I read the news. Part of me was “not surprised”(If you are around long enough you see a lot.) while there was another part of me that just sat there in disbelief. Another person I spent years with, tragically dead. I sent the news on to my siblings. They wrote me back in disbelief. Death at the hands of a family member. It is not the first time in the last few years I have “been here”. I would like to tell you it is a dream. But it is not.

I awoke this morning and found myself thinking about his family. (This old friend entered my dream last night.) His friends. Just as I did a few short years ago with another friend. It is certainly not the first time I have been near death and while hopeful, probably not the last. And just as it always has, people will lose their freedom for the crime.

The first murder shown to us in the Bible was a family murder. The fall of man certainly changed the world. Jesus offered Himself to the world to stop that. Period. There is nothing you or I can do to make us better and Jesus paid the price. He died for you and for me.

While Jesus was here, He raised the bar a notch as well. Matthew 5:21-26 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.

He equated being angry with someone to murder. Now I see that one can lead to the other, but that is not what He is saying here. He is not saying watch out for your anger lest it jump to killing. (Certainly that was the case with Cain and Abel.) No, he is saying there is judgment for both. Now, by His shed blood, the acceptance of Him, believing on Him removes that penalty, but certainly it does not remove the implication. When we look at murder we are appalled. But He is saying “you might want to be just as appalled with the anger. It is just as bad in my world.”

In our “world of thought” we see anger as an emotion. Just another day. And maybe because we have devalued the weightiness of the issue, we have revealed to ourselves the true need for a Savior. All sin is punishable. All sin had a payment made. Because we choose to look at a “big” sin and not a “little” sin does not change it. Id does however make it easier in our minds to think we “got this” when clearly His words are indicative that we did not and do not.

It is only His love coursing through a man or a woman that has the power over sin. I do not necessarily think anger leads to murder but He said that sin does. Any sin.

The world needs to know of the love of Jesus and His care for them. I said yesterday, that this is a the season of love. More now than ever. While sin is the evidence of a fallen world, love is the evidence of a risen King.