words of the Bible. If obedience to literal, religious laws is the standard that religious people want to use in judging others, that is the standard of judgment that God uses to judge them. This is God’s application of the measure for measure principle.
The consequence of God’s judgment is that religious people will not hear his spoken voice. This is a very serious judgment, of course, because people who do not hear God’s spoken voice are spiritually dead. God’s judgment, therefore, is a verdict that condemns religious people to spiritual death.
Out of politeness, Jews do not openly criticize Christian practices, nor do Christian openly criticize Jewish practices. Similarly, Catholics do not criticize Protestants, and Protestants do not openly criticize Catholics. In their hearts, however, members of each religion judges members of other religions as being nonspiritual and doomed to spending eternity in hell. That is why they will try to evangelize them. Each religion needs to believe that its beliefs are the right beliefs in God’s eyes. If people did not strongly believe that their chosen religion is the one that perfectly satisfies God’s laws, they could not in good conscience remain committed to that religion.
This inter-religious conflict is what God is representing in all of the wars and battles in the Bible. Stories of bloodshed with swords are nothing more or less that one religion attacking another with words hoping to convince people to abandon one religion in favor of another. These battles are murder on a grand scale. The same is true for evangelism. When people from one religion evangelize people from another religion, they commit murder.
STUDY TIP: See Blood, Swords, Arrows and Stones for understanding of blood and stones as parables for words.
See Gods at War for understanding of the parables of religious conflict.
The reason God does not want us to judge others with respect to obedience to religious laws is that this is not what he does. While man judges according to outward appearances, God judges the heart to see if his spiritual laws are written on them.
The right kind of evangelism exists when New Covenant disciples speak truth in love to Old/First Covenant religionists with hopes of turning them from religion to worshiping God in spirit and truth. This is the righteous alternative to religion. Anything else is just another religion by a different name.