I’ve just been enjoying ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (the modern film version, not the classic novel version… sorry Jane!). I find it fascinating that the trend of the period (amongst the upper classes) was to ‘keep it all in’. Not only did they manage to conceal their thoughts, feelings and emotions from their friends, it extended to family! Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, who play two sisters, spend most of the film refusing, and apparently unable, to share their innermost feelings with each other. They keep their feelings of love, hate, hurt and anger to themselves… it seems to have been encouraged as a way of life by their elders and peers… it was, quite simply, the done thing.

So, let’s stick Jesus into this era for a minute (but try not to think of him as Hugh Grant, who plays the lead bloke, or things will get complicated, and I might get sued!). Would he mind that people didn’t express themselves, as we are so strongly encouraged to do today? Perhaps, but what we can be SURE of is that he’d object to the way they lived double lives… they harboured hate, envy and anger, but acted as though this was fine, because they didn’t act on it. Jesus says a great big “NO” to this way of thinking, when he says…

‘You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder’. I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder.’

Jesus says it’s what’s on the inside that matters: our motive; our thoughts; those thoughts we THINK are just our own, but are, in reality, laid bare for Jesus to see. This is the gist of his ‘Sermon on the Mount’, in which this passage can be found. Rather like the characters of a Jane Austen novel, the Pharisees that Jesus criticises in this ‘sermon’ were very much into appearances. They felt that as long as they obeyed the law, no one could find fault with them, not even God himself. If they didn’t murder someone, they weren’t guilty of disobeying this commandment – they were in the clear. Imagine what they must have felt when Jesus said that to THINK murderous thoughts, even thoughts of anger, is THE SAME, in God’s eyes, as murder itself!

What it all means is this: God doesn’t grade sin in the way that we do. We think it’s extremely bad to murder someone, but hardly at all bad to feel anger toward someone. In fact, we tend to pass such feelings off as ‘normal’ or ‘human’… ‘only to be expected’. To God, sin is sin is sin. Jesus said:

‘Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’… thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid’ at a sister, and you are on the brink of hellfire’.

Again, we don’t think of name-calling as being something to get our knickers in a twist about. What about when we call someone a name behind their back? What if we say someone is lazy, stupid, mean, cruel or foolish? We might not think it matters, but Jesus says it does… it matters as much as if we’d said it to their face… it matters as much as if we’d picked up the largest kitchen knife to hand and driven it right through them. Sorry, I don’t mean to be gruesome, but it’s true!

We say, “But it’s hard to change” … “I don’t know if I can.”

No worries – Jesus isn’t asking us to do it alone. This new way of life he talks about, that involves a motive of love, rather than an adherence to the law… it’s for anyone who wants it! It’s a joint partnership between God and us… God saves us, then starts to work on us from within, by his spirit. We have to allow him to do this work, and not fight against it.

How?

First, ask God to convict you about wrong thoughts you’ve had toward people, or wrong things you’ve said.

Second, repent of what you’ve thought or said, and mean it.

Third, ask God to continue to work in you, to help you to change…. to make your thoughts and words pure.

If anger or hatred are particular problems in your life, talk to another Christian about it… get prayer… ask God to CONTINUALLY convict you of these feelings, so you can keep your thoughts in check.

‘If you go to Church on a Sunday morning, and are just about to sing ‘We wanna see Jesus lifted high’ but suddenly remember your friend is all snotty with you because you let him down recently… stuff the singing… go sort it! Leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God’.

OK, so this is ALMOST a quote from the passage in question, but has been re-jigged a bit! Here’s some more of the same:

‘Or say, you’re in TopShop, and you come face to face with an old ‘enemy’, someone you really don’t get on with, in the ‘hipster thongs’ section… don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with her.’

Gettit?!

As well as making an effort NOT to think wrong things toward others, and allowing God to change us… we must be pro-active in creating, maintaining, and, when necessary, restoring, relationships. They are important. Jesus said so.

So, let’s be less like Kate Winslet, or any of Austen’s creations, who feel justified with their ungodly feelings toward others, as long as they don’t actually DO anything about them.

Remember that God sees the heart and is highly interested in, and involved with, what goes on in there!

Verses are taken from ‘The Message’ Bible.